Bring Young recovered from a slow start to finish with 24 points and De’Andre Hunter led a surge that led the Atlanta Hawks to a 132-103 rout of the Charlotte Hornets in the Eastern Conference play-in minitournament game.
The Hawks, who finished ninth in the East after reaching the conference finals last year, will travel to Cleveland to face the Cavaliers on Friday night.
The winner will claim the eighth spot in the East standings and face that conference’s number one Miami Heat in the opening round of the playoffs.
The season is over for the Hornets, who were swamped in the 9th-10th playoff game for the second year in a row and haven’t made the playoffs since 2016.
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All of Atlanta’s starters posted double-digit points, as well as Bogdan Bogdanović from the bank. It was Hunter who had a great performance in the decisive third period, scoring 16 points after being limited to three in the first half.
Hunter finished with 22 points, while Danilo Gallinari added 18 and Clint Capela fifteen. Kevin Huerter and Bogdanović they each got 13 units.