Atlanta Hawks Begin December Following Embarrassing End to November

The Atlanta Hawks begin their December schedule tonight at home against the Toronto Raptors.

The Hawks are coming off their worst stretch of the season after finishing their final four games in November 1-3.

The three losses included Atlanta’s first back-to-back games of the season. The two losses cut the Hawks deep.

The first loss came on the road at the hands of the struggling, injured, and interim head coached New Orleans Hornets.

The losses snapped Atlanta’s seven game win streak, gave Mike Bibby his still sore ankle, and was dominated by Chris Paul’s backup, rookie point guard Darren Collison.

The first year man out of UCLA recorded his first double-double with 22 points and 11 assists.

Atlanta had a chance to redeem itself with a national televised game on Thanksgiving Night against division foe Orlando Magic. Unfortunately, it would be an embarrassing second half.

The Magic surrendered just 25 points to the Hawks in the second half, while coming back from a 51-39 deficit to win 93-76.

The loss gave started their only loosing streak of the season, and ruined the Hawks perfect record at Philips Arena.

The Hawks licked their wounds and rebounded the day after their Thanksgiving debacle, with a 14-point victory against the 76ers at Philadelphia.

However, the bounce back quickly got deflated when they had to go to Detroit last Sunday. It was just a six-point loss to the pistons, but the box score, specifically rebounding, was hard to swallow.

The Pistons out-rebounded Atlanta 53 to 27. Detroit had 24 offensive rebounds to Atlanta’s six.

The Pistons Ben Wallace had 18 boards all by himself. He had 11 offensive boards.

Joe Johnson’s shooting struggles continued with a 5-of-19 showing from the field, including 0-for-5 from the three-point line.

While Johnson was still stuck in neutral, more like reverse, his teammate Josh Smith continued to show how his has matured.

Smith went 11-of-15 from the field and his 23 points led the team, while tying Detroit’s Rodney Stuckey.

He only grabbed seven rebounds, but hey, nobody wearing a Hawk uniform thought it was a good idea to try and get a rebound.

Smith also had a game-high five blocked shots. Atlanta had nine blocked shots in the game.

Smith continues to lead the league in blocked shots, averaging 2.7 blocks per game.

Tip-off for tonight’s game against the Raptors is at 7:00 EST.

Will the Hawks start out December with a win, or will they get their second straight loss at home?