Seeing as the NBA is the best basketball league in the world, predicting win-loss records is always a crap shoot. For the Atlanta Hawks, who currently sit at a record of 19-43 (second-worst in the league), winning games is not particularly at the top of the list for this young team.
Luckily for Atlanta, their schedule is extremely unforgiving going forward, which means that they have a chance to lose the majority of their remaining 20 games.
Let’s take a look at the Hawks remaining schedule and do some fortune-telling to see what the outcomes might be.
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First off, 15 of Atlanta’s final 20 games are against teams in the playoff hunt, and 5 of their games are against the top four seeds in each conference (Toronto, Boston, Golden State and Houston as of writing).
All 15 of these games are complete mismatches, especially the ones against the top four seeds, and the Hawks have very little chance of eking out wins in any of these bouts – especially if their effort from two of their previous three games following the All-Star break are any indication.
That leaves only 5 critical games against the bottom-feeders of the NBA, with games against the Kings, Bulls, Suns, Magic and Hornets (who are probably one tier above the cellar dwellers).
Though the Hawks have played well against these teams at times this season, it seems that ownership has fully embraced the tank and wants the team to lose as many games as possible. Again, if they display the same effort they have since returning from the All-Star break, they will have a very good chance to lose all of those games.
Disclaimer: Coaches and players do not tank and we cannot stress this enough. This is strictly from a fan’s perspective, as we use evidence from the past in order to predict how the Hawks might lose as many games as possible down the stretch.