Oxymoron alert: The Atlanta Hawks just completed the perfect bad season, which isn’t the same as being perfectly bad. They were much better than expected, though not so much better they compromised their lottery odds. They deployed young players who got better as they went, and their first-year coach proved a keeper. And, not incidentally, they were the most entertaining Hawks since the Nique/Doc/Spud crew of the late ’80s.
Even their final game was, in its way, ideal. The Hawks scored 134 points. John Collins took 25 rebounds. Trae Young did the by-now-expected Trae Young Things. And yet they lost to the playoff-bound Pacers, who used nobody of whom you’ve heard, on three free throws with 0.