Danilo Gallinari returned to the Atlanta Hawks lineup with a bang

Veteran forward Danilo Gallinari was back in the Atlanta Hawks (42-38) starting lineup against the Washington Wizards in their 118-103 victory in the regular-season home finale. The win keeps their (very slim) chances at the seventh seed alive. To get there, they will need plenty of help from a few of their Eastern Conference brethren.

As 92.9 The Game’s Mike Conti points out, the Hawks can host a Play-In game and get two chances to earn one of the final seeds if the Brooklyn Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers and then lose to the Indiana Pacers. Cleveland would also have to lose to Milwaukee.

The Hawks would, of course, have to win out in that scenario which is the only thing they can control at this point and would at least give them a share of the eight-seed.

In this contest, it was No. 8 that was dialing them up early and often.

Danilo Gallinari had his best game of the season in the Atlanta Hawks regular-season home finale

Gallinari was not the high scorer for the game. That honor went to Trae Young who had 30 points, including 14 straight for the good guys at one point, to go with 11 assists while hitting 11-of-12 free throws. He almost single-handedly outscored the Wizards in the third quarter with 16 points to their 18.

Still, it was Gallinari, who had just two points in the third quarter, the came up big down the stretch alongside Bogdan Bogdanovic to seal this one. The duo each had nine points in the final frame while combining to go 7-of-10 from the floor and 4-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Gallinari was 4-for-4, knocking down his lone deep attempts.

He came out of the gates firing, taking eight shots to lead all players in the first quarter, and tied with Clint Capela for a team-high 15 points at the break.

Despite Young’s third-quarter explosion leading to his leading the game in points, it was Gallo — who has missed four of the Hawks last seven games — that came away with the unofficial ‘Player of the Game’. The 14-year vet confirmed to Atl & 29th host Kevin Chouinard that he got some more victory wine. This time, though, he got the entire bottle and not just a sip.

Nate McMillan said Gallinari is “a big part of what we do” in his postgame presser.

That was certainly the case in this contest as he put together his best effort of the season falling just short of his season-high in points by one point. But he shot 57.9 percent from the floor and from deep on his way to recording his second double-double of the campaign.