The suddenly hot Charlotte Hornets will try to slow down the streaking Atlanta Hawks when they meet on Wednesday in Atlanta.
The Hornets, who are next-to-last in the Eastern Conference standings, have won two straight games and stunned the playoff-bound Miami Heat 105-102 on Monday. It was Charlotte’s first Southeast Division win of the season.
The Hawks are coming off a 132-123 win over Philadelphia on Monday and have won three straight and four of their last five. Atlanta entered Tuesday holding the No. 7 playoff spot with a 1 1/2-game lead over Orlando and Miami for the top seed in the Play-In Tournament.
Atlanta has won the two previous meetings with Charlotte, although both were close games — 125-120 on Oct. 25 in Atlanta and 107-104 on Nov. 30 in Charlotte. They meet for the final time on March 18 in Charlotte.
Atlanta hopes to get leading scorer Trae Young (quad contusion) and key reserve Caris LeVert (sprained middle finger) back after both missed the Philadelphia game.
The Hawks built a 22-point second-half lead against the Sixers but allowed Philadelphia to get as close as five points in the final minute before putting it away. Veteran Georges Niang said the team must learn from those situations and not repeat them down the stretch.
“We can’t do stuff like that,” Niang said. “We’ve got to build good habits, so we’re going to have to clean that up. That stuff can’t happen, but you always celebrate winning — even doing that. We’re going to continue to try and take advantage of being at home and winning.”
Atlanta is still trying to get used to the three new players added at the trade deadline — Niang, LeVert and Terance Mann — and continue to develop the young players on the roster like No. 1 draft pick Zaccharie Risacher, Mouhamed Gueye, Dominick Barlow and Keaton Wallace.
“In different aspects of the game, guys have to be familiar with where the other guys are going to be,” Niang said. “We’re striving to be in the playoffs, continue to grow, continue to get better and those are areas that we’re going to work on and become better at. Getting acclimated with each other is one thing, but we’ve got to grow and close out these games in better fashion.”
That approach will come in handy against a Charlotte club that erased a 17-point deficit against Miami. The Hornets had scoring runs of 14-0 in the third quarter and 10-0 in the fourth quarter.
Charlotte’s effort was sparked by Miles Bridges, who scored a game-high 35 points, including 5-for-11 on 3-pointers. He has scored 30-plus points in three of the last five games and had 46 against Cleveland on Friday. Bridges is averaging 21.2 points and 7.8 rebounds.
“During tough times and crunch times, I like to show up,” Bridges said after the Miami win. “I was getting mismatches and driving the ball. I was missing my 3s at first, but once I started driving, that kind of got me going.”
Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball is averaging 25.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 7.0 assists. In nine career games against the Hawks, Ball has averaged 21.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 8.2 assists. He scored 34 against the Hawks in October.
