The last time the Atlanta Hawks visited the Brooklyn Nets, Trae Young injured his right knee and rarely played for them again before being traded to the Washington Wizards.
A little over five months later, the Hawks are firmly above the play-in teams in the Eastern Conference and hope to move up even further Friday night when they visit Brooklyn.
Atlanta (44-33) is 1 1/2 games ahead of the seventh-place Toronto Raptors and within striking distance of the fourth-place Cleveland Cavaliers, whom they play twice next week.
The Hawks are on a three-game winning streak and 17-2 over their past 19 games, a hot streak that lifted them from ninth in the East to a team with a chance at getting homecourt in the first round.
Atlanta earned its latest win by dominating the second quarter of a 130-101 rout of the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. After committing eight fouls and shooting 35.7% in the first quarter, the Hawks outscored the Magic 47-26 in the second and wound up getting their fifth win by at least 25 points this season.
“Early in the game, as much as anything we were fouling, and the first timeout we just talked about more and we got to do more in every area of the game and our guys responded,” Atlanta coach Quin Snyder said. “They raised their level and when we settled defensively, were able to get stops, I think we did a pretty good job converting. That’s the challenge for us, staying in character.”
Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 17 of his 32 points in the second and has nine 30-point games this season. It was the ninth time in 11 games he posted at least 20 points and one of those was a 41-point showing against Orlando on March 16.
Alexander-Walker’s big performance was part of a night when the Hawks shot 51.1% and made 15 of 37 3-point attempts. It was the 26th time Atlanta shot at least 50% and 36th instance it made at least 15 3s.
Two of Atlanta’s wins in its hot stretch were competitive home wins over the Nets. The Hawks earned a 115-104 win on Feb. 22 and a 108-97 win on March 12.
Those wins were part of Brooklyn’s two 10-game losing streaks that contributed to them being in the race for the NBA’s worst record and best draft lottery odds.
The Nets (18-58) snapped the second 10-game skid with Sunday’s 17-point home win over the Sacramento Kings but are coming off a 117-86 home beatdown to the Charlotte Hornets. The final meeting with the Hawks will precede four straight games against other lottery-bound teams.
Brooklyn was held below 100 points for the 24th time. The Nets also shot 38.4%, marking the 16th instance they shot less than 40%.
Rookie Drake Powell has started in his past 11 games and reached double figures in five instances. Fellow rookie Nolan Traore has started his past 29 games and is getting mixed results, as evidenced by a 17-point showing Sunday and a scoreless outing March 23 in Portland.
The Nets are also sitting Noah Clowney and Nic Claxton along with Ziaire Williams in the fourth quarters over the past few weeks as they get looks at two-way rookie Chaney Johnson and Josh Minott, who was acquired at the deadline from the Boston Celtics.
“We got 19-year-olds starting and playing against 10-year vets, so it’s not going to be easy,” Williams said. “But it’s all part of the process, and hopefully a year from now, two years from now, we can look back and laugh at these hard days and losing streaks.”
