Atlanta Hawks Clinch Playoff Berth with Bulls' Loss to Nets

The Atlanta Hawks have clinched a playoff berth for the 10th straight year after the Chicago Bulls lost to the Brooklyn Nets 107-106 on Saturday. 

This has been a different season for the Hawks, who had been one of the Eastern Conference's best teams over the past two years with 108 total wins. They essentially replaced Al Horford with Dwight Howard during the offseason, then traded Kyle Korver to the Cleveland Cavaliers during the season. 

After Korver was dealt, Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer did emphasize it wasn't an indication the team was going into a full-scale rebuild, via ESPN.com:

"

Organizationally, we have to make hard decisions. I think it's important that each one of them puts us in the best situation, the best place, to be a great organization.

In this case, we made a trade that wasn't easy. It was a hard decision. This is a good team that we have. This is a team that has shown an ability to compete at a high level. Keeping it together is something ... I just wouldn't make any assumptions going forward.

"

The Hawks were playing well most of the season, even getting their record to 37-29 after a March 11 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. Things turned on them over the next two weeks with a seven-game losing streak, dropping them to one game over .500 and to the fringes of playoff contention. 

Through that adversity the Hawks were able to persevere and make the playoffs yet again. Their current streak of 10 straight playoff appearances is their longest since moving to Atlanta before the 1968-69 season.

The Hawks have won at least one playoff series each of the previous two seasons. They had home-court advantage both times, which will not be the case this time around, putting this team that's been terrific at times and frustrating at others in a difficult spot. 

With the Eastern Conference being such a mess all season, the Hawks have a roster with six players averaging at least 10 points per game and a defense that ranks fourth in efficiency, per Basketball Reference.

It's not always a sexy style of basketball played by the Hawks. They are more methodical than flashy, yet they get the job done more often than not and have been rewarded with another trip to the postseason.