NBA Power Rankings: Hawks At No. 8 In SB Nation Rankings
by Kris Willis on Jan 24, 2012 12:01 PM EST
Email
Print
The Atlanta Hawks are now 6-1 without Al Horford in the lineup and the result is the Hawks inching their way back up various power rankings around the internet. SB Nation's Tom Ziller moves the Hawks up two spots this week to No. 8 after a 3-1 week.
| 8. | Atlanta Hawks | 12-5 | W: TOR, POR, CLE; L: PHI | Peachtree Hoops |
| The Hawks aren't just treading water without Al Horford: they are bobbing above the water and possibly playing with a beach ball, as well. | ||||
Atlanta jumps up three spots to No. 10 in John Schuhmann's rankings at NBA.com. Schuhmann writes that is time to stop trying to figure out the Hawks.
Atlanta (12-5)
Pace: 92.6 (23), Off: 103.5 (8), Def: 95.6 (5)
There's no point in trying to figure out the Hawks, who are now 5-1 without Al Horford, allowing fewer than 94 points per 100 possessions. Offensively, Jeff Teague has improved, averaging 14.7 points on 48 percent shooting in the six games. Atlanta is 8-1 at home, but begins a five-game trip on Monday.
Marc Stein of ESPN.com also moves Atlanta up three spots to No. 9 this week in his weekly rankings. Stein's cites Larry Drew's dressing down of the team after the Philadelphia loss and how the Hawks responded with a blow out win over the Cavaliers.
Apologies to the Hawks. They've mostly beaten up on patsies in this 5-1 run without Al Horford, but there's been no dip from them yet. Larry Drew actually called them out for some surrender signs in Friday's loss in Philly ... and they responded by shredding Cleveland by 27.
New to the round up this week is Chris Sheridan's rankings and he is the only one to actually drop the Hawks this week despite going 3-1. Atlanta falls from No. 9 to No. 11.
AST WEEK: 3-1 THIS WEEK: 3 games KEY GAME: WED at SA
Number of quality wins has now jumped to 3, thanks to victory over Portland. Next 5 are on the road, but 4 look winnable. Kudos to Larry Drew for not letting the Al Horford injury devastate them mentally, and for challenging team by calling them quitters after loss to 76ers. When Joe Johnson scores 21 or more, they are 8-0.
Sheridan did point out that the Hawks are undefeated when Joe Johnson scores at least 21 points. That improved to 9-0 after Monday's victory over Milwaukee.
The Hawks rank No. 4 in John Hollinger's ESPN.com Daily Power Rankings trailing only Chicago, Miami and Philadelphia.
For more on the Atlanta Hawks check out SB Nation Atlanta, follow Jason Walker and Kris Willis, along with Peachtree Hoops on Twitter and check out the Peachtree Hoops Facebook Fan Page.
22 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
the difference between .500 and dominating is 5-6 games at most.
at this point i’d be happy if we got a playoff spot and getting home field in round 1 or 2 would be a bonus.
glad the team is playing well and finding ways to win as opposed to finding ways to lose like in previous seasons.
by Bryant Singleton on Jan 24, 2012 1:13 PM EST up reply actions
Have you seen March and April's schedule?
There are approximately 20 wins for the taking between the two months. The Hawks are gonna end up well above .500. Most teams are as scared of the Hawks as we are of them. They know that on any given night the Hawks can take down anyone and make them look bad.
by BravesFanScout on Jan 24, 2012 2:49 PM EST via mobile up reply actions 1 recs
+1
* Jeff Teague * Joe Johnson* Jon Leuer * Josh Smith * Andrew Bogut *
----
* Hawks traded {Al Horford + protected 2nd rounder} for {Perimeter F Jon Leuer and C Andrew Bogut} {& Bench Marvin Williams }
by PointGuardSlim on Jan 24, 2012 3:39 PM EST up reply actions
When will someone say....
Those team will have a tough month because they have to play the Hawks…
finally some respect #4 is more like it
this team reminds me the interview Joe did this summer where he said this team needs more blue-collar guys. Ivan, T-Mac, Pargo, Green, Vlad, and lately the leader J Smoove. He sets the tone for the BC guys…and TMAC gets my vote for 6th man…you can see the difference he makes on the floor when teams make runs at us…
I would love to see
TMAC get more aggressive. He’ s a great facilitator, but we need his off production.
Winning close games
is a major difference. Take away Chicago in Chicago and triple overtime Miami – both of which we should have won down the stretch and you see a huge difference with last year. We get behind and JJ and Jamal don’t come down and shoot 5 long jumpers in a row turning a 5 point deficit into 15 or 20. We move the ball. We attack the rim. We get to the line. We clamp down on D. The game against Philly showed the old Hawks. Get down and start jacking jumper after jumper and the lead grows. But for most of the season we have not panicked, made smart plays, and won games even when playing poorly. For once we are also blowing out bad teams. Whatever Stack, McGrady, Vlad and Kirk bring it seems it is showing itself in the way we play. No ESPN highlights, just tough play. Something we have lacked for the last few years since our revival. Plenty of disrespect of course, but that comes with the territory for the hawks.
Interesting NBA factoid for the season...
Field-goal shooting, free-throw shooting and three-point shooting in the NBA are all down at least 15 percent. Turnovers have increased by an average of .8 per game, the largest jump in 29 years.
Looks like the Hawks aren’t alone. Yowza.
Twitter: twitter.com/edgrohl Google+: Ed G
But when I say "not bitter. If the league sucks as a whole, it has regressed then it makes us better by default."
I love this thinking.
"We aren’t a good team…everyone else is worse."
More Atlanta self loathing.
* Jeff Teague * Joe Johnson* Jon Leuer * Josh Smith * Andrew Bogut *
----
* Hawks traded {Al Horford + protected 2nd rounder} for {Perimeter F Jon Leuer and C Andrew Bogut} {& Bench Marvin Williams }
by PointGuardSlim on Jan 25, 2012 10:18 AM EST up reply actions
sloppy play doesn't make it a worser league
there are 15 teams with ten wins or more. People aren’t in rhythm, and need I remind you the Hawks went through arguably the toughest first week in January in the NBA.
Atlanta will win a championship....someday
+1
Washington and New Orleans may be the only true cupcakes in the league. New Jersey is missing a big piece but they still have Deron, Charlotte has lost a lot of games down the stretch, Toronto plays better with its emerging star in Bargnani, and Detroit is confusing. Detroit has a lot of talent, they just are not playing to it. But overall, 25 out of 30 teams have a legit chance of winning on any night. Golden State’s record doesn’t reflect their improvement. They have beaten Miami, had Chicago down, and is another team that has not learned how to finish games. The league has more parity than I can remember.
Think about an improving and promising Timberwolves team. Or Memphis, Clips, Philly and Indy. The lockout had nothing to do with parity in my opinion. But the beauty of this season is that teams that were supposed to be at the top are not and teams that weren’t supposed to be at the top are. I love it.
What I forgot to type there was:
…in Free Throws.
We’re #5 in FT%, #10 in FG%, but we are #21 in FT%. So there.
Wow…we’re 4th in assists per game. Interesting.
Twitter: twitter.com/edgrohl Google+: Ed G
The free throw percentage will come up.
We were shooting 65% at one point. If we had better free throw shooting earlier, we could be 15-3. How crazy would that be?
Travis!
“No ESPN highlights, just tough play”
Couldn’t agree more. That’s a sign of teamwork, not me-work. We are playing honest basketball like a real team, not a collection of egos. I think getting rid of Jamal, plus Josh and Joe finally playing like they MUST lead this team suddenly makes everyone play like they’ve got something to prove.
Love my Hawks!
b
we are the spurs
Ivan Johnson does not buy ground beef, he just takes a whole cow, runs it through his beard, and fully cooked hamburgers come out.
We're ranked over MEM and OKC... I'd love to get those wins for confidence. But Still
the most important thing to do is to focus on winning our conference.
* Jeff Teague * Joe Johnson* Jon Leuer * Josh Smith * Andrew Bogut *
----
* Hawks traded {Al Horford + protected 2nd rounder} for {Perimeter F Jon Leuer and C Andrew Bogut} {& Bench Marvin Williams }
by PointGuardSlim on Jan 25, 2012 10:27 AM EST reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Peachtree Hoops
Related FanShots on Peachtree Hoops
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sport
- Behind the Box Score, where the Heat grabbed control behind LeBron James’ amazing afternoon
- Behind the Box Score, where the Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the fourth quarter. Again
- Kevin Durant’s game-winner beats the Lakers in Game 4 (VIDEO)
- Behind the Box Score, where the Los Angeles Lakers answered at home
- Pau Gasol wins the 2011-2012 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award
