Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored a career-high 41 points and the Atlanta Hawks won their 10th consecutive game, a 124-112 victory over the visiting Orlando Magic on Monday.
Atlanta owns the longest active winning streak in the NBA and the club’s longest winning streak since its franchise-record 19-game run in the 2014-15 season. The result ended Orlando’s seven-game winning streak.
Atlanta, 11-1 since the All-Star break, moved into a tie for eighth with the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks are only one game behind No. 7 Miami and 1 1/2 games behind Orlando and Toronto, who are tied at No. 5. Atlanta has won all three games against the Magic this season.
Alexander-Walker shot 12-for-22 from the floor, sinking a career-high nine 3-pointers (on 15 attempts), for his 36th 20-point game of the season. He also had seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.
The Hawks’ Jalen Johnson earned his 13th triple-double of the season with 24 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists. Dyson Daniels had 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Onyeka Okongwu scored 15 points.
Orlando got 18 points and 10 rebounds from Paolo Banchero, 18 points from Desmond Bane and 17 points from Wendell Carter Jr.
In a heated moment after the game, Orlando’s Jett Howard had to be restrained after he took exception to Alexander-Walker firing a 3-point attempt with 19.5 seconds left. The shot missed.
The Hawks took the lead for good less than four minutes in on a drive by Alexander-Walker. Atlanta scored 11 unanswered points and led 16-5. The Hawks later outscored the Magic 13-2 over the final three minutes of the opening period to take a 34-21 lead.
Atlanta carried the momentum into the second and led 67-50 at halftime, with Alexander-Walker scoring 10 in the quarter.
The Hawks continued to build the lead and went up by 29 on Alexander-Walker’s 3-pointer at 8:09 that made it 85-56. Atlanta took a 104-83 edge into the fourth quarter.
The Magic cut the gap to 109-95 on a Howard steal and layup with 6:07 to go before Alexander-Walker hit back-to-back 3-pointers to re-establish the 20-point lead 37 second later, and causing Orlando to pull its starters.
