About Hawks Playoffs
Atlanta Hawks History in the NBA Playoffs
The Atlanta Hawks took part in the inaugural NBA (National Basketball Association) season as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and qualified for the playoffs, losing to the Anderson Packers in the Division Semi-Finals.
Five dry seasons followed, including the period that the team moved to Milwaukee to become the Milwaukee Hawks.
In 1955-56 the team got as far as the Divisional Finals before being beaten by the Fort Wayne Pistons.
First NBA Title
The St. Louis Hawks, as they were then known, won their first NBA Championship in 1957-58 when they finished top of the Western Conference and defeated the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals series in six games.
Move to Atlanta
In 1968 the team moved to Atlanta, and the team finished in the playoffs in each of their first five seasons as the Atlanta Hawks.
A decade later, the team collected their first Central Division title, but overall they had failed to make a deep impact in the postseason.
Solid 90s Form
With Lenny Wilkens as head coach, the team did impress in the 90s, securing a place in the Conference Semifinals on four occasions during his reign.
Making their way through the Eastern Conference playoffs has always proven a problem for the Hawks, and the team experienced a dark chapter of eight successive seasons without a playoff berth between 1999 and 2007.
Strong Regular Season Ahead of Cavaliers Whitewash
In 2014-15 the team racked up 60 regular season wins and looked like a genuine NBA title contender, defeating the Brooklyn Nets and the Washington Wizards in the playoffs before coming up against an imperious Cleveland Cavaliers team who beat them in four games in the Conference Finals.
The Cavaliers defeated the Hawks by the same 4-0 scoreline the following season in the Conference Semifinals.
2020-21 saw the team back on track, winning the Southeast Division and making it to the Conference Finals before losing to eventual NBA Champions, the Milwaukee Bucks, in six games.
The State Farm Arena franchise are regular playoff contenders who just have a habit of falling short of more in the way of tangible success.
They are one of those teams whose fans deserve better and perhaps under their latest head coach Quin Snyder.