Amid some of the upheaval that has occurred off the court this season, the Hawks look to continue finding stability on it. The Hawks have won their past three games, two of them in wire-to-wire efforts, as they’ve put together some of their best basketball of the season so far.
In their past three matchups, the Hawks have downed the Pacers, Raptors and Heat, all who sit within striking distance of the team. With three consecutive wins under their belt, the Hawks lie 1.5 games behind the Heat for seventh, a half-game back of the Pacers for eighth and two games ahead of the Raptors.
With almost half of the regular season still ahead of them, the Hawks look to continue to build on the connection that has helped them go on their first win streak since Dec. 19.
Part of what has helped the Hawks find their stride is their uptick in defensive urgency. Though it’s a small sample size, the Hawks rank fifth in defensive rating over their past three outings.
Following Monday’s win over the Heat, Hawks coach Nate McMillan credited the team’s unity on defense and not giving up anything easily. The Heat played physically throughout the game, and the Hawks did a solid job of matching that.
They held the Heat to 25.8% (8-31 3FGs) on 3-point shots, which was the third consecutive game the Hawks held an opponent to under 30% from long range. Over the past three matchups, the Hawks allowed their opponents to shoot only 24.4% on 3-pointers (22 of 90). It was the 16th time this season the Hawks held an opponent under 30% from 3-point range, the most such games in the NBA this season.
After practice Tuesday, McMillan echoed his compliments of the team’s defensive performance over the past three games when asked about it.
“I just see a connection,” McMillan said. “I see guys being connected out on the defensive end of the floor. I see urgency. I’ve seen better pressure, better containment, but a more connected defense, which is allowing us to rebound and get out in transition.
“I also see our guys, you know De’Andre (Hunter) and DJ (Dejounte Murray), coming back and rebounding the basketball. Their numbers are up as far as rebounding. So, the things that we talked about, we needed to do, I’m seeing that from the team, and they play connected basketball, with more pressure, more urgency, more of a connection.”
That will continue to grow now that the Hawks have their defensive anchor back in the mix. The Hawks saw the return of Clint Capela on Monday after he missed the previous 10 games. The Hawks deeply missed his presence in the paint as not only their best rim protector but also their loudest voice in defensive communication.
For Hawks forward John Collins, having Capela back in the rotation has been exciting. While he and Onyeka Okongwu made it work as well as they could in Capela’s absence, having the 28-year-old big man back in the mix only means good things for the team’s defense moving forward.
But the team won’t rely solely on Capela’s presence, and the Hawks know that it will take all of them. Collins said the team has had ongoing conversations to continue encouraging each other to buy in to a defensive mindset.
“Something might happen on the court during the game, during practice, that might spark you to conversation, might just spark anytime,” Collins said. “It’s really just us as individuals. I feel like as players, being at this level, we want to win. So all of our actions sort of revolve around trying to prepare us for winning, whether it be trying to tell AJ (Griffin), the rook, to do this or trying to make sure I hold CC accountable as he holds me accountable during the games. And it’s really just that trying to create a culture of accountability. And I feel like that’s where we start, is just making sure we all know what our jobs are and try to execute at a high level.”
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