Atlanta Hawks: Top 5 Rivalries Entering 2015-16
By John Buhler
142. . . Previous: . Washington Wizards. 4. team
Though the Atlanta Hawks and the Washington Wizards have been in the same division since realignment in 2004 because of the expansion Charlotte Bobcats, it wasn’t until this past season that the Hawks-Wizards rivalry developed some serious bite.
Atlanta and Washington met in the Eastern Conference Semifinals and played one of the most exciting series in the 2015 NBA Playoffs. Paul Pierce broke our hearts in Game 3 with his bank shot buzzer beater, but the Hawks got the last laugh winning in Game 6. The go-ahead put-back by Al Horford in Game 5 and Pierce’s too-late last-minute jumper in Game 6 set this rivalry in motion.
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Both the Atlanta Hawks and the Washington Wizards expect to make some noise in the 2016 NBA Playoffs with their eyes set on winning the Southeast Division. Atlanta aims to repeat as champs, while Washington looks to win it for the first time.
Had Paul Pierce re-signed with the Wiz, this budding rivalry goes automatically to number two for the 2015-16 Atlanta Hawks. Sure, recent history is on the side of this pairing between Southeastern foes, but historically neither team has been good enough at the same time to register in the landscape of the NBA to matter.
But after last season, expect every matchup between the Hawks and the Wizards to exude passion and likely to come down to the wire. Should they meet again in the 2016 NBA Playoffs, this budding rivalry will explode I’m sure. If their city’s respective MLB teams loathe each other, I guess it makes sense for their NBA teams to not like each other, too. Keep an eye on this one, Atlanta. It could become the rivalry we’ve always coveted.
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