Hawks hold off Nets despite Durant's 55, Warriors into playoffs

The Hawks grabbed their fifth straight win to move into eighth place in the Eastern Conference, a game ahead of the Nets and the Charlotte Hornets, who were routed 144-114 by the Philadelphia 76ers earlier in the day.

All three are jockeying for position in the play-in tournament, in which the teams place seventh to 10th in each conference will battle for the final two berths in the playoffs proper.

The Nets' second straight defeat ended the star-studded Brooklyn team's hopes of escaping the play-in and earning one of the top six seeds that will advance directly to the playoffs.

Kyrie Irving scored 31 points, but with Goran Dragic sidelined by Covid concerns, Bruce Brown out with flu and Seth Curry a late scratch with a left ankle injury, no other Nets player managed to score in double figures.

"We didn't really play a good ball game," Nets coach Steve Nash said. "I can't sugarcoat it. "We didn't play a great game and not enough guys played well."

Durant did all he could, but even after his 19 third-quarter points the Nets went into the final period trailing by seven.

His eight three-pointers, on 10 attempts, were also a career high and he surpassed his previous career high of 54 points, set when he was with Oklahoma City in 2014.

Atlanta, meanwhile, had four players score in double figures. In addition to Young, who added 10 rebounds, De'Andre Hunter and Lou Williams scored 15 points apiece and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot added 11 as the Hawks won their fifth straight game.

Elsewhere in the East, the Miami Heat tightened their hold on first place with a 127-109 victory over the Chicago Bulls.

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Jimmy Butler scored 22 points and Kyle Lowry added 19 for the Heat, who have followed a four-game skid with a