NBA Power Rankings: The Grizzlies are in trouble

29. Atlanta Hawks

Were it not for the Bulls’ inept play, the Hawks would be the worst team in the league this week. On Sunday, they lost to the Raptors by 34 points and trailed by as many as 45 points in a 112-73 loss at home. Regardless of how good the Raptors are, and how bad the Hawks are, that’s an inexcusable loss. It also wipes out the Hawks’ sort of impressive win against the Knicks from Saturday.

“I think we were just really slow on everything offensively and then kind of ended up playing a lot of one-on-one against length and shot blocking in the paint,” coach Mike Budenholzer said, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “We got to move better. There’s multiple things we could do and we probably didn’t do any of them well tonight.”

The good news: the Hawks still have the second best odds of landing the No. 1 pick in the draft. And the teams ahead of them – the Mavs, the Kings, the Suns, etc. – all show signs of decency that the Hawks often don’t. Atlanta also only has two games this week, giving them what is probably a much-needed break.