The Atlanta Hawks entered the All Star break coming off a pair of victories, but their overall record sits at just 28-30 as they begin the final stretch of the season with 24 games remaining.
The Hawks still hold (currently) a spot in the NBA's play-in tournament, but they will be lookin to improve their seeding, but doing so immediately could prove tough against the opponents they open with coming out of the break.
Atlanta Hawks GM Travis Schlenk discusses a difficult stretch of games to open the 2nd half of the season and how the team can't wait to get hot if they want to improve their standings in the Eastern Conference.
"We've got a tough stretch here and if we can get through those first four games than we have a chance to put together a pretty strong second half," says Schlenk. "Certainly the hope is we can get back atop .500 and our goal is to get as high as possible in the seeding, all the way up to 6 would be great, but pretty tough to get to."
If the Hawks are to be at or above .500 after the next four games, the team would have to go 3-1 or 4-0 against a tough group of playoff teams.
The Hawks first four games starting on Thursday are at Chicago, home against Toronto, at Boston, and home against Chicago. These three teams (4 games) are all above the Hawks in the standings and are currently the #2 (Chicago), #6 (Boston), and #7 (Toronto) seeds in the East.
Even the 5th game is a pseudo-must-win as they face Washington, the team right behind them in the standings.
To hear all of Travis Schlenk's comments, click here.
