Trae Young and the middy lead Atlanta Hawks mid-season progress report

Atlanta Hawks progress report No. 2: State Farm Arena has been welcoming

As of Saturday, we are one week from it being a month since the Hawks last won a game at home in State Farm Arena. That was a 113-101 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder that came near the end of their seven-game winning streak. They were 9-9 after that win having battled back from 4-9 because of a six-game skid.

Five of the six losses on that skid happened on the road, though, adding to the significance of the Hawks winning streak that had their home record at 8-1 by its end.

They are 8-10 at home now.

With a 9-14 road record, they are simply bad right now overall with no significant differences in the team’s season numbers home or away. But the fact remains that their stated mission of making their home gym a place opposing teams didn’t want to play in hasn’t come to fruition.

Well, the recent run of 130-plus point outings by opponents certainly hasn’t helped. Since Dec 4, the Hawks have allowed seven such performances with four of them coming at home where they are allowing 110.4 points per game as opposed to 113.0 on the road. Before that, they were allowing just 102.8 points per game at home; the sixth-best in the league to that point.

They have allowed 122.4 points per game at home in the time since.

That number is up to 114.3 on the road but the substantial difference in the increases is startling and points to the issue being bigger than just being healthy.

The Hawks aren’t playing well defensively at home in this span, with opponents shooting 49.1 percent from the floor and 39.0 percent from three. Both marks are the worst in the NBA in this period.