The Atlanta Hawks have no intentions of slowing down after putting up one of their best offensive performances with a 130-105 win over the Sacramento Kings, becoming the first team in the league to get 50 wins as the Golden State Warriors followed hours later. Now the team heads west for their longest road trip of the season playing six games in 11 days as they first meet the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday.
The Hawks first face the Nuggets before meeting Phoenix, the Lakers, the Kings, Golden State and Oklahoma City. Head coach Mike Budenholzer stressed that one back-to-back matchups, several starters will likely sit in order to save their legs. The team currently holds a 14 ½ game lead in the Eastern Conference and want to remain as fresh as possible with the postseason on the horizon.
The Hawks are aware they cannot afford to take their foot off the gas as the team is focused heavily on improvement over wins. The team has a nice lead in the Eastern Conference, but that means nothing once the playoffs begin. That is where improvement will be key. After being in scoring slumps, several Hawks players soared against the Kings including Kyle Korver with six 3-point shots. The team show a combined 42 percent while notching 42 assists in the process. That is the best by any team this season.
Atlanta's success in Denver has not been great. The team has dropped seven straight games in Denver, but did beat the Nuggets at home earlier in the season. Denver is fresh off dominating the New York Knicks while improving to 3-2 under the new coaching regime of Melvin Hunt. They have put up at least 100 points in five of those games. Denver has confidence they did not get with Brian Shaw and could use home-court advantage to upset the Hawks on the road.
The Hawks are coming off a day of rest, something that has proven to help the starters, but they have struggled recently on the road. The team hopes to take advantage of this road trip before setting up the final stretch of the regular season.
