First Place Hawks

Fifteen games into the regular season, the Atlanta Hawks are doing a great job of proving me wrong. I expected the loss of Jamal Crawford to set this franchise back quite a bit. But so far...I stand corrected.

Fueled by Joe Johnson's 18.9 points per game, Atlanta is currently in first place in the Southeast standings, following a 92-89 victory over Crawford and the Trailblazers on Wednesday night. Jeff Teague has played well at the point, averaging 5.8 assists and 2.1 steals per game. Starting center, Al Horford, has been lost for the season, which could catch up to this team at some point.

But, the Hawks will continue to succeed, if they stick to the formula that's gotten them off to an 11-4 start...great defense and rebounding (ATL is 6th in NBA by allowing just 90.8 ppg, 10th in rebounds with 43.5 per game), along with a balanced scoring attack. Joe Johnson is the team's leading scorer, but role players Vlad Radmanovic, Willie Green, and Janero Pargo have filled in nicely off the bench.

On Friday night, the team will be in Philadelphia, as they take on Lithonia, GA's Lou Williams and the 76ers. The 25 year old point guard leads his team with 15.7 points per game. Click on the title of this post to watch the multi-talented Williams in his music video titled Imma Boss.