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The Atlanta Hawks don’t lose any more. The Hawks beat the Thunder by 10 points on Friday. They’ve won a franchise-record 15 straight games and 29 of 31 overall. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that this is the first time in NBA history that there have been two winning streaks of at least 15 games prior to the All-Star Break. The only team with a longer streak this season is the Warriors, who had a 16-gamer Though earlier this week, we noted the Hawks rank 10th in our BPI Rankings (hurt by a strength of schedule that ranked 20th at the time), they can still make a case for being the NBA’s best team. The Hawks have shown themselves to be legit against the best teams. They are 11-2 against Western Conference opponents this season, including road wins against the Trail Blazers, Mavericks, Rockets and Clippers. Each of the last two NBA champs (the Heat and the Spurs) had a win streak of at least 15 games during the regular season. However, the last team to start the season with at least 36 wins in the first 44 games (which the Hawks have done) was the 2010-11 Spurs, who got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by the Grizzlies. Winning without a star
There is a case to be made that the Hawks lack star power. Their leading scorer both this season and on Friday, Paul Millsap (22 points), entered the day ranked 39th in the NBA in scoring. He also ranked tops on the team and 28th in the league in rebounds per game. He has a legit, though not overwhelming case to be an All-Star, as does Jeff Teague, who entered Friday ranked eighth in the NBA in assists per game and 12th in Basketball-Reference.com’s Win Shares stat, which measures overall player value. Where the Hawks are excelling is on defense. They held the Thunder to 41 percent shooting, During the winning streak, opponents are shooting only a hair better than that against them (42 percent). Some media members have compared these Hawks to the last NBA team to win a championship without a megastar, the 2003-04 Pistons of Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace and Richard Hamilton. Coincidentally, those Pistons had a similar win streak right around this time (a 13-gamer that ended Jan. 19). Their leading scorer, Hamilton, ranked 28th in the league in scoring at season's end. The Pistons were also able to put up big streaks at the end of the season, winning eight straight twice in a six-week span. We’ll wait to see whether these Hawks can manage something similar and carry it into the postseason.
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