Bo Churney of Hawks Hoop: “The Hawks started their three game road trip in Utah on Friday night and took care of the Utah Jazz by a score of 98-92. Jeff Teague led the way for Atlanta with 26 points, eight assists, four rebounds, and three steals. Teague got a lot of his work done early, scoring 18 in the first half with an array of drives to the basket and outside shots. He was a big reason why the Hawks were leading by as many as 19 in the opening quarter.”
Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune: “The points. The rebounds. The career-high numbers assists and steals. The all-star recognition of last season and the realization around the NBA that he’s one of the best power forwards in the league. None of it much matters to Paul Millsap. It’s nice and all and yes, he’s opened eyes since leaving the Utah Jazz two summers ago. But Millsap has been and always wants to be known for winning, and this may be his best chance. As the calendar turns to 2015, and as the Atlanta Hawks face the Jazz on Friday night, Millsap heads back into Salt Lake City for the second time with a singular goal: Taking the Eastern Conference.”
Brad Rowland of Peachtree Hoops: For the first time in a (very) long while, the Atlanta Hawks sit atop the Eastern Conference standings in January. The nature of a win over Utah on Friday night coupled with a Toronto loss makes that sentence possible, but the scheduling gods have not made things easy on Mike Budenholzer and his club. The Hawks travel to Portland for the second night of a back-to-back set on Saturday evening, as the face a well-oiled machine in the Trail Blazers. There is justified buzz surrounding the Hawks right now, but they are running into a buzzsaw here. Portland sits in second place in the West at 26-7 on the year (a mark better than Atlanta’s), and the Blazers have been resting since an overtime win on Tuesday. That combination should frighten you (it does for me), but even on equal rest, it is probably fair to say that the Blazers are a better team when evaluating the metrics.
