Atlanta Hawks face Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night
By John Buhler
The Atlanta Hawks (13-9) will travel to the American Airlines Center to face the Dallas Mavericks (13-9) after having five days off from their last game.
The Atlanta Hawks have had five wonderful days off from their strong victory over the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night, sending Kobe Bryant of with an L in his Atlanta finale. At 13-9, Atlanta will make their lone trip to Dallas to take on Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks, also 13-9, on Wednesday night. Tipoff is a 9:30 PM ET and the game will air on ESPN in addition to your local Fox station.
Since Atlanta last played, the Hawks have dropped a spot in the Eastern Conference Standings to seventh place in the surprisingly strong conference. However, the Atlanta Hawks are only a game and a half of first place Cleveland who have scuffled of late, sitting at 14-7.
Interestingly, the Dallas Mavericks’ 13-9 record have the club in fourth place in the Western Conference Standings, trailing the Golden State Warriors (23-0), the San Antonio Spurs (18-4), and the Oklahoma City Thunder (12-8).
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The Mavs are half a game better than fifth and sixth place Los Angles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies. In early December, it is the West that has two teams in playoff position with at or below-.500 records in the Utah Jazz (9-9) and the Houston Rockets (10-11).
Entering tonight’s game, the Atlanta Hawks are 6-4 against the Western Conference, with two losses to the Minnesota Timberwolves, one to the Utah Jazz, and one obviously in San Antonio to the Spurs. Atlanta has yet to beat Gregg Popovich in the Alamo City in the Tim Duncan era (since 1997).
I’m looking forward to seeing the Atlanta Hawks come out with a great deal of energy against the Dallas Mavericks. A well-rested team that plays well against the West bodes well for head coach Mike Budenholzer and the Atlanta Hawks. Dallas is a good, but not great home team (5-3) so that helps the Hawks to hopefully get a winning streak going.
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With the top of the East so tightly packed, it is time for the Atlanta Hawks to put together a strong run to close out 2015 and hopefully push it into the next calendar year. It has been almost a year since the 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks had an undefeated 17-0 January.
Winning 19 straight games likely isn’t happening to any team in the NBA this season outside of Oakland, California, but it was around the time that the Atlanta Hawks beat Dallas in their place that the 2014-15 team took off on their unprecedented season. Here’s to getting back on top in the East with a strong road win over a good team in Dallas. Let’s Go Hawks!