Atlanta Hawks: Eastern Conference Power Rankings, Dec. 31

The Atlanta Hawks are playing arguably their best basketball on the season. Where will they land in this week’s Eastern Conference Power Rankings?

As we are about to turn the page on the 2015 part of the 2015-16 NBA season, we have seen a power shift in the NBA where the top half of the Eastern Conference is better than what the Western Conference currently has. That’s not to say that the top four teams in the West aren’t NBA Finals worthy (they are), but for the first time in well over a decade can the NBA say that the East was better than the West at any point in a season.

The Atlanta Hawks have played great basketball of late, winning seven of their last eight games, to become again one of the premier teams in the Eastern Conference. They have elevated themselves are the best team in the Southeast Division and will likely challenge the Toronto Raptors among others for the right to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals.

A great stretch of games will still raise a team’s status in the tightly packed East, where 10 teams are over .500 and the 12th place New York Knicks are only seven and a half games back of first place Cleveland in the conference. It has been spectacular to have had pre-Christmas games impact the daily standings so much this season. Usually we’re not scoreboard watching until at least February.

The Atlanta Hawks are starting to gel on offense, despite Kyle Korver missing most of his three-pointers of late, and the defense can keep this team in games they otherwise should have lost. Here are the final Eastern Conference power rankings for 2015.

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