The Atlanta Hawks improved to 30-34 with a strong showing in early March. As such, the Hawks now occupy the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, moving ahead of both the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic due to recent performance.
Atlanta returns to action with a home game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday. Before tip-off, we check in on the latest news surrounding the Hawks.
Breaking out the brooms
Entering Thursday night, the Atlanta Hawks were on a five-game losing streak against the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers swept four matchups in dominant fashion last season and, in the opener between the two teams earlier this year, Indiana edged Atlanta by a five-point margin. In fact, the Hawks were allowing nearly 1.4 points per possession over those five games and simply unable to solve Indiana's offense.
This week, though, the Hawks swept two matchups in three days against the Pacers. It was Atlanta's offense that led the way, putting up more than 1.2 points per possession and dominating on the margins with a 37.9 percent offensive rebound rate and a turnover on fewer than 13 percent of offensive possessions. However, the Hawks did clamp down on the Tyrese Haliburton-less Pacers, at least in comparison to previous matchups.
Atlanta built a 20-point first half lead in Saturday night's game and, while the Hawks did briefly trail in the fourth quarter, the defense stepped up in the final seconds to secure a 120-118 victory.
A near-record for Trae Young
In the waning seconds of the Hawks' win over the Pacers on Saturday night, something odd happened. After Trae Young connected on a pair of free throws to give Atlanta a three-point lead with 7.1 seconds remaining, Pacers forward Pascal Siakam inexplicably chose to take a layup rather than either attempting or setting up a potential game-tying 3-point attempt.
Pacers reactions to Siakam taking the uncontested dunk instead of trying to hit a 3 to tie at the end of the game last night.
— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) March 9, 2025
Hawks inbounded with a second left, got fouled, intentionally missed the FT, and won the game. pic.twitter.com/F2vb21ONxt
That choice was roundly mocked in the aftermath, and Siakam admitted to reporters following the game that he made an error in the moment. With that said, the Hawks still had to inbound the ball and avoid a disaster to secure a victory. Young received the inbounds pass and was fouled by the Pacers with 0.1 seconds remaining.
The All-Star guard went to the line and made the first free throw but, given the time and score, it was smarter for Young to miss the second attempt intentionally. That is where things got even more interesting. As far as the game, the Hawks landed the win, but the miss by Young was both Atlanta's first missed free throw of the game and the end of a significant streak for Young.
Entering that attempt, Young had made 47 free throws in a row and, with a connection on that attempt, he would've matched his personal best of 48 consecutive free throws. Even more significant is that Atlanta's franchise record is 50 in a row, held by Kyle Korver, and Young simply chose the right pathway for the team over the potential of a franchise record.
Injury updates
During the second win over the Pacers, Trae Young briefly went to the locker room in the second half with what the Hawks later described as a left quad contusion. He did return to help lead Atlanta to the victory, but Young was clearly not moving at 100 percent capacity, leading to uncertainty about Monday's game. Young is officially listed as questionable for the Hawks against the Philadelphia 76ers, and while it almost goes without saying, Atlanta should be cautious if there is any level of doubt on whether he should play.
Elsewhere, Vit Krejci (lumbar fracture) is listed as questionable, and he could return to action for the first time since suffering the injury on Feb. 10. Notably, Caris LeVert and Terance Mann were both questionable in advance of Saturday's rematch with Indiana, but neither is listed at all in advance of the Philadelphia game.