The Southeast got hot, with Hawks, Magic, Heat and Hornets all surging as playoff chase intensifies

MIAMI (AP) — Atlanta is on a 10-game winning streak, its best stretch in more than 11 years. Orlando and Miami just ran off seven straight victories. Charlotte might be playoff-bound for the first time in a decade.

The Southeast Division is ... good?

Seems so. At least, it's not historically bad as was the case last season when the Hawks, Magic, Heat, Hornets and Washington Wizards combined for the worst record by any division in NBA history. And it's possible the division could send four teams to the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

Division races and championships don't mean much anymore and haven't for some time. But the four Southeast teams in the mix with playoff hopes — everybody but Washington — sure seem as though they are feeding off one another and have been since the All-Star break.

“I would say that’s probably a factor,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Everybody also knows what time it is right now. You have to make moves. You have to do something. And we knew that coming out of All-Star break.”

Everyone got the message. Most everyone, that is.

The Wizards seem to have no interest in winning right now, proven by the way they played defense — or not — against Miami’s Bam Adebayo in his 83-point game last week. They’ll start anew next year, they hope, with Trae Young and Anthony Davis to build around.

Otherwise, the division is rolling. The five teams are a combined 40-25 since the break, the best mark by any division in the NBA during that stretch. Atlanta is 11-1, Miami has gone 9-3, Orlando is 10-4, Charlotte is 8-5 and Washington is 2-12.

This is how good the Southeast has been in recent weeks: Atlanta was ninth in the Eastern Conference after a loss to Miami on Feb. 20. The Hawks were 9-0 since that game going into Monday night — and were still ninth in the East.

Monday's win pulled Atlanta into a tie with Philadelphia for eighth place; the Hawks own the tiebreaker, so if the season was over now, they would be the No. 8 seed going into the play-in tournament.

Imagine: a 10-game winning streak, and you move up one spot.

“Everybody's trying to be aggressive but also solid at the same time,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “I think that's really important. We don't want to be gambling. We just want to make people work.”

Charlotte is fun to watch, unless you're on the other bench. Kon Knueppel is a serious challenger to his former Duke teammate, Dallas' Cooper Flagg, for Rookie of the Year. The Hornets shoot a bunch of 3s, they play fast and they've got a little swagger.

The Hornets added through the draft. The Hawks might have added by subtraction; trading Young ended all the speculation about his future in Atlanta and his now-former team is 20-10, the third-best record in the East, just a half-game behind Detroit and Cleveland since that deal got done. The Heat, they just try to outwork everybody — as always — and found some gems in Pelle Larsson and Kasparas Jakucionis to go alongside the likes of Adebayo.

And the Magic, they evidently just needed a little conflict.

Teams don't always flourish when coaches and star players clash. Orlando might have done just that. It was clear earlier this season — a couple of times this season, actually — that Magic coach Jamahl Mosley and star forward Paolo Banchero weren't in total lockstep. Banchero said some things, Mosley subtly clapped back, and things seemed goofy up near Disney World.

Funny thing is, when the Magic seemed to be in trouble everything started to work.

“We're both competitors,” Banchero said when asked about his relationship with Mosley. “There were times where I was frustrated and I wasn't playing as well as I think I should be. But it never became me pointing the finger at him or being disrespectful. It was all constructive; he’s talking to me, I’m talking to him. And winning, it cures everything. ... Something I feel I learned at Duke is when there’s a little bit of conflict, it makes you lock in a little more."

Less than a month remains in the regular season. The jostling between the Hawks, Heat, Magic and Hornets could go all the way to the wire. The Southeast might not have a bona fide, can't-miss, title favorite in that group — but it does have four teams that could be hitting their best stride at the right time.

“It's just this time of year,” Mosley said. “Every game matters.”

___

Around The NBA analyzes the biggest topics in the NBA during the season.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba