The Hawks have played on Oct. 23 six times before, and they are 2-4 on the date, including a 17-point home loss to Charlotte in 2022. Tonight Atlanta, 1-0 and third in the East, visits a 1-0 Hornets team, and the franchise's own history shows how little one October night proves.
A Loss Before a Title
On Oct. 23, 1957, the St. Louis Hawks lost 95-112 at New York. That same 1957-58 team beat the Celtics 4-2 in the Finals for the franchise's only championship, behind a 50-point game from Bob Pettit. On Oct. 23, 1960, they lost 103-114 at Cincinnati and still made the Finals that season and the next. The Knicks still matter here. New York beat Atlanta in six games in the first round last spring, and the Hawks were the only team to beat the Knicks twice in that run. The 67 seasons without a title since St. Louis are what this core is up against.
Charlotte Owns the Last One
The last time Oct. 23 brought a Hornets game, Atlanta lost 109-126 at home in 2022. On paper, tonight's game looks different. Charlotte went 44-38 last season with a 4.9 net rating, better than Atlanta's 2.2, but Charles Lee is without four players, including Kon Knueppel, who scored 18.5 a night across 81 games. Atlanta comes in on one day of rest for its third straight road game, and Mouhamed Gueye and Henri Veesaar are its only players listed as out.
From 1968 to Plus-20.3
Oct. 23, 1968 brought a 106-91 win over Chicago in Atlanta's first season, when home games were played at Alexander Memorial Coliseum on the Georgia Tech campus. Exactly seven years later came a 109-91 win over New Orleans, months after the 1975 draft cost Atlanta David Thompson and Marvin Webster, who both signed in the ABA. The Hawks did not hold another top pick until Zaccharie Risacher in 2024. Today the strongest group is McCollum, Alexander-Walker, Okongwu, Johnson and Daniels, who were plus-20.3 last season while allowing 102.8 points per hundred possessions. That five is why a 1-0 start looks like a floor instead of a fluke, and Charlotte is the next test.
When did the Hawks win their only NBA championship?
In 1958, as the St. Louis Hawks, beating the Celtics 4-2 in the Finals behind a 50-point game from Bob Pettit.
How did the Hawks do the last time they played Charlotte on Oct. 23?
They lost 109-126 at home to the Hornets on Oct. 23, 2022. Tonight they play Charlotte again on the same date, this time on the road.
