Grant Afseth and TJ French break down Atlanta's 16-3 run since the All-Star break, Nickeil Alexander-Walker's scorching shooting stretch, and what the Hawks' playoff picture looks like with seven games left.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker is shooting the ball like few players in the NBA right now, and the Atlanta Hawks are winning because of it. The latest episode of the Hawks Roundtable podcasts with Grant Afseth and TJ French discusses it all.
Since the All-Star break, Alexander-Walker has averaged 21.7 points per game on 51.2% shooting from the floor, 45.2% from three on seven-and-a-half attempts per game, and 95.1% from the free throw line. His box plus-minus of plus-12.4 leads the team during a stretch in which Atlanta has gone 16-3, outscoring opponents by 11.2 points per game.
The Hawks have topped 120 points in 12 of their last 16 games, averaging 121.1 points per game over that span on 47.4% shooting from the floor while generating more than 40 three-point attempts per night.
Jalen Johnson has matched Alexander-Walker's production, averaging 23 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists per game in March. The two have formed one of the more quietly dangerous one-two punches in the Eastern Conference, and the timing could not be better with the postseason approaching.
Twelve consecutive home wins at State Farm Arena have anchored the run. Atlanta has turned the building into one of the more difficult places to play in the East over the past month and a half, and the Hawks have done it with a level of cohesion that has carried over even when Johnson has been unavailable.
A loss to the Boston Celtics two games ago offered the clearest test of where this team stands against elite competition. Atlanta fell into an early 25-6 hole that it could not fully climb out of. Payton Pritchard was a problem without Jaylen Brown in the lineup, and Jonathan Kuminga and Zachary Risacher both had limited impact off the bench.
The Hawks host Boston again Monday, and the rematch at State Farm Arena gives Atlanta a chance to make a statement. Johnson and Alexander-Walker both delivered in the first meeting, and the supporting cast's inability to contribute in a meaningful way was the clearest difference in the outcome.
Seven games remain in the regular season. The schedule includes home dates against the New York Knicks on April 6th and back-to-back games against the Cleveland Cavaliers to close things out, along with a road game against Orlando on Wednesday and a finale at Miami. It is a stretch that will tell Atlanta and the rest of the conference a great deal about what kind of postseason threat the Hawks actually are.
If the standings held today, Atlanta would face New York in the first round.
The locked-in rotation of Johnson, Alexander-Walker, CJ McCollum, Dyson Daniels, and Onyeka Okongwu gives Atlanta a foundation most play-in contenders would envy. What the Hawks get from the next three or four names on the depth chart will go a long way toward determining how deep this run actually goes.