Atlanta Hawks stop doubting they are real and they are spectacular

Why do doubts remain about the Atlanta Hawks?

The Hawks are 40-8. They have lost twice since Thanksgiving. They have beaten Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Dallas, the LA Clippers, Cleveland again, Portland, the Clippers again, Memphis, Washington, Toronto, Chicago again, Oklahoma City and Portland again.

The Hawks just completed the best undefeated month in NBA history, going 17-0 in January. They have won 19 consecutive games, the fifth-longest streak in league annals. They have won 12 straight road games.

What seems to be the problem in giving them their props?

Is it that the Hawks aren’t on national TV? Their only two appearances – both on ESPN – have come during their winning streak. They have the best record in the NBA and they are not scheduled to be on ESPN or TNT for the rest of the season. Whose fault is that?

Is it that they don’t have a superstar? They do have three All-Stars, which is more than any other team. But yes, they don’t have a Kobe Bryant or a Carmelo Anthony or a Dwyane Wade. How are those players’ teams doing?

Is it that they don’t have a style of play that warrants a cool nickname, like the Splash Brothers or Lob City? Maybe, although “Spurs of the East” is pretty nifty. Wouldn’t you rather have a nickname or a style of play modeled after the most successful team of the millennium?

The murmurs started again this weekend, when the Hawks lost Thabo Sefolosha for six to eight weeks to a calf injury and looked less than overwhelming in home wins over Portland and Philadelphia.

Right, because losing a backup guard who averages 5.1 points in 19.0 minutes has so often been the death knell for contenders. Could you imagine if the Cavs lost Matthew Dellavedova or if the Warriors lost Leandro Barbosa or if the Thunder lost Jeremy Lamb? Wait ’til next year, guys. You’re done.

The win over Portland exposed an obvious sign of slippage. It marked the first time Atlanta didn’t hold a double-digit lead during the streak. It also marked a 13th consecutive win against the Western Conference.

The win over Philadelphia exposed more obvious warts. The Hawks squandered a 21-point lead against one of the league’s bottom feeders. It also matched Atlanta’s best defensive effort of the streak.

Look, the Hawks are going to lose again. They have Washington, Golden State and Memphis coming up on the schedule. They might even lose tonight at New Orleans. They’re not going 74-8.

But barring an extended injury to a truly important player – like, say, one of their three (or perhaps four) All-Stars – the Hawks are going to claim the top seed in the East and have by far the easiest first-round series of any playoff team. Then they will have the home court, probably vs. Chicago or Washington, against whom they are 4-0 this season. Then the Hawks will be in the conference finals.

Will there still be doubts?

There shouldn’t be. Because as good as the Hawks have been on offense, they are just as good on defense. They are as complete as any team in the NBA. When things aren’t working at optimal levels on one end of the floor, they rely on their schemes and abilities at the other end.

“They’re good,” Blazers All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge said. “Defensively, they’re definitely better than what people think.”

Thus far, most have marveled at Atlanta’s offense, and with good reason. At a league average pace of play, the Hawks are first in 3-point shooting (.388), second in assists (26.1), assists to turnovers (1.96), points per shot (1.29) and scoring margin (plus-7.3), third in adjusted shooting (.533), fourth in overall shooting (.472), fifth in 3-pointers (9.8) and sixth in scoring (103.4) and offensive rating (109.8).

And you can’t load up on a player or two. All five starters average between 11.8 and 17.3 points and shoot between 46 percent and 55 percent. Each has scored 25 points at least once, but only one – Paul Millsap – has gone for 30.

But it is at the other end where Atlanta is being overlooked. At that same league average pace, the Hawks are second in points allowed (96.1), fourth in defensive rating (102.0), opponents’ shooting (.435) and opponents’ points per shot (1.16), fifth in turnover differential (plus-1.8), sixth in opponents’ 3-point percentage (.337) and seventh in turnovers forced (15.1).

This is not a small sample size, like the recent seven-game homestand or even the winning streak. These are Atlanta’s numbers for the entire season. This is not a fluke or a trend. The Hawks break down foes on both ends of the floor.

Just ask Blazers guard Damian Lillard, who had 14 missed shots and six turnovers in Friday’s loss.

“They take advantage of teams’ mistakes,” he said. “They are constantly in the passing lane, and they keep their hands active, creating more possessions for themselves and taking other possessions away from the other team.”

One thing the Hawks do not have is outstanding rim protection. Even with Al Horford’s 1.45 blocks per game, Atlanta is in the middle of the pack at 4.6 blocks. So they clog lanes, rotate well and dare you to beat them from the perimeter.

That’s what the Sixers tried to do Saturday. Despite ranking dead last in 3-point percentage, Philadelphia hoisted 35 threes and made a season-high 14. But as coach Brett Brown explained, that really was his team’s only option.

“They do such a good job of guarding the paint, it’s really all that is open,” he said.

If you’re still looking for a removable linchpin, it may be Horford. A year ago, the Hawks were third in the East when he went down for the season, and they barely held on to the eighth seed.

It’s definitely not Sefolosha. Against Portland, Atlanta was without him and starter DeMarre Carroll, one of the top five perimeter defenders in the league who has a sore Achilles. Deep reserve Kent Bazemore was inserted into the starting lineup and had 12 points and five rebounds in 40 minutes.

The Hawks have 34 games remaining, half of which are against teams currently under .500. They play Orlando, Sacramento, Miami, Charlotte and Brooklyn twice each. They have just one long trip, a six-game Western swing in mid-March that includes gimmes against Denver, the LA Lakers and Sacramento. They are going to win 60 games without breaking a sweat.

See you in late May. And maybe June.

TRIVIA: Which active player has the highest career scoring average among those never chosen for an All-Star Game? Answer below.

THE END OF CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT: The D-League suspended Iowa Energy teammates Jarnell Stokes three games and Kalin Lucas two games for fighting during a game. With each other.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Utah Jazz rookie Joe Ingles, a native of Australia who also has played in Europe and the Middle East, on the pleasures of playing in the NBA:

“It’s nice to be able to just go into an arena and not get abused and stuff thrown at you every week.”

TANKS A LOT!: The Lakers would have a franchise-record 11-game losing streak had they not outlasted the Bulls in double-overtime Thursday. Sunday’s loss to the Knicks in the opener of a four-game road trip gave them a three-game lead on Indiana for the coveted fifth-worst record in the NBA, which allows them to keep their first-round pick instead of giving it to Phoenix as part of the Steve Nash trade.

LINE OF THE WEEK: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland vs. Portland, Jan. 28: 39 minutes, 17-36 FGs, 11-19 3-pointers, 10-10 FTs, four rebounds, five assists, two steals, three turnovers, 55 points in a 99-94 win. Irving, who actually missed his first seven shots, scored 20 of Cleveland’s last 24 points, including the tie-breaking 3-pointer with 6.4 seconds left. Of all the historical nuggets from Irving’s explosion – career-high, most points by a player this season, most points in Quicken Loans Arena – here’s the best: He is the first player from Duke to score 50 points in an NBA game. Really.

LINE OF THE WEAK: Danny Granger, Miami vs. Dallas, Jan. 30: 16 minutes, 0-6 FGs, 0-4 3-pointers, 0-0 FTs, one rebound, one assist, zero steals, zero blocks, one turnover, one foul, zero points in a 93-72 loss. Averaging a career-low 6.3 points, the former All-Star got the start for sidelined Luol Deng and contributed next to nothing before being benched in favor of rookie James Ennis as the Heat were held to their lowest point total of the season.

TRILLION WATCH: When Magic forward Channing Frye missed a 3-pointer midway through the first quarter Friday vs. Milwaukee, he had no idea he was wrecking an awesome 15 trillion, which would have been the biggest total since this space started tracking them three years ago. For the week, Hawks big Mike Muscala and Sixers rookie Furkan Aldemir each had 3 trillions in Saturday’s meeting in Atlanta, and Jazz forward Trevor Booker posted a 4 trillion Monday vs. Boston.

GAME OF THE WEEK: Golden State at Atlanta, Feb. 6. The recent two-game skid by the Warriors took a little luster off this one, and there’s no guarantee that the Hawks – who first visit New Orleans and host Washington – will still be riding their franchise-record winning streak. But this is the game that everyone wants to see – which, of course, explains why ESPN has Clippers-Raptors. Elsewhere, the Oklahoma City-New Orleans home-and-home on Wednesday and Friday could end up deciding the bottom of the West playoff bracket.

GAME OF THE WEAK: New York at Brooklyn, Feb. 6. The co-hosts of All-Star Weekend – both on track to pay the luxury tax – have been so bad, they have turned what should be the best rivalry in the NBA into a matchup of apathy. The Knicks are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, while the Nets profess to be in the playoff hunt, even though they haven’t won a home game in 2015.

TWO MINUTES: Of all the stats we stumble across in compiling this column, this is among the best: Nuggets guard Randy Foye, a nine-year veteran with a career average better than 11 points per game, shot 4-of-35 (.114) in January, including 0-of-14 from 2-point range. … Add Blazers guard and prominent All-Star snub Damian Lillard to the list of NBA players who are convinced the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee is haunted. Lillard tweeted his belief Saturday morning after a night of fitful sleep, and the hotel’s Twitter account responded. “I was hearing noises in the hotel,” Lillard said. “I came to my door – there is a storage room right outside my door – I looked up and the storage room (door) was cracked open, the light was off, I was like, what? That’s a real story. It was weird.” Lillard shot 1-of-10 from the arc in a loss to the Bucks. … Bucks guard Jerryd Bayless missed just one of his first 75 free throws, then missed four of his next six. He still leads the league at 94 percent. … In 19 games since Christmas, Bulls guard Derrick Rose is shooting just 36.6 percent from the field. He has missed at least 10 shots in a game a staggering 15 times and is averaging 12.7 missed shots per game in that stretch. This season, seven players are averaging at least 10 misses per game – Russell Westbrook, Kobe Bryant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Carmelo Anthony, James Harden, Kemba Walker and Rose. Among those players, Rose has the lowest points-per-shot (1.09) and PER (16.02). … When Golden State lost at Utah on Friday, it was the first time in 23 games since Nov. 11 that the Warriors were beaten with center Andrew Bogut in the lineup. They were 9-5 without him over that same stretch. … Since returning from a sore right knee on Jan. 9, Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph has 12 straight double-doubles and is averaging 19.3 points and 13.8 rebounds. Memphis is 10-2 during Randolph’s streak, the longest in the NBA this season. Randolph has 28 double-doubles in 38 games; only DeMarcus Cousins (28 in 34 games) has a better ratio. “I’m just playing,” said Randolph, who turns 34 this summer and signed a two-year extension last year. “I’m feeling good out there. Guys are just giving me the ball. I feel like I’m still in my prime.” … The new extended All-Star break gives 18 of the league’s 30 teams eight days between games that count, with all of those teams playing on Feb. 11 and not returning to the court until Feb. 20. The longest break of 10 days went to Charlotte, Philadelphia and Memphis, which plays Feb. 11 and doesn’t return until Feb. 22. Six teams received the shortest break of seven days, and all are marquee teams making national TV appearances on either side of the break: Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, the Clippers, Oklahoma City and San Antonio. … In Friday’s Dallas-Miami game, Heat guard Mario Chalmers made the first of two free throws to open a 60-51 lead with 3:12 left in the third quarter. Between the free throws, Charlie Villanueva checked in for the Mavericks, and a run began that you normally only see in AAU games. Over the next 12:33, Dallas outscored Miami, 37-2. During that stretch, the Mavericks made 14-of-26 shots (7-of-13 threes) and grabbed 20 rebounds (6 offensive). Villanueva made four 3-pointers and scored 14 points. The Heat made 1-of-14 shots (0-of-4 threes) and 0-of-3 free throws while grabbing six rebounds and committing seven turnovers. Chalmers was 0-of-2 with five turnovers.