Atlanta Hawks: The NBA has released the final weekend fixture

The Atlanta Hawks play their final game at home against the Houston Rockets. They will take them on at 4 PM Pacific Time, which is the same time the Brooklyn Nets take on the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Philadelphia 76ers take on the Orlando Magic.

This is a positive for the Hawks as their main rival for the fourth seed, the New York Knicks play the Boston Celtics at 10 AM that morning. This means that the Hawks will know if the Knicks can steal the fourth seed and home-court advantage from the Hawks.

This will then impact the playing rotation of the Hawks. If they are guaranteed to not be able to take the position, they will then rest some of their stars so that there is less chance of a crucial player going down with an injury.

The Atlanta Hawks will not be concerned about the Miami Heat

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The Heat, while they are currently in the fifth seed, which is one below the Hawks, have two very difficult games to play against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers. They then finish the season against the Detroit Pistons.

It is unlikely that the Heat will still be in contention for the fourth seed when the last game of the season comes about. The Hawks should not drop another game, despite still having the second night of the back-to-back against the Orlando Magic still to come.

The Hawks also still own the tiebreaker against the Heat, having won their season series. They lost the season series to the Knicks so they need to finish with a better record than the New York-based franchise.

Now that the Hawks have qualified for the playoffs, they need to lock in their rotations so that they have their best chance to move as deep as they can into the playoffs. This is the first time in four years that they have made the postseason and they are going to try and make the most of it.