After the massive brawl that took place on Monday night, the Hornets started a four-game stretch where both Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabaté will watch from home due to suspensions for their involvement in the event.

For those who live under a rock and didn’t see the full brawl or clips of it between the Hornets and Pistons, it resulted in four players overall facing suspensions: both Hornets players sitting out four games, and the two Pistons players facing different suspension lengths, Jalen Duren with two games, and Isiah Stewart with seven.

The Hornets’ next game was against the division opponent, the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks were the last to lose to Charlotte during the infamous nine-game winning streak, and they didn’t have any answers for Charlotte once again.

Brandon Miller was the star of the night. While his field goal percentage wasn’t what it needed to be, he had spectacular moments and led the way to Charlotte dominating most of the game. Miller finished with 31 points and nine rebounds.

How Far Can Charlotte climb up the standings?

Most importantly, the Hornets’ win vs Atlanta moved them into ninth place in the Eastern Conference, only 4.5 games behind the Philadelphia 76ers for the sixth seed and out of the play-in tournament.

Charlotte’s now 14-6 in their last 20 games, and frankly, don’t have to worry about the teams behind them in the standings cause most of them are actively tanking.

The next team in front of the Hornets is the Miami Heat, who are two and a half games ahead of Charlotte. Miami is always going to be solid cause of their head coach Erik Spoelstra, but they’ve been too inconsistent as of late, and if it keeps up that way, it won’t take long for Charlotte to pass them.

Charlotte can realistically end the season in sixth place in the East. Philadelphia has the better top-end talent with Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, but Embiid’s knees could collapse at any moment, and they’re without Paul George for almost the rest of the regular season due to his suspension.

On paper, Charlotte is right there with Philadelphia; the 76ers only hold advantages in one major statistic–points per game–and they only lead Charlotte by just one point.

For the rest of the major stats, Charlotte is either tied with or better than Philly. This includes rebounds per game, three-point percentage, assists per game, and opponents’ points per game. It might seem like a big jump when looking at the standings, but Charlotte has a real chance of getting the sixth seed.

Charlotte’s Post All-Star Schedule

The post-All-Star schedule doesn’t start with any layups; the first two games on the Hornets’ schedule are against the Houston Rockets, currently a top-four team in the West, and the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers, led by Donovan Mitchell and James Harden. Luckily for Charlotte, their last game against the Rockets was a dominant victory on the road, but Cleveland is a different story, as the Cavs have a two-to-one advantage this season heading into their final meeting shortly after the All-Star break.