The Atlanta Hawks appear to be finding their stride despite slow starts or late giveaways. The team became the first in the Eastern Conference to notch 20 wins while sitting in second in the rankings. They are also riding a six-game win streak despite several ugly starts and several blown leads. Now they aim to keep the consistency moving as they travel to Indiana to face the Pacers on Monday.
The Hawks looked doomed from the start in their game against the New York Knicks. The team began the matchup trailing by 15 points in the first seven minutes of the game. The Hawks gave up 30 points in both the first and second quarters of the game, but allowed just a combined 35 points in the second half. That led to a 117-98 win as the Hawks are averaging 111.5 points on 51.2 percent shooting during their win streak. The question is whether or not they can keep it up with these inconsistent games.
The Hawks keep having issues either starting slow or giving up leads as they aim to have one game where there is consistency overall. Paul Millsap continues to lead the way while Mike Scott was big off the bench against the Knicks with 18 points. Dennis Schroder was the x-factor. He is currently averaging 14.0 points on 50.8 percent shooting during the win streak after putting up just 7.3 points on 33.7 percent shooting in his previous 12 games.
The Hawks are preparing to face a Pacers team slowly putting it all together. The team is getting an improved Paul Gergoe who is scoring averaging just 12.3 points per game on 26.5 percent shooting in his last three appearances. However, he did go 3 for 3 from the field in the win over the Minnesota Timberwolves which gives hope he can play big against the Hawks. That win broke a three-game losing streak for the Pacers who are starting to find a groove especially beyond the arc. The team is shooting 37.2 percent from long range which ranks them fourth in the league. Their biggest issue right now is turnovers as the team had 23 in the win.
Atlanta went 3-0 against Indiana last season, but that was without George in the lineup. The star has not faced them since averaging 23.9 points and 10.7 rebounds during their matchup in the first round of the 2014 playoffs.
