The Atlanta Hawks are feeling themselves right now, and really, can you blame them? They've been playing absolutely brilliant basketball for the past six weeks, riding a balanced approach to playmaking, scoring and defense to wins in 22 of their last 24 games, vaulting them to the top of the Eastern Conference. On Friday night, they went on the road and took out a red-hot Detroit Pistons club that had won seven straight games. On Sunday, they hosted the Washington Wizards, who entered at 25-11, tied with the Toronto Raptors for the second-best mark in the East, winners of three straight led by All-Star point guard John Wall ... and absolutely mopped the floor with them, blitzing the NBA's fifth-stingiest defense with three 30-plus-point quarters en route to a 120-89 blowout that improved gave Mike Budenholzer's club its eighth straight win, improving their conference-best record to 29-8. It wasn't just that the Hawks hammered the Wiz, though, turning on the jets after Washington drew within two points midway through the third quarter with a blitzing 16-2 run to regain control before blowing the game wide open in the fourth. It was the way they did it. Last week, I lauded Atlanta's...