In arguably the toughest game of the west coast road trip, the Atlanta Hawks were more than competitive... in fact, we saw a level of fight, confidence, fearlessness and counterpunches, ultimately resulting in a 128-115 score-blinding loss to arguably the best starting five and talent-loaded rosters in the NBA. One would be very hard-pressed to find anyone that believes Atlanta should hang their heads after a within reach, yet disappointing loss. Standing out perhaps may just very well be Atlanta's ability to be more competitive, getting stops on defense, taking advantage of the opposition's defensive deficiencies and minimizing turnovers... signs that ultimately the team is trending in the right direction and on an upward trajectory.