CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Charlotte Hornets have suffered through a frustrating season, and they have been arguably the NBA's most-underachieving team.

So any kind of win is a good win in coach Steve Clifford's eyes, especially as the Hornets try to fight their way back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Charlotte snapped a three-game losing streak Saturday night with a 98-93 win over the Washington Wizards at the Spectrum Center, and afterward Clifford seemed more relieved than anything.

"Obviously it wasn't pretty, but we had a lot better defense, good offense in the fourth quarter and we made the plays when we really needed to," Clifford said. "Good win and it was good to play good in the fourth quarter."

The Hornets (30-39) will host the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night. They are currently 11th in the Eastern Conference standings, trailing No. 8 Miami by four games with 13 games remaining.

"I think everyone knows how bad we needed this one, man," said Marvin Williams, who hit four free throws in the final 9.6 seconds to seal the victory. "We're in a tight, tight spot right now. We don't have very much room for error.

" ... We still believe we can do it, so we're just going to have to take it one game at a time. This was a huge win for us."

Cody Zeller led the Hornets with 19 points, five rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots, going 8 of 10 from the field with several easy layups off of pick-and-rolls.

Williams scored 16, and Kemba Walker also scored 16. The Hornets also got 14 points from Frank Kaminsky, including 11 in the fourth quarter, and 11 from Marco Belinelli. Nicolas Batum returned after missing the previous two games with migraines, and he finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

John Wall led the Wizards with 19 points but was 5 of 16 from the field. Bradley Beal scored 18, Otto Porter Jr. scored 16, Bojan Bogdanovic scored 12, and Marcin Gortat had 16 rebounds.

Zeller said the Hornets displayed toughness and maturity in snapping the losing streak.

"That's the kind of guys we have on this team," Zeller said. "It's a mature group that knows what we are capable of, and I think we showed that tonight. ... That's a really talented team and it took every guy that stepped on the court to play well."

The Hornets trailed at halftime, but led 64-61 after three quarters and pushed the lead to 78-69 with eight minutes remaining.

Washington never went away and came as close as 93-91 on Beal's steal and dunk with 17.0 seconds left. Belinelli hit one of two free throws with 15.4 left to push the Charlotte lead back to three.

The Wizards had a chance to tie it, but Beal was short with a 3-point attempt and Williams went on to hit the game-clinching free throws.

"It was a good look," Wizards coach Scott Brooks said of Beal's shot. "I'm not disappointed in that. I liked our guys' effort. The way we finished last night's game with the physical play, and to come back with the great energy and juice that it takes to win on the road -- nothing to complain about."

The Wizards (42-27) were coming off a 112-107 win over the Chicago Bulls on Friday. They were attempting to sweep a back-to-back set for the sixth time this season, which would be the most in the NBA.

They shot just 36.7 percent from the field, however, and committed 13 turnovers.

"It's tough," Beal said. "We pride ourselves on defending and we defended well, but we just couldn't make any shots. Nights like this we always tell ourselves we want to give a chance by guarding if we aren't making shots, and we did that. It's just we didn't make enough of them. We missed a lot of free throws, some easy layups, jumpers that we normally make, easy wide-open shots."

NOTES: The Wizards won both prior meetings with the Hornets this season. The teams will meet one more time, at Washington on April 4. ... The Hornets were without G Ramon Sessions (knee), C Miles Plumlee (calf) and F Johnny O'Bryant (ankle). ... The Wizards were without F Markieff Morris (sinus condition), marking just the ninth time all season the regular starting lineup has not been intact. ... Hornets G Kemba Walker didn't score his first points until the 1:42 mark of the second quarter. ... It was "Cam Newton Bobblehead Night" at the Spectrum Center, and the Hornets drew their eighth sellout of the season. ... The Wizards will play at the Boston Celtics on Monday in a game with huge seeding implications.