The idle Atlanta Hawks moved into 9th in the East after CHA loss
The benefits of the Atlanta Hawks (29-31) playing in the Eastern Conference are once again paying off. Tuesday will see the Hawks take on the rumbling Celtics in Boston in the fourth and final matchup of the regular-season series. So far, the good guys have a 2-1 lead but their hosts on Tuesday got the most recent laugh, winning 105-95 just over two weeks ago.
In the time since that loss, the Hawks have beaten the upstart Cleveland Cavaliers as well as the Toronto Raptors who had beaten them in both previous meetings.
Now, the Hawks will try to take down a team that is 5-2 since the trade deadline but 2-2 in their last four outings. Both losses came against teams that will be picking very high in the lottery when this season ends in the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers.
But it was a couple of other Eastern teams that gave the Hawks an assist on their day off.
The Hawks gained a little more breathing room among the play-in field
On Monday, while the Hawks were enjoying a night off, the Milwaukee Bucks took down the Charlotte Hornets 130-106 putting them one half-game behind the Hawks for ninth in the ever-shuffling East. Charlotte is now 30-33 and just 2-8 over their last 10 games as their hot start has turned into a free-fall.
They will host the Hawks on Mar 16 in the final tilt of that season series which Atlanta leads 2-1 with the latest meeting ending in a 113-91 Hawks win.
The night that kept on giving, it also saw the Raptors take down the Brooklyn Nets 133-97.
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Brooklyn has lost seven of its last 10 and did not get Kevin Durant back on Monday as head coach Steve Nash had hoped. They were without Kyrie Irving on the night and are still awaiting the debut of trade deadline acquisition Ben Simmons.
They still sit two games ahead of the Hawks whom they will visit on Apr 2 with an eye on sweeping the season series. The last time the two met was on Dec 10 when the Nets walked away with a 113-105 win. Meanwhile, the Hawks lost Trae Young to health and safety protocols about a week later, and a 4-13 stretch ensued.
With just 22 games left on the schedule, the Hawks need every edge they can get. They certainly haven’t gotten many throughout the campaign.
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The Hawks have plenty to clean up. But they will be a tough matchup for many teams in the playoffs, assuming they get there. This loss by the Hornets goes a little ways towards that becoming a reality. In the words of Young, “we move”.