The Atlanta Hawks missed their opportunity to become the fifth NBA team to win 20 straight games when they fell to the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night.
Hawks During Win Streak
The Hawks had a bunch of streaks snapped: their 19-game win streak, their 12-game road win streak, their 12-game win streak against Western Conference foes and their 23-game win streak when scoring at least 100 points.
It was part of a tough day for the teams with the top three records in the Eastern Conference. The Toronto Raptors lost to the Charlotte Hornets, and the Washington Wizards fell to the Milwaukee Bucks. This marked the first time this season that all three of those teams lost on the same day.
Hawks' loss: How it happened
The Hawks ran into a healthy Anthony Davis, who finished with 29 points and 10 rebounds, his career-best fifth straight 20-10 game, and hot point guard Tyreke Evans, who had 15 points and 12 assists. Evans has nine career games with 12 or more assists. Four of them have come in his past five games.
The Hawks finished with only seven 3-pointers. They had at least nine in each of their past 15 games. They also had 10 shots blocked, their most since the Bucks blocked 10 on Dec. 27 in the first game of the streak.
The Pelicans outrebounded the Hawks by 20, the Hawks' worst rebound margin of the season.
Atlanta was rarely in the game; its largest lead was two, and its final lead came with more than five minutes remaining in the first quarter.
The value of the streak
Before the win streak began, numberFire.com gave the Hawks a 13 percent chance of entering the playoffs as the East’s top seed. That number -- even with the loss -- is now 97 percent. They went from one game out of first to seven games up.
The Hawks ranked third in the NBA in both offensive and defensive efficiency during the win streak, won 10 games against teams currently .500 or better and won 10 games by double figures.
They trailed inside of eight minutes in only one of those 19 wins and never trailed in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.
More coming?
The Hawks' upcoming schedule is a challenging one. Their next three opponents are the Wizards, Warriors and Grizzlies, who are a combined 66 games over .500.