The Atlanta Hawks G League affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks have done the unthinkable at the start of the season, they have qualified for the G League playoffs. They did this by being the hottest team in the league over the last month, winning their past 11 games.
In fact, the Skyhawks have won 13 of their last 14 games, their only loss to the top-seeded Raptors 905. They only lost this game by five points where they did not have Justin Tillman or Jalen Johnson who were huge for the team pretty much every time they suited up.
The joy for the Skyhawks is that they finished fifth thanks to the run they had at the end of the season. This means that they get to take on the Capital City Go-Go in the first round of the playoffs. While the Go-Go won the season series 3-1, they met the Skyhawks during their worst times.
The Atlanta Hawks can’t really support the College Park Skyhawks and that’s ok.
The biggest problem for the Skyhawks is that their varsity team, the Atlanta Hawks, cannot afford to give back some of their key players. Johnson was recalled by the Hawks to help cover the injury to John Collins and he has produced at a high level until his luck ran out and he entered the NBA’s concussion protocols.
With both Danilo Gallinari and Bogdan Bogdanovic being questionable due to various ailments, the Hawks need to keep Johnson and Skylar Mays with the team as insurance. After all, they are in a battle for the top seed in the play-in tournament and the varsity team must always come first.
However, on the plus side, the Skyhawks have done most of their best work over the last month without those two players. Sharife Cooper has figured out how to play off the ball and his combination with Cat Barber is just a joy to watch right now.
On top of that Tillman has been superb, putting up nightly double-doubles and playing with an energy and passion which is so tough for the opposition to curtail. To put it simply, the Skyhawks have the potential to win the entire G League with the way that they are playing and that will be something else given that they started the season 0-8.
The game tips off at 7 PM on April fifth at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington DC.