The Atlanta Hawks Have a Very Tough Schedule Immediately After the All-Star Break

The Hawks are in for a difficult run immediately out of their extended break that should tell fans a lot about how much of a threat they'll pose in the postseason.

Rohan Raman | Feb 15, 2025

Feb 15, 2025; San Francisco, CA, USA; Team Rooks forward Zaccharie Risacher (10) of the Atlanta Hawks competes in the skills challenge during All Star Saturday Night ahead of the 2025 NBA All Star Game at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

In this story:

Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks are undoubtedly enjoying the time off in the All-Star break as some of their players have gotten more national recognition.

The team's most exciting rookie, Zaccharie Risacher, competed yesterday in the Rising Stars game as part of Tim Hardaway Sr's team. He played with Cason Wallace of the OKC Thunder, Jaime Jaquez Jr of the Miami Heat, Gradey Dick of the Toronto Raptors, Anthony Black of the Orlando Magic, Alex Sarr of the Washington Wizards and Tristan da Silva of the Orlando Magic. Risacher has really elevated his game over the past two months and it should come as no surprise that he earned this nod. While his defense has remained solid throughout his rookie season, his offensive game has seen the biggest jump. He's been a respectable shooter from deep (37% since December) and his sense of timing on cuts to the rim and in space have come along nicely.

That was on full display in the Rising Stars game. With the teams playing to a target score of 40, Risacher came through with a big dunk when Team T was down, 33-24, to Chris Mullins' Team C. Dick found him on a cut to the rim. Risacher's off-ball movement has been impressive as of late and plays like that are a great example of it. He also had a nice layup over a fellow rookie in Grizzlies center Zach Edey to pull Team T within four, 38-34. However, Team T couldn't close the deficit and fell to Team C, who went on to win the Rising Stars tournament.

In today's Skills Challenge, Risacher went second with Sarr in the Skills Challenge after Chris Paul and Victor Wembenyama went first. The Spurs duo was disqualified due to not making legitimate shot attempts, but Risacher recorded a time of 38.4 in his run. He missed his first shot and a layup at the end, but he acquitted himself nicely by hitting on his other shots. The Sarr-Risacher combo recorded a combined time of 1.20. Ultimately, the Cleveland Cavaliers' duo of Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell proved to be the winners of the Skills Challenge. However, it was an excellent display of what makes Risacher such an exciting prospect. His three-point shot looked very smooth and he looked very comfortable when he was able to handle the ball during the Skills Challenge.

They're going to be relying on Risacher heavily down the stretch of this season. The Hawks' depth has been tested all year, especially with the injuries to Jalen Johnson, Vit Krejci and Larry Nance Jr. They're running out of viable rotation players at an alarming rate, which does not bode well for their upcoming stretch of games.

The first game out of the All-Star break is the Orlando Magic. The Hawks narrowly beat the Magic, 112-106, but they narrowly held off 30+ point performances from Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Their bench unit played very well in that matchup, but it'd be very easy for Atlanta to falter immediately coming out of the break.

Their second game is against the Detroit Pistons, which is hardly an easier matchup. Detroit has gotten the better of the Hawks in each of their last two games. Their first meeting saw an excellent game from Trae Young where he dropped 35 points and 13 assists, but Cade Cunningham had 22 point, 13 assists and 11 rebounds to record a triple-double that made the difference in the 122-121 Pistons win. Tobias Harris and Malilk Beasley also had 22 points each. Their second meeting ended in a complete 114-104 rout for the Pistons, where Cunningham had no trouble with Atlanta's defense and Young struggled offensively. Dyson Daniels had a 20 point, 10 rebound double-double, but the Hawks were down by 20 entering the fourth quarter. They tried to pull off the comeback, but lost too much ground early. That cannot happen again in the third game versus the Pistons.

From there, the Hawks have two consecutive games against the Miami Heat. Now, it is true that Miami has lost four straight and 11 of their last 16, dropping them three games below .500. Still, the Heat cannot be underestimated as they've gotten much deeper after the Jimmy Butler trade. They had a 10 point lead on the OKC Thunder heading into the fourth quarter, which is impressive considering how good the Thunder have been this year. They'll be looking to make a statement and the Hawks threaten their chances of making the postseason.

They then have two consecutive games against challenging matchups with the OKC Thunder and the Memphis Grizzlies. The Thunder have the best net rating in basketball and are likely the deepest team in the NBA. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is an MVP contender while they just added Chet Holmgren off the injury report to a core of Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso. Especially without Jalen Johnson, it's going to be a tall task to beat the Thunder considering they can hone in on stopping Trae Young.

The Grizzlies are second in the West right now and they've gotten excellent play from big man Jaren Jackson Jr. He's going to be very difficult for the Hawks to slow down and that's before considering what Ja Morant brings to the table. Morant should be somewhat neutralized by Dyson Daniels, but he's still a very difficult matchup that Atlanta may not be able to stop.

Having six straight games against likely playoff teams is going to reveal a lot about the Hawks' chances in April. If they can make it through this stretch holding onto the eighth seed, that would be quite successful considering the quality of their opponents over the next few weeks.

Related Links