The Hawks have a good mix of youth and
veterans, and they’re all hungry – none of the regulars in their rotation has ever been to the NBA Finals. A lot of credit must go to underappreciated coach Mike Woodson, who is on track to improve Atlanta’s victory total for a fifth straight year.As important as young big men Al Horford, Marvin Williams and Josh Smith have been, it’s the veteran guards who have keyed the Hawks’ success. Joe Johnson is an All-Star caliber player at both ends of the floor, capable of scoring 30 on any given night or preventing the opponent’s star from doing so. Mike Bibby has had no problem deferring – he doesn’t have a double-figure scoring average for the first time in his 12-year career – and hasn’t complained about reduced playing time. Jamal Crawford, though, may be the biggest reason the Hawks could creep into the conversation of title contenders.
After so many years of ill-advised heaves with Chicago and New York – and briefly for Golden State last season - Crawford has become more discriminating in his shot selection. The career 40-percent shooter is better than 45 percent from the field this season and is taking around 13 field-goal attempts per game, well below his average from the previous six years.
Through Monday’s win in Houston – Atlanta’s first in a decade – the Hawks were 21-6 when Crawford scores at least 15 points, compared to 8-8 when he doesn’t. The front runner for the sixth man of the year award has made a huge difference for an Atlanta offense which is on pace to average more than 100 points for the first time since the 1993-94 season.
Atlanta is second in the East to Boston with 22.2 assists per game despite not having one player among the NBA’s top 20 in that category. Bibby, though, is among the league leaders with a 3.82 assist-to-turnover ratio. The Hawks have been particularly good at taking care of the basketball, averaging 10.9 turnovers during a 6-1 stretch from Jan. 11-25, and they now lead the league in that category, committing only 12.2 per game.
The recent win at Houston as well as one in Boston, not to mention victories earlier this season at Portland and Dallas, also could provide a key confidence boost for an Atlanta squad which has been done in by road woes in recent years. Before opening 11-9 on the road this season, the Hawks were 29-75 over the previous two-plus seasons, including a 1-8 in the playoffs. Each of those postseason losses was by double digits.
So were all of Atlanta’s losses in its four-game sweep to Cleveland in last year’s conference semifinals. But this season, the Hawks have a shot to be the Cavs’ biggest threat for Eastern supremacy.
