The Hawks got a good health update, plus a late bad update. Kobe Bufkin made his first appearance this season and Bogdan Bogdanovic returned after missing all but opening night.

But a late scratch on Jalen Johnson moved Garrison Mathews into the starting lineup for this game against the Kings.

Zaccharie Risacher got the party started with nine early points, and the Hawks jumped out to a 17-6 lead as a group behind threes from Risacher and Dyson Daniels.

They put together another mini-run to push the lead to 22-6, but the team still had to hold on the rest of the way or face a repeat of yesterday’s game in Portland.

And at just the right moment, a 13-3 run by Sacramento immediately cut the big early lead.

Still, the Hawks welcomed the return of Kobe Bufkin and ‘Bogi’ late in the first quarter.

But six straight threes by the Kings tied the game at 30-30, later revised to 31-30 Kings – although a follow-up from De’Andre Hunter gave the Hawks the lead after one quarter, 32-31.

Then the Kings, and Keon Ellis in particular, couldn’t miss from deep, although lax closeouts from the Hawks certainly had an effect. An absolute avalanche of threes from the Kings surrounded Atlanta, turning a 16-point lead into an 11-point deficit and surging 7:20 minutes into the second quarter.

Atlanta did its best to stay in the game after the shooting, and once the starters and Hunter came back, they caused some havoc defensively and were able to score against a disrupted defense.

The Hawks cut the lead to 54-51 with four minutes left in the half. From there they hung in and tightened the screws on the defense.

Fortunately, the Hawks trailed by just two points at halftime, 66-64. De’Andre Hunter was the leading scorer for the Hawks with 13 points off the bench. Risacher added 11 points on 3-for-7 (43%) shooting from the field.

In the third quarter, Ellis picked up where he left off, hitting his seventh, eighth and ninth threes of the game, giving the Kings an 85-77 lead. The only hope Atlanta had was to fight fire with fire – knocking down threes to give themselves a fighting chance.

Hunter did his best to help matters during that period with a couple of deep buckets.

After three quarters, the Hawks trailed 93-89.

After a fluid, high-octane game of basketball, the game slowed down significantly in the fourth quarter. It was a choppy affair with numerous offensive fouls on screens and loose balls. The stop-and-start nature benefited the Hawks, as they were able to get stops as well as Keegan Murray’s sixth foul early in the period.

A cut finish by Risacher off a feed from Trae Young tied the game at 96-96 midway through the final quarter.

But the Hawks calmly extinguished most of the defensive fires down the stretch, including setting up a 5-on-4 from a trailing De’Aaron Fox that hit the ground near the upright, ending in another Hunter triple.

Leading 106-101, the Hawks gave up a pair of trips to the line to Ellis, who promptly cut the lead to two. But Atlanta managed to get around the trapped Kings defense and get the ball in the lane, getting good results in a few possessions with less than three minutes left.

At 109-108 there was a frantic series of final possessions. First, Atlanta had a few chances to increase its lead. But after a desperation Hunter three from the corner rattled off the rim, the ball ended up in the hands of De’Aaron Fox.

Dyson Daniels was able to bottle it up (despite possibly stepping out of bounds) and secure the ball as time expired, sealing a 109-108 Hawks win.

Hunter finished with 24 points and Young had a brilliant game, distributing the ball with 19 assists over just five turnovers.

The win moves Atlanta to 7-8 on the season and they will play the resurgent Warriors the following Wednesday.