ATLANTA – In sports, it seems as if you only get respect when you beat the good teams. For the past few weeks, the Atlanta Hawks have been streaking, but some people didn't want to validate it after seeing the teams they've beaten.

Brooklyn twice. Washington twice. Dallas. Three teams that are looking forward to their lottery odds more than winning games at this point of the season.

The Hawks' real test would come against the Orlando Magic, who were also riding a seven-game winning streak. Just like the Hawks have done to almost all of their opponents during their streak, they did the same thing to the Magic, defeating them 124-112 and extending their streak to 1o games.

The players have heard the talk, and they knew this was a big win to add to their collection, but it was also big to silence the doubters.

“It was a real test against a playoff team,” Nickeil Alexander-Walker said. The talk being around ‘We beat nobody.’ At the end of the day, it’s NBA players. It’s NBA teams. I’ll never disrespect whoever they put out in front of me. Nonetheless, as a team, with how they were rolling, how they went into Miami, and those being important games for mid-April, we were aware of the situation.

“Just continuing to handle our business. Throughout these 10 games, we’ve approached it as true professionals and with respect for the game.”

Through this 10-game stretch, the Magic were arguably the toughest team the Hawks had to face on paper, but it didn't bother them at all. They came out firing on all cylinders, and it was Alexander-Walker who set the tone early, finishing the first quarter with 14 points.

That bled into the second quarter, and from the 5-minute mark until the end of the game, the Hawks led by double digits. The Magic tried to punch back at times throughout the game, but the Hawks hit with a bigger blow. It's what they've done to all the teams that have tried to make a run during the win streak, and it shows how they're handling adversity.

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“It just shows we're still growing. They're resulting in wins right now, and even when we're going through our losses, our main objective is just to continue to get better, continue to grow, continue to play for one another. I'm proud of this group. We've got a long way to go, but we're going to continue to stack one game at a time and keep focusing on that.”

It could be anybody's night on any given night with this team, and this time around, it was Alexander-Waker, as he finished with 41 points. When the Hawks needed a bucket, he was there. When the Magic were trying to creep back in, he was there. And he reminded everybody to calm down.

“He knew when he came here, we were going to ask a lot of him on a lot of levels,” Quin Snyder said. “I think his aggressiveness offensively has been really important.”

“Sometimes you just have nights like this. The focus was truly being aggressive at the right time,” Alexander-Walker said. “It was an important game, and I knew I just had to come out and give it my all. That was the only thing on my mind. Just be aggressive, be myself, try to help the team win, and it turned out to look like this.”

It's uncertain how long this win streak will continue, but the Hawks are building good habits at the right time, whether they win or lose. That will go a long way into what kind of basketball they're playing in April, and how long they could be playing beyond that.