The Hawks had a rather successful Nique week with wins over the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers. The Hawks are still way out in front of every team in the East and look to be resting players. It will be interesting to see what the team does on the road trip and how they do when they get closer to securing home court advantage through the playoffs. Anyway let's get started with the rankings.
Drew Garrison of SBNation.com starts things off for us and puts the Hawks at No. 2.
The Hawks are still breathing down the Warriors' necks, but resting Paul Millsap, Pero Antic and DeMarre Carroll turned into a loss against the Philadelphia 76ers. Atlanta begins a six-game road trip on Wednesday with a very winnable schedule leading up to the rematch against Golden State on March 18.
John Schuhmann of NBA.com keeps the Hawks at No. 2 and says they should be the eastern favorites.
Friday's win over Cleveland didn't just prove that the Hawks are as much a favorite to win the East as the Cavs are. It also built a bigger cushion in the standings and gave coach Mike Budenholzer additional license to rest his starters for select games down the stretch. Three rested in Saturday's loss in Philadelphia and the Hawks have five back-to-backs remaining.
Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports also has the Hawks at No. 2 in his latest ranking.
Point guard Dennis Schroder has averaged 15.8 points and 8.0 assists in his past four games. Could he be better than All-Star teammate Jeff Teague?
Matt Moore of CBSsports.com keeps the trend going with putting the Hawks at No. 2.
Atlanta's magic number for home court throughout the entire Eastern Conference playoffs is 10. They're going to be able to rest their starters before kids start making irresponsible decisions on spring break.
Kurt Helin of NBCsports.com ranks Atlanta at No. 2 and wonders why the Hawks aren't considered favorites to come out of the east.
Anyone saying the Hawks can’t win the East didn’t watch them take down the Cavaliers Friday night. The Hawks packed the paint cutting off LeBron James, their defensive traps bothered Kyrie Irving, plud the Hawks passing and movement on offense opened up the Cavs defense. This team may very well make a new owner happy with a trip to the Finals.
Next, Marc Stein of ESPN.com says the Hawks had a pretty successful Nique week with ranking the Hawks at No. 2 in his latest ranking.
Crushing Cleveland was a fantastic way to cap Nique Week, but the hidden highlight for the Hawks since our last rankings might well be Indiana inching toward the No. 7 seed in the East. The Hawks are tops in the league at 26-8 against current playoff teams ... but Indy in Round 1 doesn't sound fun.
The guys at USAtoday.com also puts the Hawks at No. 2.
They followed beating the Cavaliers with a loss to the 76ers, almost as if to mess with us.
Finally, Matt Dollinger of SI.com keeps the Hawks at No. 2 in his rankings.
Beating the Cavaliers and losing to the 76ers registers on both sides of the competence spectrum, but the Hawks will gladly sacrifice a regular-season loss for some coveted rest for their starters after a big win. You can do those sorts of things when you hold a 10½-game lead on the rest of the conference.
Well that does it for the rankings and we see that the Hawks are still near the top in the rankings. Had the Hawks had a perfect week then I am sure we would see some rankings at #1. Personally, the loss doesn't bother me because the Hawks can afford to rest players with a 10 game lead. Anyway let me know what you guys think in the comments.