Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. discuss if Atlanta’s four-game win streak – tied for longest in the NBA entering Tuesday – means they’re a team to be feared heading into March. Check out the full conversation on “The Dunker Spot and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Advertisement
Video Transcript
Steve, I wanna talk about the Atlanta Hawks.
we just got not too long ago talked about the Charlotte Hornets, currently on a four-game winning streak, but again, they’ve been elite in twenty twenty-six.
The Atlanta Hawks are also on a four-game winning streak.
Now, with that being said, the first thing that people are gonna point to is going to be, like, what the schedule has been for them across these four games, and I think it is fair to point out- Yeah, pe- pe- that in this win streak People are mean.
People are mean.
Go ahead, continue.
Okay.
Y- you know, I was gonna point out, they beat Brooklyn, they had to come back and get that one done.
Advertisement
They played Washington twice, and then they played Portland, they were missing Deni Avdija, they were also missing Shaedon Sharpe.
So put a grain of salt in there if you’d like.
I will say, like, beating the teams that you are supposed to beat is still important, and blasting them to the degree that the Hawks have I think is also important for them.
What has made me laugh about the Hawks before we actually get into a serious conversation with them, they are thirty-one and thirty-one right now.
Pretty much a net neutral in terms of net rating right now.
And then from this tweet, they are forty-five and forty-five over their last ninety.
Advertisement
I’m not gonna read the second one.
Steve, you’ve already ruined that one.
One seventy-four and one seventy-four in their last three forty.
They’ve just been different levels of .500 for a very long time, and, like, I chuckled at that one, as that stat was updated after their most recent win.
But I did want to talk about the Atlanta Hawks, that they’ve recently changed their starting lineup.
CJ McCollum is in now, feel spacier.
And again, with, you know, factoring in the quality of opponent that they faced during this win streak, I’m more so looking at, as I generally do, but okay, how exactly are you getting to your good stuff?
Advertisement
Is this just insane shot-making or actually, are you actually doing good things that lead to good process?
And I will say throughout this win streak, I have been impressed with the process with the Atlanta Hawks.
Like, looking at what they’ve been able to do offensively, the tempo has felt good in my opinion.
You’re seeing a lot of get the ball across at 20 or 19 on the clock, and then we’re flowing.
It may be Jalen Johnson initiating and kicking it to CJ McCollum.
They flow into, you know, he flows to a two-man action with someone.
If there’s an advantage there, cool.
If not, we flow to the second side, same thing.
Advertisement
Off-ball screens to set up a catch, then that flows into a pick and roll.
Like, they’ve done a really good job of making sure that everyone is involved, and so it, it makes it harder to kinda l- lean on one person.
Like, you can’t just say, “We’re taking the ball out of Jalen Johnson’s hands.
Let’s see what you do about it,” because they generally have three or four other guys capable on the floor of putting the ball on the floor and making dri- making drives, making decisions off of the drives, being able to keep things going with passing, and then you have the shot making to match.
And so, like, looking back at the Portland game, like, one of the possessions that stood out to me as I was watching that game, it was very early on, bringing the ball up left side of the floor, Onyeka Okongwu is trailing, and then he gets to make decisions.
Advertisement
Like, am I shooting?
Am I driving?
I don’t know.
If it’s not there, cool.
Let’s get to the second side of this then.
You deny it, that’s okay, we’ll get into something else.
And, like, that level of flow from the Atlanta Hawks is what I wanna see from that offense.
Like, it’s very egalitarian, you know, in concept, but, like, that’s what it can look like for them