Pelton: How Hawks are dominating
Reasons behind Atlanta’s winning streak, and what it means
Originally Published: February 2, 2015
By Kevin Pelton | ESPN Insider
With two wins over the weekend, the Atlanta Hawks extended their winning streak to 19 games, tied for the fifth-longest in NBA history during a single season. A win Monday night against the New Orleans Pelicans would allow Atlanta to join the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers (33), 2012-13 Miami Heat (27), 2007-08 Houston Rockets (22) and 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks (20) as the fifth team ever to win 20 games in a row the same season. Of that group, all but the Rockets eventually won the championship.
That’s heady stuff for a team that won only twice as many games during all of 2014-15 (38) than during its current winning streak. How have the Hawks done it? The key has been unparalleled balance.
Balanced starting five
In a league in which star power is often a trump card, Atlanta has used a different formula. No Hawks rank among the league’s top 10 players in terms of my wins above replacement player (WARP) stat, with Paul Millsap in 15th. But if we compare teams’ second-best players in terms of WARP, Jeff Teague ranks fourth. Same with Al Horford among third-best players. And Atlanta boasts the best of the group of fourth- and fifth-best players in Kyle Korver and DeMarre Carroll, respectively.
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