The Atlanta Hawks picked up a much needed victory in Washington on Wednesday night, winning by a final score of 122-120. This was an important game for both sides, as the Wizards entered the game just one game behind the Hawks for the 8th slot in the Eastern Conference standings, with Chicago and Indiana hot on their tail for the 10th seed, and final play-in spot.
Trae Young was masterful, and set the tone early on with 12 points on 6-7 shooting to go along with 2 steals in the 1st quarter, leading the Hawks to a 34-28 lead going into the second frame. Washington managed to claw their way back into the game in the 2nd behind some hot shooting from Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma, who combined to go 9-10 from the field, and scored 23 of the Wizard’s 33 points in the quarter, and the Hawks trailed by 3 going into the half.
Despite the two teams going a combined 7-25 (28%) from three, the first half was still a relatively high scoring affair thanks to the Wizards going 23-30 from inside the arc, and Atlanta going 19-30. The Hawks came out sleepwalking to start the second-half and had their work cut out for them after the Wizards took a commanding 15-point lead midway though third quarter. However, thanks to some excellent minutes from Bogdan Bogdanovic and Onyeka Okongwu, the Hawks trailed by just 4 heading into the 4th.
The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth affair, with Atlanta jumping out to a 6-point lead behind a 10-0 run, just to see Washington respond with an 11-0 of their own to put the Hawks in a 5-point hole with seven minutes left to play. Atlanta would not be kept at bay however, as they came right back with a Dejounte three, followed by a Capela free-throw, and this nasty Trae Young step back triple to put the Hawks up by 2 with five minutes left to play. The two teams traded buckets after that, with Washington briefly taking a 1-point lead with three minutes left to play after a Porzingis triple, however Trae Young answered with a three-pointer of his own on the very next possession which would put the Hawks in the driver’s seat the rest of the way.
After a chaotic final minute of the ball game (that saw three turnovers and 2 missed free-throws), two free-throw makes from Young with 7 seconds left to play gave the Hawks a 5-point lead to ice the ball game.
The difference in this one (outside of Atlanta winning the turnover battle 17-11) was the Hawks’ making a noticeable effort to push the pace of play, as well as deny the Wizards transition opportunities on the other end of the floor. Per cleaningtheglass, Atlanta had a 17.2% transition frequency tonight (68th percentile) and scored 1.5 points per possession on these plays (74th percentile) Meanwhile, Washington had just an 11% transition frequency (18th percentile) and scored just 1 point per possession on these plays (18th percentile). With Washington performing slightly better in the halfcourt than Atlanta, the team’s emphasis on creating and preventing transition opportunities played a huge part in their success tonight.
Trae Young put in perhaps his best two-way performance of the season tonight, putting up 28 points and 10 assists on 11/14 shooting (including 3/4 from downtown) to go along with 3 steals, and showed some impressive guile on the less glamorous end of the floor with plays like this and this. John Collins knocked in a season-high 4 triple’s tonight and scored 14 points on 5/9 shooting. Bogdan Bogdanovic did a little bit of everything tonight, scoring 14 points, snagging 8 rebounds and dishing out 5 assists in 24 minutes of action. Jalen Johnson, playing in his 4th consecutive game under Quin Snyder, looked like he was playing with supreme confidence out there. The 21-year old scored 10 points (including two triples), grabbed one steal and put Deni Avidja on a poster in what was an impressive outing for the youngster.
For Washington, Kristaps Porzingis was in full-fledged unicorn mode tonight, pouring in 43 points on 17/22 shooting, including a 7/10 showing from beyond the arc. Kyle Kuzma put in a nice all-around performance with 25 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. Bradley Beal added 24 points, though he struggled to find his shot, going just 6/19 from the field.
Atlanta will square off against this very same Wizards-squad again on Friday night in what should be another closely contested matchup. Friday’s matchup will mark the 4th and final meeting between these two squads, and with Washington now two games behind the Hawks and just 1.5 games ahead of Chicago, they will be desperate for a win.
Tipoff for that one is at 7pm from the Capital One Arena, go Hawks!
