Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 27 points, Jalen Johnson added 26 points and 10 assists and the Atlanta Hawks held off the visiting Sacramento Kings for a 123-113 victory on Saturday.
CJ McCollum scored 22 points, while Jock Landale finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds for the Hawks (42-33), who won their 15th game in 17 tries. Zaccharie Risacher tallied 13 points and Mohamed Gueye chipped in 10 for Atlanta, which holds a half-game lead over Philadelphia for the East’s No. 6 seed — the last guaranteed playoff spot.
DeMar DeRozan led Sacramento (19-56) with 22 points, followed by Maxime Raynaud’s 18 points and 10 boards. Precious Achiuwa had 16, DaQuan Jeffries scored 15 and Daeqwon Plowden had 14 for the Kings, who dropped their third straight. Malik Monk and Killian Hayes both scored 10 points.
Atlanta pushed its 12-point halftime lead to 16 on Gueye’s 3-pointer with 8:08 left in the third.
The Kings pulled within nine on DeRozan’s layup, before Atlanta extended the lead back to 13.
Sacramento closed the third on a 7-1 run — including Hayes’ buzzer-beating triple — to cut its deficit to 88-82 entering the fourth.
The Kings tied the game at 97 apiece on Plowden’s 3-pointer with 8:03 left. Johnson’s five straight points began an 11-0 run that gave the Hawks a 108-97 edge with 5:47 remaining.
The margin was pushed to 14 on Landale’s triple. After DeRozan and Plowden’s 3-pointers, McCollum’s trey sealed the Atlanta win.
Neither team took a lead larger than five in the first quarter, as Jeffries’ 3-pointer with 46 seconds left gave the Kings a 30-27 lead after 12 minutes.
Sacramento opened up a seven-point lead on Plowden’s dunk at the 9:05 mark of the second quarter.
After Monk’s hook shot put the Kings ahead by 2, Alexander-Walker’s triple and Gueye’s dunk stamped a 14-0 run to put the Hawks up 63-51.
McCollum beat the first-half buzzer with a mid-range jumper to give Atlanta a 66-54 lead. Alexander-Walker had 14 first-half points, while Achiuwa’s 12 led the Kings.
