Atlanta Hawks – Are they still the Dream Team?
By Andre J. Thomas
Entertainment Blogger
In 2014, the Atlanta Hawks seemed to be the team we focused on in the eastern conference; next to the Cavaliers.
Withstanding the haters game after game, the Hawks did extremely well as the underdog. Atlanta sports columnist, Joeff Davis did a feature on the team for Creative Loafing; coining them, “The Dream Team!”
For the first time in six years, the team seemed to have broken their curse of losing the Eastern Conference in the first round. Analyzing Hawks history over the past 30 years, it seems that the 2014-2015 team stats were our best hopes of giving Atlanta an NBA title. (Click here to see stats). Although it didn’t happen for us last year, I definitely had faith that the Hawks would pull it off this year.
Sadly, the 2015-2016 dreams of my favorite NBA team winning a championship seem to be a bit rocky. I haven’t given up on them, but it’s really hard to predict their performance each game. The Hawks performance this year shows they have a lower record of winning (14-11) compared to their record for this same time last year (16 -7). It seems as if the Hawks go a few good games and the fuse breaks. We replace the fuse, they play a few more good games and it breaks again. Atlanta Hawks, what’s the problem? You seem to be distracted this year. It’s written all over your face. Was Birmingham’s Demarre Carroll really the secret to your cohesiveness last year?
Saturday night I sat an watched the Atlanta Hawks suffer a distressing loss against the San Antonio Spurs.
The victory came as a result of effective coaching, strong defensive plays, and the driven desire of players to simply WIN. Hopefully, the loss doesn’t break the team’s confidence.
Leading in “fast break points” and “points in the paint,” the Hawks weren’t able to stay consistent throughout the night.
What do we have this year?
I can’t take anything away from the individual Hawks players.They’re all talented. In the game against the Spurs, Paul Milsap was the only player who didn’t seem intimidated by their strong defense; leading the Hawks with 22 points.
Kent Bazemore, Al Horford, and Jeff Teague are some of the more aggressive players on the team. Kyle Korver and Thabo Sefolosha are undeniably great scorers; while Dennis Schoder does a great job with the assists.
During Saturday’s game, newcomer Lamar Patterson showed that he was truly developing his craft, pushing through in the 4th Qtr to earn a few points for the team. If the team can learn to work better as a collective unit and focus on the WIN, we could still earn an NBA title this year.
Editorial insight provided by FB Users: JaMarkus Walker, Clarence Person and Coach Cedric Lane.
