Fox SportsHawks flying high into Charlotte (Oct 20, 2017)
The Atlanta Hawks will seek to go 2-0 on their season-opening road trip when they visit the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night.
The Hornets will be making their home debut, having fallen 102-90 at Detroit on Wednesday.
Atlanta scored the final six points of its 117-111 victory at Dallas, its first opening night win on the road since beating the then-New Jersey Nets in 2011.
The Hawks are hoping to continue a recent run of fast starts. Their last six editions have opened 11-4, 12-5, 8-5, 16-6, 7-1 and 9-2.
...the Hawks will have to deal with old pal Howard, who had 10 points and 15 rebounds in his Charlotte debut Wednesday at Detroit.
Acquired from the Hawks in June for Belinelli and Miles Plumlee (the teams also swapped second-round picks), the eight-time All-Star already has made his mark on the Hornets.
“He’s very determined: a) that we win; and b) that he plays at a high level,” Charlotte coach Steve Clifford said. “I think he understands that the correlation between those two things will be strong.”
Howard contributed 13.5 points and 12.7 rebounds per game to the Hawks’ 43-39 season a year ago. Atlanta was eliminated by Washington in the first round of the Eastern playoffs.
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