Meet the NBA's Most Underappreciated Team, the Atlanta Hawks
LOS ANGELES — You wouldn't have known it from any of the pregame buzz (or lack thereof) or the media horde (there wasn't much of one) or the crowd at Staples Center (it was a relatively thin one), but the top team in the Eastern Conference was in L.A. on Monday night.
"They might be the best in the NBA right now," Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said during his pregame press conference.
"They" being the Atlanta Hawks, who survived a slew of missed free throws and blown bunnies in the first half before pulling away from the Clippers after the break to score a 107-98 win.
The Hawks didn't do anything fancy to earn their fifth victory in a row, 19th in 21 tries since Thanksgiving and 26th overall of the 2014-15 NBA season. There were hardly any plays worthy of a highlight reel save for a thread-the-needle pass by Paul Millsap to DeMarre Carroll on the break to tie the score at 46 in the second half's waxing moments.
Instead, they played the same way down 11-2 as they did to build a 17-point advantage in the fourth, and just as they did in battling back from an 8-0 deficit in Portland two nights prior.
"We just kind of keep playing, stay to ourselves, make sure that we keep playing Hawks basketball, and that's what we did," Al Horford explained after the win.
And what, pray tell, is Hawks basketball?
"Hawks basketball is playing the right way, playing hard ourselves, being the more aggressive team, being physical and letting our defense dictate our offense," Carroll explained to Bleacher Report prior to the game.
Again: It's nothing fancy, nothing special. Maybe that's why the Hawks weren't greeted with the sort of animosity that the league's elite tend to get on the road. If the oop-happy Clippers are sushi at Izakaya, the Hawks might as well be the kind found at Sugarfish. They don't need any special sauces or intricate recipes to win you over. The core quality of their product and the simplicity of its presentation will do just fine.
And, like Sugarfish, the concepts are successful and readily replicable—if the proper practices and personnel are in place. The Hawks got their blueprint not from Kazunori Nozawa, but from San Antonio Spurs guru Gregg Popovich, whose protege, Mike Budenholzer, is in his second season as the Hawks' head coach.
"I think the players have made a commitment and done all the little things and what it takes defensively," Budenholzer said in explaining his team's success this season. "We still have a long way to go. I don’t know that we’re that good. We’ve got a lot of work to do and a lot of room for improvement."
Sounds like his old boss, doesn't he?
Indeed, like Popovich, Budenholzer wouldn't seem a man of many words when dealing with the media. Then again, the team speaks for itself just fine, on both ends of the floor. Atlanta is one of two teams in the East, along with the Chicago Bulls, that ranks among the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.
Like their coach, the Hawks' style of play looks a lot like the sort seen in San Antonio, as do the results. They move the ball willingly and with aplomb (tops in assist percentage, tied for fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio) to turn good shots into great shots and great ones into gimmes (fourth in both effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage). They did as much at the Clippers' expense, racking up 25 assists on 36 makes while leaving many more on the table with bad misses in the first half.
What Atlanta lacks in dominant interior scoring, with a recovering Al Horford and the more perimeter-oriented Millsap, it more than makes up for in driving skill and knocking down the sorts of jumpers that so often result from the former. The Hawks' 30.5 drives per game are the sixth-most in the league, just behind (who else?) the Spurs at 30.7. Only six teams in the NBA take more three-pointers as a percentage of their overall attempts, but no team registers assists on as many treys as the Hawks do.
And with Kyle Korver, one of the NBA's most accurate marksmen, fielding so many of those passes to the perimeter, the Hawks ought to be a menace from beyond the arc.
"It is a really good team we lost to, make no mistake about that," Clippers point guard Chris Paul lamented, after watching his opposite number (i.e. Jeff Teague) light up L.A. for 20 points and nine assists. "They have five guys that space the floor, guards that play the pick-and-roll, they share the ball, and that makes them tough to defend."
By and large, this was true of the Hawks last season, when they hung onto the eighth seed in the East and nearly upended the Indiana Pacers without Horford's help. What's changed, as far as the on-court product is concerned, is the effort and execution on the defensive end.
"Last year, we were one of the worst teams in the league defensively, and I think we stepped it up a lot," Teague said before the game. "This year, we’re more active defensively, trying to get into passing lanes, create turnovers. I think we’re doing a pretty good job so far."
They did an excellent job of that in L.A. The Hawks racked up steal after steal after steal until they'd tallied 13 by the final buzzer—the most of any Clippers opponent this season.
"Well, we've been talking and working on our activity," Budenholzer said in assessing his team's performance after the game. "It's something that we know how important it is. If we want to be good, we have to be active on the defensive end of the court."
It takes a village to play defense the way the Hawks did and have over the last six weeks or so. Fortunately for the Hawks, they have a village to spare, on both ends. Dennis Schroder, Teague's second-year understudy, picked off a pair of Clippers passes to help fuel Atlanta's fast break. Pero Antic, the team's backup center, was one of five Hawks to score in double figures, as has been their habit this season.
"Honestly, man, these guys, they've been putting in work," Horford said in praise of his less heralded teammates. "It's crazy because they probably could be playing more minutes, and they're very professional, all of them are. When their turn is called, they'll come out and they'll do their job. They stay ready, so it doesn't surprise me that they're able to come out and be successful."
Nor should Horford be surprised by what he's seen from most of these guys, period. Of the 15 players on Atlanta's current roster, 12 wore Hawks uniforms last season.
But the Hawks of 2013-14 only had Horford for 29 games on account of a torn pectoral. His absence allowed the likes of Antic and Elton Brand to find their footing, though Atlanta is certainly better off with Horford in the fold, even if he's not the same force he once was.
"Having Al back, it gives us that dynamic in the post," Teague said. "He can score, shoot it. He’s been an All-Star in this league. He’s a really talented player."
Watching these Hawks play, it's easy to forget that they do, indeed, have All-Stars. Horford has been chosen twice. Millsap got the nod last year in New Orleans. Teague, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, has played well enough to put himself in the conversation, at the very least.
In Teague's case, it helps to play in an offensive system that Budenholzer once designed for Tony Parker, who's earned his fair share of accolades over the years. But the beauty of that system isn't so much in what it asks the point guard to do as what it doesn't ask him to do—namely, take over a game.
"I think it doesn’t put too much pressure on you, because everyone on the floor can make plays," Teague said. "It’s easy to be successful in this system."
The proof is in the pudding. Each of Atlanta's three point guards (i.e. Teague, Schroder and Shelvin Mack) has scored 20 points or more on at least one occasion. The skill at every other position allows the floor general to take what the defense gives him without having to force the action.
That certainly plays into the personality of this squad. "I think we’re very laid back for the most part," Horford said. "We know that when it’s time to work, we work. We’re focused. We know what we have to do. We’ve got some pretty low-key guys here."
Added Mack: "This team is very unselfish. No one on this team has egos. Everyone gets along. Everyone hangs out. Nobody plays iso ball, like 'I’ve got to get my points, I’ve got to get my touches.'"
A far cry from the Hawks teams of old, who often looked to Joe Johnson and Josh Smith in isolation under then-head coach (and current Clippers assistant) Mike Woodson. Under Woodson, Atlanta began a streak of playoff appearances that stands at seven and, barring complete catastrophe, seems destined to extend to eight come April.
This group seems much closer than those ones, less a collection of quality players than a cohesive unit that not only gets along but whose players enjoy each others' company.
"It’s more of a family atmosphere," said Teague, whose rookie season was Woodson's last in Atlanta. "I think everyone’s happy with [one] another. We like being around each other. Off days and things like that, you see guys hanging with one another. Guys’ families hang with each other. It wasn’t like that when I first got here. It’s good to see, man. I think everybody enjoys one another."
It shines through in the way they play, the way the ball whizzes around on offense and the players rotate in support of one another on defense.
"This team is a special group," Teague went on. "We know we have something special. If we continue to work, continue to grind every day, good things will happen."
Good things are already happening. At 26-8, the Hawks are a game-and-a-half clear of the Chicago Bulls, with plenty of room left for improvement. They're not the best rebounding team on account of their deficit of size and athleticism up front—a considerable concern should the big, bad Bulls impede their path in the postseason. Their offensive execution could stand to sharpen somewhat as well.
Overall, though, the Hawks have to be encouraged with where they are and where they're going. If nothing else, they should no longer be a mystery to the rest of the NBA or to fans outside the ATL.
Those who saw firsthand in L.A. what Atlanta hath wrought left Staples Center as quiet as—if not quieter than—when they arrived, not because they didn't know they'd just witnessed one of the NBA's best teams at work, but precisely because they did know.
And, really, how could they not?
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics via NBA.com and are current through games played on Monday, Jan. 5.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
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