Seven games. That's the Atlanta Hawks' current winning streak — the longest active run in the NBA. It feels like a team finding out what it is.
Tuesday night's 124-112 win over the Dallas Mavericks was the latest example. Nickeil Alexander-Walker dropped 29, Jalen Johnson had 27, and Dyson Daniels did what Dyson Daniels does — 14 points, 10 assists, and a lockdown defensive assignment on Cooper Flagg that turned one of the most hyped rookies in the league into a non-factor. Flagg finished with 14 points on 6-of-16 shooting.
What's made this Hawks run interesting isn't any single performance. It's the distribution of production. Alexander-Walker is playing like a genuine lead scorer. Jalen Johnson has arrived as a legitimate two-way threat. Daniels is a first-team All-Defense candidate. And the team is winning with a different player carrying the load each night, which is the single most reliable indicator that a streak is real and not a mirage.
At 37-29, Atlanta sits sixth in the East. They're not in the Celtics or Cavaliers conversation yet. But the way they're constructed — long, switchable, with multiple players who can hurt you — makes them a genuinely dangerous playoff opponent. A team that's learning to win right before the games get harder is exactly the kind of team that surprises people in May.
Comments