Atlanta Hawks: Studs and duds from a very disappointing road trip

Make that six games in a row now for the Atlanta Hawks losing streak. Following their 105-96 loss to the Denver Nuggets, there are certainly more questions than answers at this point. There hasn’t yet been any finger-pointing as we have seen in past years.

But forward John Collins did call for some introspection after the team dropped its eighth game in nine tries.

"“I see a team that underachieved. Definitely didn’t fulfill what we came on this trip to do, and that was just win games…Didn’t accomplish that. And now we’ve got to start there and look in the mirror…”  via Sarah K. Spencer/Atlanta Journal-Consitution"

After his team bottomed out from beyond the arc going 5-of-28 against the Nuggets, even the Hawks best performers this season would see some things they didn’t like.

Collins had a great game despite what looked to be a tough individual matchup on paper. He followed his seven-point, four-rebound clunker versus the Utah Jazz with a 26-point, nine-board showing on Friday to go with two blocks.

Collins shot 50 percent from the floor for the game and had 16 points in the second half though he went just 1-of-6 from outside.

The Atlanta Hawks have been top-heavy over their recent six-game slide

The loss to the Jazz aside, Collins hasn’t been the reason the Hawks have been struggling over this skid. It has been quite to the contrary, especially as he’s stepped his game up in three of their last four games now.

He’s averaged 23.6 points on 63.4 percent shooting while going 7-of-15 from three-point distance with 8.3 boards.

Even as the Hawks have gone winless over their last six, Collins has thrived.

The 6-foot-9 high-flyer averaged 17.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.0 blocks. He slashed .521/.458/.850 over that span. The three-point and free-throw efficiency numbers are both above his rates for the entire season.