The Atlanta Hawks are one of the up and coming teams in the NBA, but they need to win consistently if they want to go to the next level.

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Detroit Pistons coach Lawrence Frank believes his squad took a step forward in its latest game, even though the result was another defeat. Larry Drew hopes his Hawks can shore up their defense Friday night when they visit a Pistons team trying to build on an encouraging performance.

Atlanta (13-6) begins this season series at the halfway point of a five-game road trip after losing 105-83 to San Antonio on Wednesday. The Hawks never led after the first quarter and got no closer than 15 in the fourth en route to their most lopsided defeat of the season.

Their offense never got in rhythm, finishing with 17 assists and 17 turnovers, while dropping to 0-5 when scoring fewer than 90 points. Joe Johnson, who had averaged 22.6 points in his previous seven games, finished with 10. Josh Smith scored 13 on 6-of-17 shooting and matched a season low with five rebounds.

Atlanta allowed the Spurs to shoot 51.2 percent - no other opponent this season hit better than 48.6 - and gave up more than 100 points in regulation for just the second time. Atlanta may have an easier time defensively against Detroit, averaging a league-low 85.6 points.

The Pistons (4-15) are the NBA’s only team yet to reach the century mark in scoring, though that designation was nearly expunged Wednesday against Miami.

After Detroit trailed by 10 points midway through the fourth quarter, Jonas Jerebko’s 3-pointer with 1:33 remaining capped an 18-5 run to put the Pistons up 98-95. Detroit wouldn’t hit another shot, however, and LeBron James made his final six free throw attempts to hand the Pistons a 101-98 loss.

Frank also was pleased by the sudden emergence of Austin Daye, who helped pick up the scoring slack with Ben Gordon sitting out a third straight game due to a sore shoulder.
Daye scored a career-high 28 points after combining for 45 in his first 13 games.

Now the Hawks will try to regroup and play much better basketball against a Detroit team they should beat.