Walker's 38 points haul Hornets past Hawks
Charlotte guard Kemba Walker scored 38 points, responding after the Atlanta Hawks nearly caught up, as the Hornets collected a rare road victory, 123-110 on Wednesday night at Philips Arena.
Walker scored 16 of his 19 third-quarter points after Atlanta trimmed the margin to one point midway through the period.
Walker finished with a career-best nine 3-point baskets on 13 attempts from long range.
Teammate Nic Batum provided a triple-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Charlotte's Dwight Howard had 20 points and 12 rebounds. Reserve Treveon Graham added 14 points, Frank Kaminsky 11 points and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Jeremy Lamb 10 points apiece for the Hornets, who won for only the seventh time in 22 road games this season.
As a team, the Hornets were 17-for-32 on 3-point tries.
Kent Bazemore racked up 25 points for the Hawks while Marco Belinelli supplied 22 points off the bench. Dennis Schroder had 13 points and nine assists, John Collins added 12 points and Ersan Ilyasova provided 11 points as Atlanta lost for the fourth time in five games, including two defeats to the Hornets during that span.
Atlanta's reserves outscored the team's starters 59-51. Starters Taurean Prince and Miles Plumlee had two points (both by Plumlee) in a combined 34 minutes.
The Hawks used a strong third-quarter stretch to pull within 77-76 before Charlotte regained control.
Walker hit three 3-pointers in a span of barely more than three minutes to create a 91-82 edge. He added seven more points in the quarter before missing the last shot before the horn.
Charlotte built a 64-52 halftime lead,
The Hornets made 7 of 12 first-half shots from 3-point range, with six different players hitting at least one.
Howard and Kidd-Gilchrist each had eight points as the Hornets grabbed a 35-28 first-quarter lead. Charlotte shot 65 percent from the field in the period.
--Field Level Media
