Atlanta Hawks: Keys Behind Recent Win Streak

Here are some of the keys behind the Atlanta Hawks’ recent four-game win streak.

It’s funny how one week can change things when you’re only two months into a season. A week ago, the Atlanta Hawks were 14-12, had lost three straight games and were starting to look like a potential non-playoff team with the way the Eastern Conference had seemingly improved overnight.

One week and four straight wins later, Atlanta is back to 18-12, they’re all the way up to third in the conference standings and the Hawks’ balanced attack is looking like their greatest strength once more. This is no longer a 60-win team, but the Hawks have gone back to looking like a team that’s weathering the storm of DeMarre Carroll‘s departure.

Over the last week, the Hawks were a perfect 4-0, posting an offensive rating of 111.4 and a defensive rating of 100.6 — the seventh best mark in the league for both categories over that span. They also shot the third best percentage from the field in the last week, making 51.4 percent of their shots.

But how have the Hawks been getting it done? Here’s a look at the driving forces behind Atlanta’s recent four-game win streak.

Quality Of Opponents:

It’s worth noting that playing the lowly Philadelphia 76ers and a Portland Trail Blazers team playing without Damian Lillard AND C.J. McCollum is a quick way to boost one’s win total for the week. The Hawks won those two games by an average of 20.0 points, which clearly boosted their point differential of +10.3 over the last four games.

Road wins over the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic were impressive wins for Atlanta’s resume, but the Hawks also caught Boston at a pretty good time. The Celts were in the middle of a two-game losing streak when they played Atlanta and committed a season-worst 22 turnovers in the process.

Late-Game Takeovers

Against the Celtics, the Hawks couldn’t find much of a rhythm through the first three quarters…until Paul Millsap‘s hot shooting fourth quarter completely turned things around. In a game that featured a 10-point turnaround in the fourth, 15 of Milksop’s 20 points came in the final period to lead Atlanta to victory.

Atlanta’s road win over the Orlando Magic featured another impressive hot streak, but this time it was Kyle Korver playing the part of fourth quarter savior, scoring 13 of his 19 points — including the go-ahead three-point basket that proved to be the game-winner — in the fourth quarter.

With two easy opponents and two games against tougher teams that featured Millsap and Korver takeovers, the Hawks were able to stay perfect.

Watch @KyleKorver burn Orlando with 6 threes:https://t.co/gGxhb79hAV
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) December 21, 2015

Bench Resurgence

On the season, the Hawks’ bench has averaged 31.9 points per game (21st in the league) with a point differential of +0.8 (12th). In the last week, however, those numbers swelled to 44.0 points per game (fifth) with a +6.0 point differential (third).

The solid bench play starts with Dennis Schroder, who, excluding a dismal three-point outing against Orlando, averaged 19.0 points and 5.0 assists per game on 21-of-37 shooting (56.8 percent). The toughness of a player who gets his tooth knocked out and simply slips it into his sock was intrinsic with Jeff Teague playing through a nagging ankle injury last week.

Kent Bazemore has been terrific in a starting role, averaging 13.0 points on .492/.400/.872 shooting splits in 18 games as a starter this season, but Thabo Sefolosha had a pair of solid games off the bench this week too. Against the Celtics his 11 points and eight boards on 5-of-7 shooting were key to the victory, as were his 13 points and six boards against Portland.

Then there’s Mike Scott, who made the most of extended playing time over Atlanta’s last two contests, averaging 14.0 points on 11-of-19 shooting in those games. The Hawks’ strength lies in their balanced attack, and the bench joining in on the act helped Atlanta with their undefeated week.

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