NBA scores 2017: Hawks have gone from good to bad to good again this season

Atlanta had a terrible stretch in the middle, but they started the season great and are now playing that well again.

Jan 16, 2017, 1:00 PM UTC

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Through the season’s first 11 games, the Atlanta Hawks won nine games. In their last 11 games, the Hawks have now won nine times. The two identical winning periods bookend a really terrible stretch of basketball — a stretch that had the Hawks on the verge of blowing it all up. Suddenly, though, the the team is headed the exact opposite direction.

This season has been bizarre for the Hawks. Their dramatic rise and fall and rise again in the Eastern Conference — 9-2, followed by 5-13, before going 9-2 again — somehow has them sitting with a 23-17 record and a firm grasp on the No. 4 seed with home court advantage in the first round. Against a feisty Milwaukee team on Sunday, Atlanta rolled past them basically without even blinking, throttling the young Bucks in the fourth quarter to allow just 15 points.

The Hawks were inches away from going an entirely different direction with their season just a week ago. They dealt Kyle Korver to Cleveland and they were prepared to swap Paul Millsap with someone, too. With that 5-13 stretch, which included a brutal run where they lost 10 games in 11 tries, could you blame them? The gears slowly started moving in Atlanta towards a rebuilding mode, with all the evidence pointing towards that being the team’s best option.

Now, unexpectedly, they’re winning again. Kent Bazemore had arguably his best game of the year, dropping 24 points on 13 shots with four shots behind the arc. New addition Mike Dunleavy — who came to Atlanta in exchange for Korver — dropped 20 more off the bench, needing just 10 attempts to get there. Atlanta hit 53 percent from the field and half of their 26 threes, enough to rattle off the 111-98 victory against Milwaukee.

Bazemore’s struggles this season were a big part of their mid-season failings, so it must be great for Atlanta to see him spring free for a big game. But mostly, Atlanta’s rebound has come from its defense. Since this nine-wins-in-11-games streak started, the Hawks are second-best defensively in the league. Dwight Howard has been as good as a new addition as you could ask, and there are enough athletic defenders around him to make that matter.

No wonder Millsap suddenly went off the trade block. With more than a month left until the trade deadline, there’s plenty of time for Atlanta to change their mind and shop around the upcoming free agent more. Of course the Hawks know that even with their hot stretch lately, they’re no match for the Cleveland Cavaliers and they’re probably looking at a run to the Eastern Conference semifinals at best. That reasoning, as much as anything, likely fueled their rebuilding thoughts, and rightly so.

But that was how the Hawks were reasoning with three wins in a row against bad teams. That’s how Atlanta shrugged it off when Dallas hit six in a row. When a team wins nine games in 11 chances, things change. We know the Hawks don’t have the highest ceiling, but we can only applaud their incredible average fanbase.

Rebuilding takes a toll. It weighs heavy on fans, on players, even on the employees around a team. Failing to win because the team just isn’t good enough is one thing, and it’s what the Hawks thought they were on the verge of doing back in the middle of December. This recent win streak has proven this squad might have something, though, and dealing away all the talent would provide a totally different atmosphere. It might not be something Atlanta — as an organization — could stomach. Clearly, at least when the wins keep coming in quick succession, they don’t think they can do it right now.

Should the Hawks’ metronome swing back in the other direction, don’t count anything out. But if Atlanta really is a top-four seed, as they’ve looked recently, then that’s just hard to do. Let them run their course.

The Pistons did ... what!?

They ended the first quarter with a buzzer beater. And then the second. By the time the third happened, we really couldn’t even be surprised. Here’s the highlight, Andre Drummond’s shot he tossed in from three-quarters court.

The Pistons, unfortunately, did not beat the Hawks on a Hail Mary buzzer beater that would have given them four straight quarters hitting a shot as the buzzer expired. But Detroit ended up winning without needing that, so they ultimately have the last laugh here.

DOES THIS COUNT AS AN ASSIST?

Was this kid just hooping and another kid happened to camcorder, the next minute ...

I am here for this.

Sunday’s play(s) of the night

Clutch Jimmy Butler has returned.

Sunday’s non-play of the night

James Harden gets it.

Sunday’s other news

Carmelo Anthony is as unhappy as he has ever been in New York.

Isaiah Thomas and Dennis Schroder engage in some good, old-fashioned BEEFIN’.

We talked to Shamus Clancy, our friend at Liberty Ballers who got challenged to a fight by Jahlil Okafor’s dad. Just your normal Sixers Twitter moment, to be honest.