cam1218

Did he say what team/sport he did like?

the hawks never fell out of first!

I know lol.

What an amazing game!! Can't wait to hear the media spin this one. I don't even care though, they can't take away how much we are enjoying this.

LeBrons lost to Indy tonight so are we back in first?

One of the Wiz coaches look like they got knocked the ***** out. Huge black eye....

OH MY. MIKE SCOTT JUST SLAMMED SO HARD ON BEAL!!!! Paul Pierce reaction from the bench is an instant classic gif if someone can get it!

I didn't catch his reaction, I hope somebody got it. I think I could have forgiven Scott for all of his missed threes this year if the dunk was actually on Pierce.

What the what....I was so confused.

Who is JV?

I was so confused too. All I could think of was somebody made a joke and typo about Jerome jurenoVich.

The home crowd should help us fight through some fatigue. Horf said the crowd gave him a second wind in the 4th against Philly.

We lost the first and won the second in them...so it bodes well that we won the second

We actually won the first one against the Magic. It was good to see us rebound on the road though when we lost to the Bucks.

It is hard to take a lot from the regular season home and homes. The team that loses first is always extremely motivated to win the second. In the playoffs you have a lot more motivation from the winning team in that 2nd game.

With two wins over the weekend, the Atlanta Hawks extended their winning streak to 19 games, tied for the fifth-longest in NBA history during a single season. A win Monday night against theNew Orleans Pelicans would allow Atlanta to join the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers (33), 2012-13Miami Heat (27), 2007-08 Houston Rockets (22) and 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks (20) as the fifth team ever to win 20 games in a row the same season. Of that group, all but the Rockets eventually won the championship.

That's heady stuff for a team that won only twice as many games during all of 2014-15 (38) than during its current winning streak. How have the Hawks done it? The key has been unparalleled balance.

Balanced starting five

In a league in which star power is often a trump card, Atlanta has used a different formula. No Hawks rank among the league's top 10 players in terms of my wins above replacement player (WARP) stat, with Paul Millsap in 15th. But if we compare teams' second-best players in terms of WARP, Jeff Teague ranks fourth. Same with Al Horford among third-best players. And Atlanta boasts the best of the group of fourth- and fifth-best players in Kyle Korver and DeMarre Carroll, respectively.

Such balance allowed Atlanta to put a league-high three players on the Eastern Conference All-Star roster (Horford, Millsap and Teague), with the outside chance that Korver joins them as a replacement if Dwyane Wade is unable to play due to injury.

Taking advantage of their many options, the Hawks employ one of the league's most equal-opportunity late-game offenses. As I noted in last week's 5-on-5 roundtable, 21 teams have at least one player with a higher usage rate in "clutch" situations than Teague, according to NBA.com/Stats (which defines them as the last five minutes of a game in which the margin is no more than five points). Yet Atlanta's offense scores 124.0 points per 100 possessions in the clutch -- the NBA's best mark.

Deep bench

The Hawks' starting lineup has been predictably terrific, outscoring opponents by 11.0 points per 100 possessions this season. Yet Atlanta loses little when head coach Mike Budenholzer goes to his bench. In fact, the Hawks are slightly better (+15.2 points per 100) when one of their starters is on the bench. They're nearly as good (+10.0 per 100) with three starters and two reserves.

As the chart shows, it's only when more reserves are on the court than starters that Atlanta sees any real drop-off, and even then they've still outscored opponents as long as at least one starter is in the game. Budenholzer has done a fine job mixing and matching his two units to ensure that happens primarily in garbage time.

The Hawks' depth came up big in Friday's win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Playing without wings Carroll and Thabo Sefolosha (who is expected to miss the next 6-8 weeks without a strained calf), Budenholzer turned to Kent Bazemore, who played a career-high 40 minutes and scored 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Because Atlanta goes 11 deep (guard Shelvin Mack has been mostly out of the rotation after he was one of the team's most effective reserves last season), it would be difficult for the Hawks to add a player before the trade deadline who would be a significant upgrade.

Balanced at both ends

All of those effective players produce two strong units for Atlanta and both ends of the court. The Hawks are fifth in the NBA in offensive rating and third in defensive rating. Just 30 teams since the ABA-NBA merger have finished in the top five at both ends, most recently the 2012-13Oklahoma City Thunder, who went 60-22 in the regular season before losing Russell Westbrookto injury in the playoffs. This season, both Atlanta and the Golden State Warriors (third in offense and first in defense) could join that group.

The 10 most similar teams to the Hawks' combination of offense and defense, relative to league average, include a pair of recent champions: the 2008-09 Los Angeles Lakers (who ranked third in offense and fifth in defense) and, fittingly, last season's San Antonio Spurs (third and offense and sixth in defense).

Naturally, Atlanta has been even better during the streak, ranking third in both offensive rating and defensive rating in that span. Just six teams in post-merger history have maintained a top-3 combination over a full season.

The future of the streak

The Hawks' impressive statistics are slightly tempered by the fact that they've played the league's easiest schedule thus far. During the streak, however, Atlanta's opponents have been nearly average in difficulty. That's still about to go up over the next week. Winning at New Orleans and beating the Washington Wizards at home won't be easy, but the real tests come next weekend.

On Friday, the Hawks host the Warriors in a battle of the first-place teams in their respective conferences. Two days later, Atlanta will visit a Memphis Grizzlies team that has won 10 of its last 11 games. Those figure to be the first two games in which the Hawks have been underdogs since beating the Blazers and Clippers on the road on Jan. 3 and 5. My projections suggest Atlanta has less than a one in 10 chance of maintaining its streak through the next week.

Of course, the Hawks' balance has already enabled them to defy the odds to get to this point. We'll see how long they can continue doing so.

• It looks like the Houston Rockets must prepare to play without Dwight Howard for an extended period. ESPN.com senior writer Marc Stein reported Saturday night that the Rockets fear their center will be out for a matter of weeks to relieve fluid buildup in his right knee, which has bothered Howard all season.

Houston has gone 11-5 without Howard this season, but there has been some good fortune in that record. The Rockets are outscoring opponents by 4.8 points per game when Howard plays as compared to a plus-1.2 differential when Howard sits. That would typically translate to a 9-7 or 8-8 record. The good news for the Rockets is most of those games were also played without forward Terrence Jones, who returned Wednesday after missing 41 games due to nerve inflammation in his left leg. Jones has yet to shake off the rust from the extended absence, but with him and Josh Smith at power forward Kevin McHale can feel comfortable shifting Donatas Motiejunas to the middle.

• While there's no shame in losing to the red-hot Grizzlies on the road, Oklahoma City's 85-74 loss Saturday night at Memphis was the Thunder's fourth in the past five games. After peaking at 22-20 following an overtime win in Washington, Oklahoma City has now slipped back below .500 and a full four games back (three in the loss column) of the Phoenix Suns for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

The Thunder aren't right offensively. As Zach Lowe noted on Twitter, since Kevin Durantreturned on New Year's Eve, they rank tied for 21st in the NBA in offensive rating. Although Durant has missed some time since then, including Wednesday's loss to the New York Knicks, that's shocking for a team with two of the NBA's best scorers. It's a tiny sample, but in 133 minutes the trio of Durant, Dion Waiters and Russell Westbrook has averaged just 97.8 points per 100 possessions. By contrast, the Durant-Reggie Jackson-Westbrook trio that is now out of favor has scored 105.2 per 100 this season.

• According to The Associated Press, Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio is set to return Monday against the Dallas Mavericks after missing more than half the season (42 games) with a badly sprained ankle suffered on Nov. 7 at Orlando.

Most of the focus will be on what Rubio's passing can add, but fill-in Mo Williams has actually done a reasonably credible Rubio impersonation. His assist rate ranks 10th in the league, and the Timberwolves are 10th in percentage of field goals off assists. Rubio will help offensively by taking rookie Zach LaVine out of the point-guard rotation, but the bigger upgrade will be on defense. Rubio's defensive rating in ESPN's real plus-minus ranked second among point guards last season, while Williams ranks 67th at the position this season.

• Weekly top five: Best non-All-Star seasons

5. Horace Grant (1991-92)

4. Charles Barkley (1985-86)

3. Dirk Nowitzki (2000-01)

2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1977-78)

1. John Stockton (1987-88)

Honorable mention: Nate Archibald (1971-72), Mookie Blaylock (1996-97), Elton Brand (2004-05)

Still don't get why he was an all star when he has probably missed over 10 games. He's good when he plays but I don't think you give a spot to an often injured player who is on a team struggling to play .500 ball. I'd be okay if Knight made it over Korver on coaches vote, but I feel like you almost have to out KK in the game now.

Didn't get to watch the game until this AM. I was a little worried but I figured we would make plays when we needed to. Al was the man in the 4th.

Teague continues to struggle offensively but it doesn't seem to matter too much. We still win games we just don't blow teams out. I was actually wanting to see the ball in Schroders hands at the end of the game.

We are going to miss Sef and hopefully we get DMC back for the games next week. Baze seemed a little off, probably the pressure of making his first start.

It was also good to see Jenkins score some in the first half, I've always felt he could have a place in our offense. Scott is really struggling, he just looks really tired. It'd be nice if Jenkins was shooting those wide open threes instead.

Either way, a win is a win! We aren't going to go undefeated next week with this type of effort though. GO HAWKS!

I thought that Baze and Scott would be keys in the game. I didn't think it'd be because Sef went down though. It was one of the few games we haven't been up by 10 and that makes it stressful lol.

There isn't much to complain about. They are making this a memorable season..

Thanks as usual, LW3. No DeMarre? That will make it tougher for sure, we will see what Baze does if he gets some extended minutes. I still feel like Scott is due to make some shots too. We could use one of his (few and far between) hot shooting nights if the Blazers are hitting threes.

Let's hope Lillard continues his struggles or we keep the rest of the team off if he catches fire. GO HAWKS!

I agree that Chicago isn't cracked up to what they were supposed to be. They don't really scare me either. That said, I'd rather not deal with the refs giving their "names" any type of "superstar" treatment. That is the main reason I want to see them finish third. Let them and Cleveland cancel each other out and we will handle whoever won the series of the whistle in the conference finals.

Very proud of our guys for making the team! It's amazing to think we had three guys make it. This is the most excited I've been for All-Star weekend in quite some time.

For those who think we aren't that talented I wonder what they refer to our "big three" as?

It would also make it awkward for our bench players to have home fans yelling and cursing at KG while he sits at the end of the bench every game. I don't think there is anyone who would welcome the guy to our team.

i may create a "THE HAWKS WILL NOT WIN A TITLE" thread.

Leave that to the poster who created this thread!

I'd actually love to see Josh Smith in the 3 point contest. This one should be a good one though, I hope Kyle puts on a great show.

The best case scenario for us is having Cleveland and Chicago finishing 2nd and 3rd. I'd much rather face the winner of a potential Washington vs. Toronto matchup in the second round.

I can't stand KG. I'd swallow my pride and root for him if I needed to but I just don't think we need him right now.

If anyone is getting ready for our game with the OKC/CLE game, JVG just had Teague, Horf, Sap and Korver as his all star reserves. 

Great write up, LW3! I think I need a diagram to help me understand the moving parts of their GM and coaching combinations. 

They were disappointed only one player met with Thabo after the game (I forgot who, but I think KD). Thabo is a class act and deserved better. Russ apparently didn't care for Thabo in their time together. Kinda tells you about Westbrook's character and their whole team I guess: Thabo is beloved in our locker room.

 

I didn't hear about that. Did Thabo mention only one player met with him after the game? That is pretty low if it is true and I'm sure Thabo must feel great now about playing on a team with such amazing chemistry. The complete opposite of what they seem to have going on over there.

I'm also looking ahead to potential playoff matchups. Who would you rather face in the first round? Potential second round matchup too? Assuming we wind up first we will probably play one of: Milwaukee, Charlotte, Miami, Detroit or Brooklyn. Our second round opponent will be the winner of 4/5. Personally, I'd like to see Cleveland surge up to #3 and have Washington and Toronto as the 4 and 5 seeds. If we had to face one of Cleveland or Chicago in the second round I'd probably rather see the Bulls.

As others have said a bandwagon fan really is one that jumps on and is all about the team once they start winning. Think of the local Atlanta guy who liked the Bulls, then the Lakers, then Miami and now is undecided so they become a Hawks fan (until the league has another dominant team).

You also have some bandwagon fans that aren't as extreme that claim to be a Hawks fan when you talk to them but they probably think Bibby is our PG. Those people are now showing up to games and acting like they are all about the Hawks.

Either way, we need people in Philips rooting for the Hawks. I don't care how they came about it, if they are there cheering on the Hawks they are good with me! Every good team has bandwagon fans and every good team needs those fans.

Yup, screw Dwight! Does he even play anymore? This is the first I've heard of him in quite some time.

Dwight and Josh returning to ATL together is going to be awesome.