On the heels of a busy summer that included the blockbuster acquisition of Dejounte Murray, the Atlanta Hawks seemed to be on the upswing after a down season in 2021-22. After the team made an unexpected run to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Hawks took a clear step back and, amid internal pressures to improve quickly, Atlanta spent a king’s ransom to land Murray in a bid to give the team the No. 2 creator it sorely lacked alongside Trae Young.
Over the course of the 2022-23 season, there have been flashes of intrigue, headlined by a five-game January winning streak that signaled the Hawks may be turning the corner. Since then, however, the Hawks have been the picture of an average basketball team, to the point where head coach Quin Snyder, who took over in February following the ouster of Nate McMillan, recently referred to the performance of his squad as “an interesting statistical anomaly.”
With a hat-tip to John Schuhmann of NBA.com, the Hawks currently have the longest streak in NBA history of consecutive games within just one game of the .500 mark. Since a loss to the Hornets on Jan. 21, Atlanta has been either one game below, one game above, or exactly at the .500 mark and, in recent days, things have escalated further with ten consecutive games in which the Hawks have alternated losses followed by wins. That remarkable run continued with an almost comical overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday evening in which neither team seemingly had any interest in closing out a victory.
Beyond the recent run oscillating between wins and losses, Atlanta’s season-long metrics paint a similarly pedestrian picture. Not only are the Hawks sitting at 15-15 in the last 30 games, 14-14 in the last 28 games, 13-13 in the last 26 games and so on, but Atlanta is 39-39 for the season. The Hawks have been out-scored by exactly one point (9,209 to 9,210) over the course of 78 games, and Atlanta also has perfectly even records against the East (24-24) and West (15-15). Unsurprisingly, the folks at FiveThirtyEight project the Hawks to finish at 41-41 with a 2-2 mark over the last four games, and that would be in line with the remarkable synergy to this point.
In a big-picture sense, the 2022-23 season hasn’t been a complete disaster for the Hawks, as Atlanta will at least make the play-in with the opportunity to make some noise given the presence of Young. The Hawks emerged from the play-in a season ago, based heavily on Young’s star power, and while repeating that performance wouldn’t be great, it could, of course, be worse. Still, Atlanta didn’t take a step forward this season and, even if the Hawks won the final four games, they’d fall short of the 43-win performance from 2021-22 before the sizable investment in Murray.
There are questions in the offing with the Hawks, namely around a looming luxury tax bill and the potential to move on from veterans like John Collins, Clint Capela, and/or the recently extended Bogdan Bogdanovic. For now, though, the Hawks are what their record says they are, and Atlanta is arguably the most average team in the NBA, not only this year but over the last two seasons combined.
Where do the Hawks stack up in our final DIME power rankings of the 2022-23 regular season? Let’s find out.
1. Boston Celtics (54-24, Last week — 4th)
Boston doesn’t have the league’s best record, and the Celtics did lose a pretty rough one in Washington just a week ago. The big change is that the Celtics absolutely blasted Milwaukee in a primetime spot this week and that recent result vaults Boston to the top spot.
2. Milwaukee Bucks (56-22, Last week — 1st)
The Bucks are 27-5 in the last 32 games and there isn’t much to pick apart. As noted above, Milwaukee did fall flat against Boston in a high-profile game, but even that contest has a mild asterisk with a tough schedule situation for the Bucks. A 13-point win over Philadelphia on Sunday quelled any fears.
3. Denver Nuggets (52-26, Last week — 2nd)
Denver hasn’t played that well recently and Nikola Jokic has been banged up in a way that he rarely is. With that said, the Nuggets did pick up a nice win over the Warriors on Sunday without him, and Denver will likely enter the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the West.
4. Phoenix Suns (43-35, Last week — 7th)
The Suns don’t have the full-season profile of the No. 4 team, but they are rounding into form at the right time. Phoenix is 3-0 since Kevin Durant returned and on a five-game overall winning streak. That puts the Suns in firm control of the No. 4 seed with a (very) favorable game against San Antonio coming on Tuesday.
5. Philadelphia 76ers (51-27, Last week — 6th)
Philadelphia and Boston meet on Tuesday in a game that could be quite interesting in advance of the playoffs. From a seeding standpoint, things are unlikely to change, but it could be a real measuring stick for both teams.
6. Cleveland Cavaliers (49-30, Last week — 5th)
Two losses in the last three games isn’t great for Cleveland, but Jarrett Allen and Isaac Okoro missed both contests. Also, the Cavs get the joy of closing the season against Orlando (twice) and Charlotte with very little threat of falling out of the top four. It’s not a bad place to be.
7. Memphis Grizzlies (49-29, Last week — 3rd)
The Grizzlies won almost every night for three weeks and then hit a speed bump with two losses this week. Memphis still has a two-game cushion on Sacramento for the No. 2 seed, but those losses probably took the Grizz out of the No. 1 chase. Sunday’s loss was particularly weird, as the Grizzlies led by double figures in what eventually became a 21-point defeat.
8. New York Knicks (46-33, Last week — 10th)
Tom Thibodeau and company are probably going to enter the playoffs as the No. 5 seed, and the Knicks just beat their most likely opponent (Cleveland) by 14 points on the road. Granted, that wasn’t the full-strength Cavs, but New York has won four in a row and is cruising toward the postseason.
9. Sacramento Kings (47-31, Last week — 8th)
We celebrated the Kings’ fantastic season last week in this space, and it was a largely uneventful week after Sacramento finally clinched the playoff berth. The Kings did inexplicably lose to the Spurs, but Sacramento picked up two wins and has a four-game cushion on Phoenix with four to go.
10. Brooklyn Nets (43-35, Last week — 16th)
It was a good week for the Nets with a 3-0 record following an extended period of struggles. That solidified Brooklyn’s position as the likeliest No. 6 seed in the East and, given all of the turmoil during the season, the Nets even getting a top-six seed would be very strong.
11. Los Angeles Lakers (40-38, Last week — 17th)
By now, everyone has pointed to the dangerous Lakers, and there is a reason for that. Los Angeles is 6-1 in the last seven. LeBron is back. The supporting cast is as good as it has been since the bubble. Anthony Davis just won player of the week honors. There’s still a lot of work to do, but the Lakers are frisky at the very least.
12. Chicago Bulls (38-40, Last week — 19th)
So, the Bulls are playing really well. Chicago is 9-4 in the last 13 games with a +6.9 net rating and encouragingly positive offensive numbers. For the full season, the Bulls are playing top-tier defense and, since the All-Star break, only the Celtics (!) have a better net rating than Chicago. We’ll see if they can keep it rolling against Atlanta in a big one on Tuesday.
13. Toronto Raptors (39-39, Last week — 13th)
Toronto is 7-3 in the last ten games, and the Raptors are back to .500 for the first time since they were 13-13. That isn’t going to get anyone too excited, but Toronto is playing much better basketball in recent weeks and might have the inside track at the No. 8 seed in the East. That is especially true if Boston and/or Milwaukee pull back at all during the final week, as the Raptors face those teams three times combined.
14. Golden State Warriors (41-38, Last week — 11th)
The biggest news for the Warriors is that Andrew Wiggins is reportedly on his way back. His lengthy absence certainly hurt Golden State on the floor but, beyond rooting for the best for him and his family, the Warriors remain incredibly dangerous at full strength.
15. L.A. Clippers (41-38, Last week — 12th)
L.A. is just 9-14 without Paul George, and he’s not back yet. Road losses to Memphis and New Orleans are pretty ordinary, but the Clippers’ status in the playoff picture could vary wildly based on the last week of results. That is true of a lot of teams, of course, but it seems stark with the Clippers given the uncertainty with George.
16. Miami Heat (41-37, Last week — 14th)
The Heat have violently underachieved when compared to preseason expectations, but Miami still has the inside track at the No. 7 seed and favorite status to at least reach the playoffs. Miami has a two-game cushion and three games remaining against teams without much incentive to win. Also, no opponent wants to see Jimmy Butler and Erik Spoelstra in a play-in game or playoff series.
17. New Orleans Pelicans (40-38, Last week — 20th)
New Orleans is back from the dead behind an incredible stretch from Brandon Ingram. The Pelicans are 7-1 in the last eight games, and Ingram is putting up 30.3 points and 8.5 assists per game with 53 percent shooting in that sample. It doesn’t fix everything after a wild 35-game stretch with a 10-25 record before that, but the Pelicans at least found their footing and should at least have another shot at a play-in run to make the playoffs.
18. Atlanta Hawks (39-39, Last week — 15th)
The biggest game of Atlanta’s schedule arrives on Tuesday in Chicago. It effectively becomes a “double result” for the Hawks in that Atlanta loses the season-long tiebreaker with a loss and would suddenly be tied with Chicago in the standings. That isn’t where most anyone had the Hawks pegged in October but, well, they need to buck recent trends and win on Tuesday.
19. Minnesota Timberwolves (39-40, Last week — 9th)
ESPN Stats and Info passes along the wild nugget that Minnesota’s loss to Portland on Sunday was a once-in-30-years event. The Wolves were 19.5-point favorites against the openly tanking Blazers and managed to lose, becoming the first team to lose as that big of a favorite in three decades. That didn’t drop the Wolves 10 spots by itself, but it was the third straight loss for Minnesota, and it was a “yikes” moment.
20. Orlando Magic (34-44, Last week — 23rd)
If the season began on Dec. 7, the Magic would be in the playoffs. Orlando is 29-24 in the last 53 games, including a positive point differential, and the Magic just won five of the last six games. The only downside there is that the Magic might’ve been better off with a couple more losses for lottery purposes but, hey, it’s a step forward and this is a fun young team.
21. Oklahoma City Thunder (38-41, Last week — 18th)
The Thunder are just 2-5 in the last seven games, including losses to Indiana and Charlotte. So, it isn’t as if OKC is playing well, but the Thunder are still in the No. 10 spot because…
22. Dallas Mavericks (37-42, Last week — 21st)
It was almost unthinkable for Dallas to miss the play-in, both before the season and after they traded for Kyrie Irving. As of Tuesday morning, however, the Mavericks are a game back of the Thunder for the No. 10 seed after losing seven of the last eight games and there’s suddenly rumblings of shutting down stars. Sunday’s overtime loss in Atlanta was another disappointing result for Dallas, and it’s been really, really ugly for a while, particularly on defense.
23. Utah Jazz (36-42, Last week — 24th)
Utah is technically alive, at least mathematically, in the play-in race, but the Jazz don’t seem to have any interest in making the playoffs at this point. The Jazz are 1-6 in the last seven, taking it very easy with injured players, and looking ahead to the offseason with a stockpile of future picks and an intriguing, flexible roster.
24. Indiana Pacers (34-45, Last week — 26th)
In a big picture sense, the Pacers can take solace in their performance with Tyrese Haliburton on the floor this season. Indiana went 28-28 when Haliburton played and, despite the Pacers being eliminated from playoff contention, the future has some brightness with Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin, Myles Turner, and the team’s 2023 first round pick.
25. Washington Wizards (34-44, Last week — 22nd)
A month ago, the Wizards were right in the middle of the play-in race. Since then, Washington is 4-12 and the Wizards are now eliminated from contention. There is some upward trajectory in the lottery if the Wizards can manage to lose rest of their games, but that wouldn’t be very Wizards-like.
26. Charlotte Hornets (26-53, Last week — 25th)
The Hornets had a nice three-game winning streak last week, but reality struck in a harsh way. Charlotte just lost home games to Chicago and Toronto by 50 total points, but the Hornets don’t really have to worry about results during the final week. They are locked into the fourth-best lottery odds (with a 12.5 percent chance at No. 1) no matter what.
27. Portland Trail Blazers (33-45, Last week — 27th)
As seen above, Portland made some recent NBA history with a massive upset over Minnesota behind the work of Skylar Mays, Drew Eubanks, and Shaedon Sharpe. That stopped the Blazers from a potential 10-game losing streak to end the season but, make no mistake, the tank is still on.
28. San Antonio Spurs (20-58, Last week — 29th)
Sunday’s win in Sacramento was legitimately stunning from the Spurs. That win meant San Antonio has one more victory than Houston with less than a week remaining on the schedule, but thanks to the lottery odds smoothing, they’re still cruising to a 14 percent chance at Victor Wembanyama.
29. Houston Rockets (19-60, Last week — 28th)
Houston beat Detroit this week, avoiding a drop to No. 30 overall. That was the only win for the Rockets since March 17, but it did essentially ensure that Houston won’t have the worst record in the league for three straight seasons. Progress.
30. Detroit Pistons (16-62, Last week — 30th)
The Pistons are on track to become the first team to lose 66 games since the Hinkie Sixers in 2016. Detroit could, of course, win this week, but the Pistons have lost 20 of the last 21 contests.
