Significant stretch: Hawks face off against elite opponents

A surprise to no one this season after their Eastern Conference finals run, the Hawks face a gauntlet of contenders ready to test them.

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The young and frisky Hawks are ready to embark on their first seriously challenging stretch of the early season, which includes absolutely no easy stops and plenty of potential treacherous ones.

It’s a necessary measuring stick for the club, which has visions of traveling deep into the NBA playoffs and stamping themselves as a contender, not only this year but in the future as well. We’ll learn a bit about the Hawks and whether they can emerge unscathed from the trip, or absorb some punches.

The stretch:

@ Nets (Wed., 7:30 ET, ESPN)
vs. Jazz
@ Suns
@ Warriors
@ Jazz
@ Nuggets
vs. Bucks

Star players expected to face: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Devin Booker, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Rudy Gobert, James Harden, Nikola Jokic, Donovan Mitchell, Chris Paul.

What makes stretch significant: A season ago, the Hawks were 14-20 at one point, made a coaching change and suddenly reached the Eastern Conference finals. Obviously, they’re not built to repeat that slow start, and by all indications they won’t, although they’ll need to stockpile a few wins on this trip to confirm as much.

After opening this season with a rout of the Mavericks, the Hawks haven’t seemed as impressive. They’ve beaten only one winning team since, and Trae Young is squawking about not getting calls in the wake of rule changes. Yet Cam Reddish is hooping and therefore demanding quality minutes, so that’s a plus.

What to watch for during stretch: The Hawks’ defense was rather putrid a year ago. Over the next several nights it will see plenty of firepower from the Nets, Jazz, Warriors and Suns, all dangerous offenses. The encouraging news for the Hawks is De’Andre Hunter is healthy and clearly their best defender. He’ll get his chance to prove his mettle against Durant, Booker, Mitchell and at times against Antetokounmpo.

What would make stretch successful: Five of the six road games are against title contenders, or all six if you believe the Nuggets are simply going through some temporary pain. Therefore, if the Hawks can break even, or win four of the six, that would be a solid and encouraging result for the young team. Let’s put the Hawks down for a respectable 3-3 split.

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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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