Do the Hawks Have Any Chance Of Moving Up the Eastern Conference Standings?

Atlanta is currently in 10th place in the Eastern Conference

The Hawks resume their season tomorrow against the Toronto Raptors and the next 27 games are going to represent an opportunity for the Hawks to move up the standings. 

It might be a laughable notion, but the Hawks on paper have a soft schedule to open up their second half of the season (Raptors, Magic, and Jazz at home before two games against Brooklyn) and there is an opportunity for Atlanta. 

Atlanta is in 10th place right now in the Eastern Conference They are 2 games behind the Bulls for 9th, 6 games behind Orlando for 9th, 6 games behind Miami for 7th, and 6.5 games behind the Pacers for 6th. They have already lost the tiebreaker to Chicago and Indiana, which will complicate their move up.

It would take the Hawks hitting another gear for this to happen and nothing about how they have played this season suggests they will be able to move that far up the standings. It would probably take a record of 18-9 or 19-8 the rest of the way to move up the standings, as well as having the Pacers, Heat, Magic, and Bulls not play well the rest of the way. The offense has been fine, but the Hawks have arguably the worst defense in the NBA and that is not going to help them in their quest to move up. 

If the Hawks can't make a move up the standings, it will likely result in a quick exit from either the play-in tournament or the playoffs. Being stuck in the 9 and 10 spots means you would have to win two games just to get in the playoffs and even if you win those games, your reward will be facing the Boston Celtics. Facing the Celtics means a very fast exit for the Hawks.

I don't think the Hawks are likely to move up the standings and are likely going to be in the 9/10 play-in game. This team has been too inconsistent and they are too far back from the 6, 7, and 8 spots to make a run.  

Let's see what happens though. 

Three Hawks Games To Circle For the Remainder of the Season

Follow Jackson on X here: @jacksoncauell

Follow Hawks coverage on Facebook here: All Hawks