What the Atlanta Hawks hope will be a long playoff run gets underway on Sunday when they travel to the Verizon Center to take on the Washington Wizards in the Game 1 of the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
Atlanta began the season 9-2 but battled its way through up and down stretches from there and settled in at 43-39 and the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks once again ranked among the best teams in the league defensively but a sharp drop off on the offensive end of the floor combined with some inconsistency made for an uneven season.