Basket Ball / Sports

Young, Hunter lead Hawks to 132-103 play-in rout of Hornets

For one night, at least, the Atlanta Hawks looked like the team that made a stunning run to the Eastern Conference final last summer.

Trae Young bounced back from a sluggish start to score 24 points and De’Andre Hunter led a third-quarter surge Wednesday that carried the Hawks to a 132-103 rout of the Charlotte Hornets in a play-in game.

We’re definitely confident right now,” Hunter said. “But we’ve got a lot more work to do. We’re not satisfied yet.”

The Hawks were a bit of a disappointment during the regular season, finishing ninth in the East after their surprising playoff success in 2021.

They’ve still got to win one more play-in game just to make the playoffs, heading to Cleveland to face the Cavaliers on Friday night. The winner claims the No. 8 seed in the East and will face the top-seeded Miami Heat in the opening round of the playoffs.

The season is over for the Hornets, who were overwhelmed in the 9-10 play-in game for the second year in a row and haven’t made the playoffs since 2016.

Still, coach James Borrego called it another step forward for a rebuilding team.

“A lot of good things have happened for this franchise based on where we’re at today compared to where we were two or three years ago,” he said.

Miles Bridges was ejected in the fourth quarter and could be facing additional punishment from the league office after he appeared to strike a young fan with his mouthpiece.

All five Atlanta starters scored in double figures, as did Bogdan Bogdanovic off the bench. It was Hunter who came up big in the decisive third period, bursting out with 16 points after being held to 3 in the first half.

“I think I’m a big part of this team,” Hunter said. ”Me being aggressive, scoring and defending, helps this team a lot.”

Hunter finished with 22 points, while Danilo Gallinari added 18 and Clint Capela 15. Kevin Huerter and Bogdanovic chipped in with 13 apiece.

The Hornets closed …

Basket Ball / Sports

Ball scores 33 points, Hornets spoil Irving’s home debut

Kyrie Irving waited all season for a chance to play in front of his home fans, and this sure wasn’t the way he envisioned it going.

“Not the result we wanted, I didn’t shoot as well as I wanted,” Irving said. “Basically none of the things I had hoped for going well tonight just didn’t happen, and that’s just the flow of basketball.”

It went much better for the other point guard.

LaMelo Ball had 33 points, nine assists and seven rebounds and the Charlotte Hornets spoiled Irving’s first home game of the season by beating the Brooklyn Nets 119-110 on Sunday night.

Irving misfired for 3 1/2 quarters, finally warmed up to give the Nets the lead, and then the Hornets regained control with clutch 3-point shooting to give them a victory that tied them with Brooklyn for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

Irving finished with 16 points and tied his season high with 11 assists but shot 6 for 22 from the field. He hadn’t been able to play at home this season until Mayor Eric Adams last week exempted athletes and performers from the New York City’s coronavirus vaccine mandate.

“It was great to see him out there, good to see the fans excited for him,” Kevin Durant said. “Unfortunately we took the ‘L’ though, but we move forward knowing that we have him here and build on what we have and try to get a win next game.”

Miles Bridges scored 24 points and PJ Washington had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Hornets, who won for the seventh time in eight games. They beat the Nets for the second time in three meetings this season, clinching a potential head-to-head tiebreaker.

Durant had 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, playing the entire second half on the second night of a back-to-back. He shot just 9 for 24. Andre Drummond had 20 points and 16 rebounds.

Irving missed 15 of his first 17 shots, but then made two layups and a short jumper to …

Basket Ball / Sports

Tatum dominates as Celtics fend off Hornets

ayson Tatum scored 16 of his 44 points in the fourth quarter, and the Boston Celtics defeated the Charlotte Hornets 115-101 on Wednesday night for their fourth straight win.

Tatum, coming off a 54-point performance against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, made 16 of 24 shots from the field and 6 of 9 from beyond the 3-point arc. He also made all six free throws.

He was also effective on defense, helping limit the red hot Terry Rozier to just 14 points on 5-of-17 shooting.

The Celtics are looking like a championship contender, having won 15 of their past 17 games as they continue their rise up the Eastern Conference standings.

“Defense, defense, defense — that’s been the key,” Tatum said.

Jaylen Brown had 15 points, while Robert Williams chipped in with 11 points and 11 rebounds and Al Horford added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Celtics (40-27), who were in control most of the game.

Miles Bridges and P.J. Washington each had 17 points to lead the Hornets, who fell to 1-12 on the second night of back-to-back games.

It was the second straight night the Hornets have been victimized by a star player on their home court. They allowed Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving to score 50 points in a 132-121 loss on Tuesday night.

“He made six highly contested 3s,” Hornets coach James Borrego said of Tatum. “We double-teamed him, we trapped him. He is a hell of a player and is playing as well as anyone right now.”

Tatum began to got hot at the end of the third quarter, helping Boston build an 87-78 lead.

Tatum opened the fourth quarter with a fall-away 3 from the right corner and a long 3 from right wing as the lead increased to 18 points. A few minutes later he canned another 3 from the other wing, even as his body was shifting to the left.

The Hornets mostly played zone against the Celtics in an effort to contain Tatum, but it didn’t work.

“Not be stagnant and …

Basket Ball / Sports

Chicago Bulls cruise past Hornets as Lonzo Ball pips his brother

Lonzo Ball has faced his brother LaMelo three times in the NBA, winning twice. That’s the only thing that matters to him.

”I play to win. I’m still the big brother at the end of the day,” Lonzo Ball said, ”and I got to stack my wins.”

The Chicago Bulls took the latest battle of the Ball brothers, riding a stellar performance by Nikola Vucevic to a 133-119 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night.

Chicago shot a season-high 59.6% from the field and had five players score in double figures. Vucevic had a season-best 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. DeMar DeRozan scored 28 points, and Zach LaVine, a game-time decision because of an illness, finished with 25.

With patriarch LaVar Ball watching and wearing a black hat that read ”I Told You So,” Lonzo Ball helped the Bulls get back on track after dropping three of four. He had 16 points and eight assists, and LaMelo Ball had 18 points and 13 assists.

”I mean we’ve been talking about the NBA since we were little boys,” LaMelo said. ”Just going out there and playing against him, always a dream come true, for real.”

The United Center crowd of 21,366 roared every time the Ball brothers matched up early on. But there was little sign from Lonzo or LaMelo that they were guarding someone they’d guarded since they were kids.

”Obviously we are brothers and it’s all love off the court,” Lonzo Ball said. ”But on the court, like I said, he got a job he got to do, I got a job I got to do.”

Terry Rozier scored 31 points and Gordon Hayward had 22 for the Hornets, who dropped to 0-2 on their four-game trip.

”Disappointed tonight in our defense,” Charlotte coach James Borrego said. ”We just got to correct it.”

Charlotte trimmed a 23-point deficit down to four on Hayward’s cutting layup with 7:31 left, but Chicago responded with a 9-0 run.

Vucevic sparked the decisive stretch with a layup. The 6-foot-10 center also …

Basket Ball / Sports

Hornets beat Wizards 97-87 for 4th straight victory

Kelly Oubre Jr. had 14 points for Charlotte, which ended Washington’s five-game winning steak after it stopped Golden State’s run at seven Sunday.

”The goal and the challenge here is to sustain it, and get better along the way, even into tomorrow’s practice,” Hornets coach James Borrego said.

LaMelo Ball added 11 points and a career-high 14 assists, Mason Plumlee had 11 points and 13 rebounds, Jalen McDaniels also scored 11 points.

”After the first quarter, we locked it in on defense and that got us going,” Bridges said. ”As long as we stay focused, do what we need to do on defense, we have a great chance of winning every night.”

Bradley Beal led Washington with 24 points, Daniel Gafford added 20, and Montrezl Harrell had 15.

”We stopped being aggressive, especially on offense,” Beal said after Washington lost a double-digit halftime lead. ”We settled for a lot of jumpers. We got a lot of good looks. We just didn’t make them. We still could have put a lot of pressure on the rim and gotten to the free-throw line a little more.”

After tying it at 63 with 3:52 left in the third period, Charlotte had a 10-2 run to close the quarter. Oubre scored seven points during the run.

”I wasn’t in tune with the pace,” said Gafford, who keyed Washington’s first-half lead but didn’t contribute much in the second. ”I felt like I was holding the team back at the time because I wasn’t doing the things I did in the first half. I can’t explain it, but I’m sure everyone saw it. I didn’t come out with the same intensity that I came out with at the beginning of the game.”

Beal played with a heavy heart Wednesday after the recent death of his grandmother.

‘I use basketball as my getaway, but it reminds me of her a lot,” Beal said. ”I just try to keep it as controlled as possible. It’s not something you can ignore, you have to take the punches and roll …