Trae Young scored 14 of his 24 points in the third quarter as the Atlanta Hawks pulled away to rout the visiting Charlotte Hornets 132-103 in the Eastern Conference play-in event on Wednesday night.
Atlanta goes to Cleveland on Friday night for the next phase of the play-in tournament. The winner between the Hawks and the Cavaliers will claim a playoff spot as the East’s No. 8 seed, moving on to face the top-seeded Miami Heat in the opening round of the postseason.
DeAndre Hunter put up 16 of his 22 points in the third period for the ninth-seeded Hawks. Danilo Gallinari posted 18 points, Clint Capela put up 15 points and 17 rebounds and Kevin Huerter and Bogdan Bogdanovic both had 13 points.
The 10th-seeded Hornets bowed out with a road game in the same round for the second year in a row. Charlotte has not made the playoffs since the 2015-16 season.
LaMelo Ball paced Charlotte with 26 points, while Terry Rozier had 21 points, P.J. Washington finished with 17 points and Miles Bridges added 12 points. Bridges was ejected with 6:39 to play.
The Hawks made 16 of their 32 attempts from 3-point range, though Young was just 1-for-7. That was part of the team’s 52.1 percent shooting overall from the field.
Charlotte shot 37.8 percent from the floor, including 13 of 41 (31.7 percent) from long distance.
Atlanta built a 102-76 lead through three quarters after posting a 42-24 advantage in the third quarter.
In a span of less than four minutes, the Hawks went from up 70-62 to 88-67, with Hunter racking up 12 points during that spurt.
The Hornets cut a 51-38 deficit to 58-52 and had a chance to pull closer in the waning seconds of the first half. Instead, Young drained a jumper in transition for a 60-52 edge at the break.
Ball and Young were both 3-for-13 from the field in the first half.
The Hawks led 32-23 after the first quarter despite Young posting only four points on 1-for-9 shooting from the field.
–Field Level Media
