Will the real Atlanta Hawks please stand up?

In a conference dominated by LeBron James, nobody expected the Atlanta Hawks to suddenly emerge as a threat to win the East last season. The Hawks, perennially good, have never been great. They’ve had talented cores over the years, but never one that perfectly meshed.

All that went away when the Hawks exploded to a 43-11 start heading into the All-Star break. It was the most surprising storyline of the NBA’s opening half and perhaps the most enjoyable one, too. It was hard to dislike the Hawks -- not with their incendiary three-point shooting, team-first approach and league-best Twitter account that made watching their games all the more fun.

Something happened after the All-Star break, though. Atlanta slowed down, shots stopped falling, injuries mounted and the Eastern Conference got tougher. It’s strange to say it, given the Hawks advanced to the conference finals before they were swept away by the Cavaliers, but anyone watching the team could see a hitch in their play, that something beneath the surface just wasn’t quite right.

After winning 43 times in 54 games, the Hawks stumbled to the finish line, ending the year with a 25-19 record when including the playoffs. Brooklyn took them to six games in the first round and while the Hawks beat Washington, they were helped along by a John Wall hand injury.

For a basketball purist, those first 55 games are unforgettable. For a realist, the NBA is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league and that’s all you can analyze teams on headed into the season. Which Hawks team is the real one? That’s up for you to decide.

As it turns out, the 54 games that Atlanta won before last year’s All-Star break was one of the hottest hot streaks we’ve ever seen, but sadly not sustainable. The numbers back that up, to an extent: Atlanta had the same percentage of “wide open” shots, defined by SportsVU as having no defender within six feet, and had an increased percentage (26.1 percent to 27.5 percent) of “open” shots, defined as a defender with four to six feet. Despite earning more open looks, the Hawks’ true shooting percentage fell from 57 to 55 percent.

While 55 percent is still superb efficiency and would keep Atlanta in the top 10 around the NBA, but it’s not the elite figure they put up while racking up 43 wins in 54 tries. To win that many games, the Hawks had to torch teams like they were doing. A few percentage points can make all the difference when it comes to a 60-win team and one that only notches 53 or 54.

The Hawks could miss DeMarre Carroll more than they thought, too. He signed with the Toronto Raptors and while Atlanta made some small moves, namely bringing in Tiago Splitter as a backup center, Carroll’s wing defense and quality shooting is dearly missed in this scenario.

Atlanta is still good -- no one is doubting that. But the Eastern Conference is better at the top, with the Miami Heat emerging as a realistic candidate to win home court advantage. Washington and Chicago both are expected to look slightly different and potentially much better while Cleveland no longer has growing pains.

It’s not difficult to see this scenario play out. If you saw last year’s Hawks as overachievers, then this is the scenario where the Hawks simply achieve. Their individual players still perform, with Paul Millsap and Al Horford manning one of the best front court duos, Kyle Korver burying threes and Jeff Teague continuing to be one of the NBA’s most creative point guards. But whether it’s injuries or depth or chemistry or simply hot shooting coming back down to Earth, the Hawks don’t click like they did last year, leaving them in a fight for home court advantage.

Recency bias might be clouding our vision here. Nothing about Atlanta when they were compiling 43 wins before the break looked like a fluke or felt like luck. That January, where all five Hawks starters were named players of the month after going 17-0, was as dominant a month of basketball as the NBA’s seen in years. Atlanta wasn’t just “shooting well,” they were constantly working the ball and creative open opportunities for the players who could knock them down the best.

The shooting numbers did take a spill, but the Hawks were banged up for much of the end of the season. The big men, Horford and Millsap, both fought battled injuries through the playoffs. Kyle Korver went down in the conference finals, too.

There were adjustments throughout the season, as well. Teams learned to stop leaving Kyle Korver, even if it meant allowing a relatively good look at the basket. They let Teague and Dennis Schroder shoot, because taking away shots from Millsap and Horford will work out for you in the long run. It was little tweaks, coupled with the Hawks’ best players playing injured and a few ill-timed slumps.

The Hawks will be fine. They may not have another month where they don’t lose, but they essentially have the same team back. Carroll was important, but Kent Bazemore has shown he’s ready for an increased role and Splitter makes the defense even tougher. While the defense worsened slightly after the All Star break, it wasn’t nearly as drastic, allowing about one more point per 100 possessions.

The playoff run wasn’t as pretty as the Hawks might have hoped, but they still made it to the conference finals. Last year, they weren’t supposed to be that good. This year, everyone’s overlooking them, but we’ve already seen that the Hawks don’t like giving into expectations.