NBA Power Rankings: Hawks Remain In the Bottom Half of Latest Rankings

Atlanta has gotten wins in two of their last three games, but they still have an 11-15 record and are in the back half of the Eastern Conference Standings. Last week, they split two games with the Raptors and lost a game against the Cavs in which Clint Capela, Jalen Johnson, and Bogdan Bogdanovic were all out. They avoided an embarrassing loss to the Pistons last night as well.

It should be noted that the Hawks are also one of the most injured teams in the NBA. Johnson is still not back yet, De'Andre Hunter missed three games last week, and Capela has been banged up. When the Hawks get healthy, it will be interesting if they can change the trajectory of their season.

Atlanta has been in the bottom half of the NBA Power Rankings at NBA.com for the past couple of weeks and that was no different today.

Atlanta came in at No. 21 this week and this is what analyst John Schuhmann had to say about the Hawks:

"The Hawks have been playing a pretty tough stretch of games, with losses to the Celtics, Bucks, Sixers and Nuggets in the last few weeks. But they couldn’t take advantage of a little dip in the strength of schedule, going 1-2 on a trip through Toronto (x 2) and Cleveland.

The Hawks have been dealing with absences beyond that of Jalen Johnson (last 10 games). Bogdan Bogdanovic, Clint Capela, AJ Griffin and De’Andre Hunter all missed games last week. But it’s not like they’ve been great when they’ve been healthy. Their two most-used lineups (with Johnson or Saddiq Bey at the four) have been outscored by 2.6 points per 100 possessions with worse-than-average offense (113.7 scored per 100).

After trying a Mathews and a Matthews in the starting lineup in their previous two games, the Hawks started Onyeka Okongwu and Clint Capela together for the first time in the former’s four seasons in the league. (They’d played less than 10 minutes together total over the first three seasons combined.) And with the big lineup, they dominated the glass, registering the fourth-highest rebounding percentage (63.8%) for any team in a game this season, outscoring the Raptors by 21 points (24-3) on second chances, and ending their five-game losing streak.

Bogdan Bogdanovic was the first player to make 10 3s in a game this season (he was joined by Keegan Murray later in the week), going 10-for-17 from deep on his way to a career-high 40 points against the Nuggets on Monday. Of course, the Hawks’ defense wasn’t good enough to take advantage, and it allowed more than 130 points per 100 possessions three times last week, having done so just once before that.

The Hawks have had just one rest-advantage game, and they dropped to 2-3 in rest-disadvantage games with their loss in Cleveland on Saturday. They get to play Detroit and Memphis this week, but they’ll be at another disadvantage against the Grizzlies, who should be getting a boost to their 30th-ranked offense."

Atlanta has a road game at Houston tomorrow night and then goes to Miami for a game Friday night, before having to come back home for a game against the Grizzlies. It will be a tough stretch of games over the next four days, but Atlanta could use some wins here before the calendar turns to 2024.

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