The Atlanta Hawks have gone from being a 53 win team last year to a 44 win team in 2011. They are battling the Orlando magic again for the 2nd straight year in the playoffs.

Last season, a record-wise better team than this team, the Hawks got annihilated by Dwight Howard and his Orlando Magic. This season is looking considerably different, with the Hawks holding a 3-2 lead in their playoff series this year.

Many things have happened over the last 2 seasons. In 2010, during the season, the Orlando Magic owned the season series 3-1 over the Hawks, beating them by and average of 22 points. Then come playoff time, they trampled them again, this time by an average of 25 a night. In the 2011 playoffs, there has been a change of pace for both teams. Both teams going through many transitions.

The Hawks, apparently holding a grudge from last years demolishment. But how have they done it this year, what makes this team a tougher matchup for the Magic?

Atlanta went from a upper end team in 2010, down to a middling team in 2011. The Magic have gone from 59 wins to 52 wins in 2011. Atlanta was the 3rd best team in the East last season heading into the playoffs, so their excruciating destruction was a bit surprising to some. This year they came in at the 5th seed and they are outplaying the same opponent from last year significantly.

Let’s see what’s going on.

Orlando isn’t as good as they were last year, off the top. They lost Rashard Lewis and Marcin Gortat. They gave some problems to the Hawks, in size, and during the series last year, Gortat permitted Howard to get a rest, and Lewis scored 17 ppg in the series, shooting 44% from three. That helped them tremendously and lightened the load. Granted Dwight has improved his game this year, obviously, averaging 27 a game this series, they cannot come close to slowing him down on defense, unless he gets himself into foul trouble.

The Hawks still matchup well in the conference as a whole, with Indiana and Philly, both playoff teams in the East; they can run against them using their athleticism. 5-3 versus them in their season series collectively.

The Hawks overall, still shoot the ball the same, at around 46% from the field. They have lost their rebounding ability especially on the offensive boards. But they have improved their free throw shooting, going from 15th in the league in 2010 to 6th in the league. Never underestimate the power of the free throw.

I stand by 3 golden rules for a team to succeed, free throw shooting, offensive rebounding, and teamwork.

Which brings me to the last rule, teamwork. Although the Hawks lost 32 year old PG, Mike Bibby to the Heat, Al Horford has been playing great team ball, and Kirk Hinrich has stepped in and been dependable, scoring 10/gm and adding 2.8 steals/game.

They still don’t move the ball good, but they have in the Orlando series so far, Jamal Crawford and Joe Johnson have been a nightmare matchup problem for Orlando until game 5, where they held them to a combined 13 pts.

New coach, Larry Drew has a lot of young players on his team and has them playing better than I think most people thought they would be playing at this point. Now if they happen to get passed the Magic, let’s see how they matchup against the Bulls. That could be a whole nother story.

Written by Mike Anthony of VegasTopDogs.com