Mar 18 2009
Hawks Streak Continues with Win Over the Kings
It was a great night for basketball in the city of Atlanta. The weather conditions outside was fine and the longer daylight hours make the evenings perfect for a tip off at Philips Arena. The hot Atlanta Hawks were playing host to the Sacramento Kings or should I say the Sacramento Attorneys. The team from the Golden State of California and capital of the West Coast State came in with an attorney’s attitude. This team seemed like lawyers from California as they debated all night with the referees calling the game. I’m not sure what a Sacramento attorney earns, but attorneys in California should sign up for Sacramento’s basketball team. It seemed like every call that went against the Kings last night, the players and coaches from Sacramento strongly disapproved. They got caught up with what the officials were doing and these lawyers wearing basketball uniforms were forgetting to play basketball. Atlanta had their way with the Kings for most of the night and did a great job taking advantage of their weak interior defense.
Joe Johnson struggled early, but did help the team rally in the 2nd half. Al Horford was on pace to have a triple double at halftime and finished with a great game. The Hawks key weapon last night was the slam dunk. They were dunking just about every play and the team from Atlanta created their own dunking highlight reel last night. The Highlight Factory certainly earned it’s name with this win over the Kings and Josh Smith played a big role in the dunk fest.
This win over the Sacramento Kings make it 6 straight now for the Atlanta Hawks. This is the 3rd time this year they have put together a 6 game winning streak. It’s been a long time since the fans in Atlanta has seen this before. You have to go back to the 1993/1994 season to find a Hawks team that had 6 or more wins in a row at 3 separate times during the season. The 6 game winning streak is good to see and the team needs to be hot going into the post season. If they can continue to win, they will lock up the 4th spot in the Eastern Conference and this means home court advantage for the 1st round of the playoffs.
The stage is now set for the Dallas Mavericks and they are the Hawks next opponent. The Mavericks have been playing good basketball and they are currently the 8th seed in the Western Conference playoff race. The West is so tight that Dallas could easily jump to a higher position in the next few games, so they will be looking to win when they arrive in Atlanta on Thursday. I expect a big crowd to show up and watch the Hawks take on their former teammate Jason Terry and his Dallas Mavs team. The NBA action in Atlanta Thursday night will have a ”playoff feel” since this game is so important to both teams. This is going to be a big win for one of these NBA teams; let’s just hope the Hawks can make it 7 in a row!
