Pretty much everything is going right for the Atlanta Hawks these days. The Eastern Conference leaders entered Friday night's home game vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder with a 14-game winning streak, matching a franchise record set during the 1993-94 season. Something special is happening with this team, and it's worth appreciating it for as long as it lasts.
Things are going so well, in fact, that it's easy to assume that the team will bounce back from any in-game embarrassment with a run or highlight of their own. That's exactly what happened to reserve guard Kent Bazemore in the second quarter on Friday. In the midst of an uncharacteristically ineffective offensive performance for Atlanta, Bazemore attempted to catch a surging Kevin Durant as the reigning MVP dribbled up the court in transition. All that hustle just allowed him to end up on the wrong end of a posterization:
Luckily for Bazemore, he got on the right side of a highlight just a few minutes of game-time later. As the half neared its close, Bazemore got around Russell Westbrook in the very early offense to finish a terrific alley-oop pass from DeMarre Carroll:
Bazemore's ability to turn things around was indicative of the Hawks overall play vs. the Thunder. After struggling for the game's first 18 minutes or so, Atlanta closed the first half on a nifty run, with Bazemore's dunk giving them their first lead. OKC stayed close throughout most of the rest of the contest — without taking the lead — but there was no question as to who looked like the better team in the second half. The Hawks pushed the lead to double digits in the fourth quarter and iced the game on this theft of Westbrook and simple breakaway dunk courtesy of likely All-Star point guard Jeff Teague:
The 103-93 win and franchise-record 15-game winning streak have brought the team's record to 36-8, or 6 1/2 games ahead of the also-very-good Washington Wizards at the top of the East. It's not as if they're just getting lucky, either — eight of those victories have been by double-digits, with only one margin of fewer than five points. This team will presumably lose eventually, but they are no fluke.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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