With the Super Bowl hype machine going full throttle out in Arizona, perhaps you missed the big basketball news:
The Atlanta Hawks won their 17th straight game, the longest winning streak of any NBA team this season, when they beat the Nets on Wednesday night. It was Atlanta’s 31st win in its last 33 games, and its 38th win of the season, matching the Hawks’ entire win total for last season.
Now, can you name any of the Hawks’ players, or do you even know the name of their coach?
That’s the beauty of what the Hawks have been doing in their magical season, with their 38-8 record leading the East’s second-place team, Toronto, by seven games.
We just wonder if the Knicks and Nets have been paying close attention. Apparently, yes.
“That's why they've won 17 in a row: they've produced every night consistently and their defense had been consistent every night," Nets coach Lionel Hollins told reporters after his team became Atlanta’s latest victim.
The Knicks are rebuilding and the Nets are in dire need of stripping down their roster of overpaid, aging players and starting over. Both franchises would do well to look at what the Hawks have done and maybe take a page from their playbook.
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Already, Phil Jackson has chosen to do it the conventional way, by building the Knicks around Carmelo Anthony. Most team executives would take their chances with established stars, because history shows that beyond having regular-season success, teams with superstar talent normally have the best chance of winning a championship.
No, we don’t know how the Hawks will fare in the postseason. But in terms of being a regular-season success, the Hawks are providing a model of how to get it done. And let’s face it, there are only a few true superstars like LeBron James to go around, so what they’re doing is a pretty good alternative.
The Hawks have been compared to the Spurs because Mike Budenholzer, their second-year head coach, was a San Antonio assistant coach from 1996 to 2013. Budenholzer has his team playing a similar style to his old team. They emphasize sharing the ball, spacing the floor, getting scoring from all five players and competing hard at the defensive end. But that’s really where all the comparisons end.
They don’t have anyone who compares to Tim Duncan, a two-time MVP, five-time champ and one of the greatest players in NBA history. They don’t have anyone who resembles Tony Parker, the Finals MVP in 2007 and a member of several All-NBA teams since 2009. They don’t have anyone like Manu Ginobili, still one of the game’s most underrated players, even after winning four titles since 2003.
The Hawks have been winning with unsung players. They have no previous MVPs and rarely get anyone selected to the prestigious All-NBA team. As far as All-Star selections go, they’re normally overlooked.
But that could all end tonight when the All-Star Game reserves are announced. After having only forward Paul Millsap make the Eastern Conference team last season, the Hawks could have four players selected to play in the Garden on Feb. 15, with most observers thinking they could legitimately land three roster spots. Coaches vote for reserves and most love the way the Hawks emphasize team ball, so it’s possible that Atlanta’s success becomes one of the biggest stories during New York’s All-Star weekend.
“That would be great coming from last year, where it was a struggle to get one player,” said Jeff Teague, the Hawks’ vastly-improved point guard, who should get a berth on the All-Star team. “For them to even mention four guys on our team to be All-Stars, that’s big. Guys have been working hard and it’s paying off.’’
The big payoff will come in the spring, when everyone finds out how successful this team can be in the post-season. The last team to win a title without having an acknowledged star on its roster was Detroit in 2004, and that Pistons’ team had only one All-Star selection that season, in center Ben Wallace.
No one believed the Pistons could win the title and that’s what everyone said about Larry Brown’s team -- right up until they were handed the Larry O’Brien Trophy after easily defeating Jackson’s Lakers in the Finals.
Maybe the 2015 Hawks will end up copying the 2004 Pistons. Talk about big news. Nothing could top that.
Longtime New York columnist Mitch Lawrence continues to write about pro basketball, as he’s done for the last 22 years. His columns for NBCNewYork.com on the Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and the NBA, along with other major sports, will appear twice weekly. Follow him on Twitter @Mitch _ Lawrence.
