The Atlanta Hawks beat the Charlotte Hornets 132-103 in the NBA Eastern Conference play-in tournament game at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Wednesday.

The Hawks will challenge the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Friday to compete for the last playoff berth in the East.

Both the Hawks and Hornets belong to top five offensive teams of the NBA this season. However, only the Hawks held to that reputation in Wednesday's game. They shot 49-for-94 in field goals (FGs) and remained 50 percent from downtown to drain 16 shots there.

By contrast, the Hornets missed 56 of their 90 shots from the floor and failed to reach 30 points in any quarter. Their back-court star duo LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier combined 15-for-47 in FGs to get 47 points and 11 assists but with eight turnovers.

As the Hawks' playmaking engine, Trae Young was also struggling with his shooting, especially in the first quarter during which he missed eight of nine attempts on the court. But Young bounced back in the third quarter to score 14 points and four assists to lead his team to a 42-24 drive in this quarter.

De'Andre Hunter contributed 16 points for the Hawks in the third quarter as well after missing one of his eight FG attempts. "Me being aggressive and helping this team score helps this team a lot," he said.

"It's great for my team," Young said of himself being double-teamed a lot on the floor. "If you can make two guys guard you, it only opens up the floor for everybody else. I have to embrace it."

Wednesday's game was long gone when it reached the fourth quarter. Miles Bridges of the Hornets was ejected with two quick technical fouls in this quarter. He threw his mouthpiece at a Hawks fan who yelled at him on his way back to the locker room, but it hit a 16-year-old girl nearby.

"I was aiming for the guy that was screaming at me and it hit a little girl," Bridges said. "So that's definitely unacceptable on my part and I take full responsibility. ... That's out of character for me. You've been around me; I don't act like that or ever flash out like that. So that was definitely wrong, a lot of emotions and hopefully I can get in contact with the young girl and sincerely apologize to her and do something nice for her, but that's definitely on me."

This was the second straight year for the Hornets to disqualify for the playoffs after losing in the play-in tournament. Their fast small-ball style could be very impressive in the regular season, especially when most of the team could make 3-pointers. However, when the game grew slower and more physical, like in the play-in tournament, the Hornets will need a full-size center who could make solid shots in the paint, like Clint Capela who shot 6-for-9 to score a double-double of 15 points and 17 rebounds.

McCollum, Ingram outplay Johnson, Murray as team aces

The New Orleans Pelicans defeated the San Antonio Spurs 113-103 in the NBA Western Conference play-in tournament game at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Wednesday.

The Pelicans will visit Crypto.com Arena on Friday and play against the Los Angeles Clippers to decide which of them will make the playoffs as the eighth-seeded team in the West.

C. J. McCollum, Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas combined 81 points, 25 rebounds and 15 assists for the Pelicans. McCollum shot 7-for-7 in FGs to score 19 points in the second quarter; Ingram had 11 and 10 points in the first and last quarter respectively; 12 of Valanciunas 22 points happened in third quarter.

The Pelicans had at least one of their three best players to go to in each of the four quarters of Wednesday's game. Meanwhile, Herbert Jones and Jose Alvarado both did surprisingly excellent work on defense and offense.

"The three best players for New Orleans all played great, and if that happens, you're going to lose," Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said. "We stayed in it and got back in it, but then we made the same mistakes as we did in the first three quarters – non physical defense."

What Popovich didn't say was his best players were outperformed by their Pelicans counterparts. The Spurs' role players did a great job on Wednesday night. Devin Vassell drained seven triples to get team-high 23 points. Jakob Poeltl remained an elite defensive big man as long as he doesn't have to work outside the paint. Moreover, he was very efficient on offense as well to make seven of 10 FG attempts for 16 points and grabbed three offensive rebounds.

Nonetheless, it had to be the stars, not the role players, to lead their team to victory when the competitions were at the most intense level. On the Spurs' side, Dejounte Murray and Keldon Johnson failed to play their role. Murry didn't play long in the first half because of foul trouble, but his performance of shooting 1-for-7 from the floor in the final quarter was disqualified for a team's ace. Johnson was the Spurs' second-performing player in the past month and averaged 21 points in the previous 10 games. However, he missed 14 of his 20 FG shots, including all five behind the arc, on Wednesday night.

Neither Murray nor Johnson was drafted as high as Ingram, Valanciunas or McCollum when they entered the league, but the fact is, the former are the best players of today's Spurs. They have so far proved they should be part of the team's future, just not in the core.