The Atlanta Hawks came in facing slim odds. They walked away with their biggest victory in years.

The Hawks won the NBA draft lottery on Sunday, landing the No. 1 pick and a potential cornerstone player in a year where there’s no clear-cut choice.

“At least I can go home and tell my wife on Mother’s Day, ‘Hey, at least we won the lottery,’” general manager Landry Fields said. “That’s her present. Yeah, there we go.”

The Hawks hit the jackpot despite just 3% odds after finishing 10th in the Eastern Conference at 36-46. They dropped their final six regular-season games and lost to the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the play-in tournament.

“It was a shock,” said Fields, who grinned ear to ear when deputy commissioner Mark Tatum announced the Hawks as the winners. “When I first saw that it wasn’t us between 10 and 12, that launched us into the top four. I was like, all right, we’ve got a real shot at this thing. A bit of surprise, but a lot of excitement.”

The Hawks haven’t won a postseason series since a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021. They got knocked out in the first round in 2022 and 2023.

Atlanta has some big decisions to make this offseason, including whether to break up its backcourt of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray. Fields can build with the No. 1 pick — assuming he keeps it — though it’s not clear who will be taken first after Victor Wembanyama was the obvious choice for San Antonio last year.

“Our group has been fantastic,” Fields said. “There’s a whole lot of trust. They’ve put in the work. We’ll kind of lean into our process and take it from there.”

Washington, Houston, San Antonio and Detroit rounded out the top five. The draft is June 26-27 in Brooklyn.

Houston coach Ime Udoka was thrilled to get the third pick after the Rockets went 41-41 and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year.

“Pleasant surprise when you move up the way that we did,” he said. “I feel like there’s a lot of qualified candidates out there.”

Washington and Detroit had the best chances to land the top pick at 14%. Only four teams have won the lottery with slimmer odds than Atlanta, with the biggest longshot being Orlando at 1.52% in 1993. The Magic orchestrated a blockbuster draft night trade with Golden State, sending the rights to Chris Webber to the Warriors for the rights to Penny Hardaway along with three future first-round picks.

San Antonio landed a generational player last year in Wembanyama. The franchise that previously took David Robinson and Tim Duncan with the No. 1 overall pick got its next great big man, and all the Frenchman did was turn in one of the best rookie seasons in NBA history.

Fields disputed the idea that this year’s class is a weak one, saying there are future All-Stars.

“Every draft class has great players in it,” he said.

The No. 1 pick could once again come from France, whether it’s center Alex Sarr or sharp-shooting forward Zaccharie Risacher, but that’s far from a certainty. UConn guard Stephon Castle and Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham are both expected to be off the board within the first few selections.

The 7-foot-1, 224-pound Sarr has the size and mobility that teams crave and can defend the perimeter when he’s not blocking shots down low. The 19-year-old from Toulouse is known for his explosiveness around the rim, though he could use some more muscle. It would help, too, if he developed into a more reliable 3-point shooter.

Sarr, whose brother Olivier plays for the Oklahoma City, spent this past season in Australia’s National Basketball League.

Risacher, who was born in Spain and grew up in France, is known as a dynamic, albeit streaky shooter for JL Bourg, whether he’s popping off screens or pulling up for 3-pointers. He often guards the other team’s best player.

Castle joined Andre Drummond in 2012 as UConn’s only one-and-done players when he declared for the draft in April after the Huskies’ latest NCAA championship run. The 6-foot-6 guard averaged 11.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists while often drawing the defensive assignment to shut down the opposition’s top perimeter player.

Sheppard and Dillingham both came off the bench in their lone college seasons.

Sheppard, who was voted the Southeastern Conference’s top freshman by coaches, was one of the league’s best playmakers and perimeter shooters. He was Kentucky’s No. 3 scorer at 12.5 points per contest and averaged an SEC-best 2.5 steals that ranked eighth nationally, despite starting just five of 33 games.

Dillingham was voted the SEC’s top sixth man after averaging 15.2 and 3.9 assists. Kentucky tied for second in the conference and earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, only to get knocked out by Oakland in the round of 64. Coach John Calipari then left after 15 years for Arkansas.

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

Outfielder Brandon Nimmo, who didn’t start the game due to a side injury, hit a walk-off two-run homer in the ninth inning to lift the host New York Mets over the Atlanta Braves, 4-3.

The Mets averted being swept in the three-game series and won for just the seventh time in 19 games. The Braves’ four-game winning streak ended.

Nimmo, who left after four innings in Saturday’s 4-1 loss due to a tight right intercostal muscle, entered Sunday as a pinch runner for DJ Stewart in the seventh inning.

The Braves snapped a 2-2 tie in the eighth, when Marcell Ozuna delivered his second RBI single of the night, and the Mets went down in order in the bottom of the inning before coming back in the ninth against A.J. Minter (5-3).

Jeff McNeil legged out a bunt single and went to second on a sacrifice by Tomas Nido. Nimmo then hit a 3-2 pitch beyond the fence in right-center field for his second career walk-off homer.

Edwin Diaz (1-1) threw a perfect ninth inning.

Pete Alonso had an RBI single in the third and a run-scoring double in the sixth for the Mets. Stewart and Francisco Lindor also had two hits apiece.

New York starter Luis Severino allowed two runs on four hits and three walks while striking out four over five innings.

Ozuna’s run-scoring hits increased his major-league-leading RBI total to 40 in 37 games. He is the fastest Braves player to reach 40 RBIs since Hall of Famer Henry Aaron had 40 in his first 35 games in 1970.

Jarred Kelenic homered in the second inning for the Braves. Kelenic was selected by the Mets in the first round of the 2018 draft before being traded to the Seattle Mariners in the Diaz blockbuster following that season.

Braves starter Bryce Elder gave up two runs on seven hits and no walks while striking out six over 5 1/3 innings.

The Atlanta Braves are getting beat up tonight. 

Not from a scoring perspective, mind you – it’s tied 1-1 in the 5th inning as we’re writing this. 

But from a physical and health perspective, however, Atlanta’s taking some hits. 

Third baseman Austin Riley has been lifted from tonight’s game with what the team is calling “left-side tightness”. On video replay, it looks to stem from his final swing in the third inning, when he struck out on an elevated fastball from New York Mets Mets starter Luis Severino. 

EDIT: Manager Brian Snitker told ESPN’s Buster Olney that Riley felt some minor tightness during batting practice and after it popped back up in that at-bat, they “didn’t want to take any chances.”

Riley, 28, entered tonight’s game batting .241/.317/.386 with three homers and 18 RBIs. Mired in a bit of a slump as he exited April, Riley has turned it on a bit in the month of May, going .300/.382/.467 with a homer and a triple entering tonight, driving in four and scoring six runs. 

Riley’s also flashed significant strides to his defense at third base, prompting conversation of this finally being his year to beat St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado for his first career Gold Glove award. 

The team mentioned the exit being precautionary in nature; the Braves roster is currently without catcher Sean Murphy, who left the team’s season-opening matchup with an oblique injury, one that still has him on the shelf almost two months later. 

Riley’s potential injury is not the only physical blow to a Braves position player tonight. Outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. took a foul ball off of his own foot earlier in the contest. He was checked out by trainers and appeared to be limping slightly on an inning-ending groundout, but remained in the game.