Hawks take 6-game winning streak into Indianapolis

(SportsNetwork.com) - The Atlanta Hawks will take their six-game winning streak on the road Monday when they visit Bankers Life Fieldhouse to take on the Indiana Pacers.

The Hawks' winning streak reached six games with a 96-84 home victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday. They haven't lost since Nov. 26 at home versus the Toronto Raptors and the Hawks pulled even with the Washington Wizards for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

Paul Millsap scored 23 points to lead the Hawks and Atlanta's defense shut down Denver on Sunday. The Nuggets shot 36.6 percent from the field and only 17.1 percent from long range.

The Hawks, winners of three straight on the road, limited the Nuggets to 36 first-half points and forced them to shoot just 6-of-35 from beyond the arc for the game.

Kyle Korver added 15 points for Atlanta, and DeMarre Carroll and Al Horford each netted 11. Carroll and Horford had nine and eight rebounds, respectively.

The Nuggets made a run at the Hawks in the third quarter, but Atlanta weathered the storm. Korver nailed a 3-pointer and Jeff Teague hit a layup to rebuild the Hawks' lead to 92-80. The Hawks held on from there for the victory.

"There was a rut in the third quarter where it got away from us for a little bit," said Horford. "The important thing is we were able to pull this game out tonight."

The Pacers return to Indianapolis after an extremely unsuccessful road trip. Things couldn't have gone worse during an 0-4 jaunt as the Pacers fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings.

Indiana's most recent setback came Friday night against the Kings, a 102-101 overtime loss.

Carl Landry's go-ahead layup with 0.8 seconds left in overtime lifted the Kings to victory. Sacramento led by as many as 17 in regulation, but the Pacers closed the fourth on a 10-2 run to force the extra session.

"It's frustrating as any loss. We win one that way, we lose one that way. It's part of the long NBA season, we're going to have some like that," said Pacers coach Frank Vogel. "I'm proud of how we competed down the stretch to make it a game when we were down and weren't really playing that well, but we showed a lot of fight late."

David West posted 16 points and eight boards, Rodney Stuckey supplied 14 points and four swipes and C.J. Watson added 14 points for the Pacers. Damjan Rudez and Luis Scola finished with 11 apiece and Solomon Hill contributed 10 in the loss.

The Pacers play four of their next five at home.

The Hawks defeated the Pacers by 10 in Atlanta on Nov. 1. The Pacers bested the Hawks in seven games during last year's first round of the playoffs, but Atlanta has won three of the last five regular-season matchups.

Including the postseason, the Pacers are 8-3 in their last 11 as the host in this series.