The Hawks won their third straight game last night, which means free donuts for the office today. Boo-yah!

Atlanta played tremendous basketball last night, with everyone who played contributing to a victory that put the Hawks back in the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference standings. In particular though I want to single out the performance of rookie Al Horford, who continues to convince me that it will be an absolute shame if he doesn't win Rookie of the Year honors. Horford played even better than his stats would indicate, which is pretty impressive considering he dropped a 12-point, 15-rebound, 6-assist and 2-block stat line on the Wizards.

I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but Sekou Smith mentioned something in his blog post last night that I totally agreed with - when the Hawks were playing well back in December, one of the reasons I felt like the success was fleeting was due to the lack of games during the Christmas break. Atlanta won it's 4th straight (at Washington, coincidentally) on Dec. 21, then didn't play again until five days later, when they beat the Pacers at home on Dec. 26. Following that, they had two more days off before they traveled to Dallas where the streak came to an end. They never really had a chance to get into a winning groove, and I always wondered if they'd not had to sit around so much if things might have gone slightly differently.

With 3 wins in the last 4 days, the Hawks are starting to hit a similar groove. The offense is clicking, with different guys stepping up each night to play a greater role, and the defense is clamping down a bit as well (witness them holding Caron Butler to 12 points on 4-13 shooting last night). The games the rest of this week are hugely important - at New Jersey on Wednesday night and Orlando at home on Saturday. Should the Hawks somehow find a way to win both of those games, they could really set themselves up for a huge run to end the month.

In looking at tie-breaker scenarios, the Hawks very much need to beat the Nets on Wednesday to salvage a 2-2 split in the season series. The next tie-breaker after head-to-head is conference record, and in that realm Atlanta currently lags behind New Jersey with a 17-21 record to the Nets' 20-18. But with only one game left against the Western Conference (a road date at Memphis on Mar. 31), the Hawks have some time to perhaps play a little catch-up.

The race is far from over, but I have liked what I've seen from the Hawks in their last three games - all complete performances from start to finish. Let's hope they can keep it going as the playoff push continues to gain steam...