It’s not often that a team trades a four-time NBA All-Star and gets better, but that clearly is what has happened with the Atlanta Hawks after they shipped Trae Young off to the Washington Wizards. The Hawks put an NBA-best 11-game winning streak on the line tonight at struggling Houston, and avoiding the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament is now very doable.
Since the team traded the one-time face of the franchise in Young to the Wizards in January for the low price of veterans CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, the Hawks are 20-10 with a Top 10 net rating. And after the Hawks made a few more trades at the deadline, including sending Kristaps Porzingis to Golden State for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield, Atlanta is an East-best 13-4.
The Hawks are one of four clubs this season with at least an 11-game winning streak along with NBA title contenders in Detroit, Oklahoma City and San Antonio. The 11-game run (10-1 ATS) is the team’s longest since a franchise-record 19-game streak during the 2014-15 campaign. And the Hawks aren’t just winning — they’re smashing the competition.
During this streak, the Hawks have outscored their opponents by an average of 17.8 points, have won 10 of the 11 by double digits and six of them by at least 15. Atlanta has become just the second team in NBA history to win 11 straight games by at least nine points, joining the Washington Capitols in 1946.
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The 34-year-old McCollum looked rather disinterested at times this season with the Wizards but looks reborn with the Hawks and comes off a 24-point effort vs. the Mavs. McCollum isn’t the scorer or passer Young was, but he’s a much better defender and a “team” guy. Atlanta owns the NBA’s No. 6 defense since the Young trade, allowing 110.2 points per 100 possessions in that span.
Atlanta’s five-man lineup of McCollum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu has only been together for 21 games. But of all five-man lineups that have played at least 200 minutes together, that group owns the best net rating (30.5), best defensive rating (95.9) and the second-best offensive rating (126.4) in the league.
It has a true shooting percentage of 62.6%, third-best amongst all five-man lineups, and all five can defend whereas Young was a massive liability in that regard. The winning streak started immediately after coach Quin Snyder, who had been on a bit of a hot seat, put McCollum into the starting lineup in place of Zaccharie Risacher, the disappointing (so far) No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft.
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The Hawks sit eighth in the East, technically tied with No. 7 Orlando but winning a tiebreaker, and who knows when the Magic will get young star Franz Wagner back from injury. Toronto is 1.5 games ahead in the No. 5 spot. Fifth place feels like the Hawks’ cieling.
Atlanta, which already has that tiebreaker over the Magic but would lose one to the Raptors, is priced -250 to compete in the Play-In Tournament (was -400 on Thursday but Orlando lost) and -205 to make the full-field Eastern Conference playoffs with No at +170. I do think the team will finish at least sixth despite holding the NBA’s sixth-toughest strength of schedule remaining and potentially losing tonight.
Then again, maybe getting into the Play-In and entering the full playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed wouldn’t be that bad all of a sudden. That’s because Pistons star Cade Cunningham has been diagnosed with a collapsed lung and is no sure thing to be ready for the start of the postseason for top-seeded Detroit. The SportsLine Projection Model dropped the Pistons’ regular-season win total down about a victory with that news.
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The Hawks will look to avoid the season sweep at the hands of the Rockets, as they were beaten 104-86 at home by Houston on Jan. 29, but I don’t put much stock into that as Atlanta was without two starters in the All-Star Johnson and Okongwu, and also hadn’t acquired Kuminga yet (Hield is barely playing). The Hawks are 6-0 with Kuminga, who is averaging 14.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game and shooting 56.6% from the field and 58.3% from deep. But he will likely sit tonight because it’s the front end of a back-to-back, and Kuminga has been dealing with some knee issues.
The longest winning streak in the league this season is 16 in a row by Oklahoma City, and I don’t see the Hawks getting past that because I do think they fall tonight. I also see them losing what would be No. 16 on March 27 in Boston.
My pick for Hawks vs. Rockets
Parlay (+110)
- Rockets money line
- Alt Under 239.5
The Rockets scorched me Wednesday vs. the Lakers and something seems off, but this feels like a tricky spot for the Hawks against a moderately desperate team ahead of a return to Atlanta and without Kuminga. The SportsLine Projection Model has Houston winning 116-110.
