The Atlanta Hawks game against the Hornets is their most crucial at home

The Atlanta Hawks have started to get their season back on track since they made it back to their fortress State Farm Arena. They put their road trip behind them and have not looked back ever since they beat the Milwaukee Bucks. They then accounted for the Orlando Magic the next night and the Boston Celtics in their most recent encounter.

So why is it that the game against the Charlotte Hornets is the most crucial for the team in this current homestand? The answer is that of seeding and the fact that the Hornets are a team in their division and they are are an opponent that they need to look out for.

Last season the Hawks missed out on home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs thanks to losing their opponent, the New York Knicks. If the Hornets had also finished on the same record as the Hawks, then they would have been above them as well, thanks to the Hornets winning the season series.

The Atlanta Hawks will get a boost in the standings if they beat the Hornets.

The Hornets currently sit in the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, which is seven spots higher than the Hawks who are in the 12th seed. More importantly, the Hawks are two and a half games behind the Hornets.

If they can win this contest then they catch up a whole game in the standings which is crucial for the Hawks to continue gaining momentum during this homestand. If they can win the next two games they will be back at .500 and potentially in the seedings for the play-in.

On a player level, the Hornets game last season was the one where it came out that there had been issues behind closed doors between John Collins and Trae Young. Fortunately, the team’s stars sorted it out but the Hornets still won the next game convincingly. The Hawks would certainly like to even the score.