Hornets 80 - 104 Hawks
Final
  for this game

Hawks target 60th win vs. Hornets

Apr 10, 2015 - 2:02 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Atlanta Hawks will go for win No. 60 of the season on Friday when they welcome the Charlotte Hornets to Philips Arena for a Southeast Division showdown.

The Hawks will go for the first 60-win season in franchise history. They long ago wrapped up the division title and homecourt advantage in the Eastern Conference.

Atlanta won three straight and is gaining steam for the postseason, which begins one week from Saturday.

The Hawks escaped with a 114-111 win over the Brooklyn Nets Wednesday at the Barclays Center.

Al Horford scored 24 points, none bigger than his dunk with 19 seconds left to lead Atlanta.

Atlanta trailed 109-108 when out of a timeout, coach Mike Budenholzer drew up a play to get Horford a clean look underneath on a feed from Kyle Korver.

"Kyle just made a good read," said Horford. "The play was for him to get his shot, and they closed out on him really hard and he made a nice read."

Jarrett Jack and Bojan Bogdanovic missed triples at the other end. Jeff Teague secured the rebound on the second miss and made two free throws with 2.7 seconds remaining to account for the final margin.

Joe Johnson's turnaround 3 from the left wing went in and out as the buzzer sounded.

Mike Scott netted 20 points off the bench, DeMarre Carroll gave 19 and Teague had 15 points and 12 assists for Atlanta.

The Hawks are without Thabo Sefolosha for the remainder of the season and the playoffs. He was arrested early Wednesday morning and during the detention, Sefolosha's leg was broken.

Charlotte is three games behind the Boston Celtics and Nets for the seventh seed with two teams between them. A loss and a win by either the Celtics or Nets on Friday will eliminate the Hornets from the postseason.

It'll be tough sledding considering Al Jefferson, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Cody Zeller, the starting front line, is most likely done for the season with various injuries.

The Hornets have lost two straight and three of their last four. They have dropped four in a row as the visitor and will stop by Detroit on Sunday afternoon.

The Hornets' most recent outing was a 92-74 drubbing at home versus the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.

Kemba Walker scored 15 points to lead Charlotte.

"We just had no juice," Hornets coach Steve Clifford said.

The Hornets won two of three against the Hawks this season, but Atlanta is 6-1 in its last seven as the host in this series.






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