The Atlanta Hawks picked up their second consecutive victory in Washington on Friday night, defeating the Wizards 114-107. Three-point shooting was the difference in this one for the Hawks, as they secured the win despite losing the points-in-the-paint battle 60-32. Atlanta hit eight more three’s than Washington, shooting 15-31 (48.4%) from beyond the arc while the Wizards went just 7-27 (25.9%).
This one got off to a rocky start for the visitors, as the Hawks opened the game shooting just 10-25 from the field and trailed by three points after the opening frame. The next 12 minutes however, were a different story, as the Hawks won the 2nd quarter 32-21. After Washington jumped out to a 7-point lead in the first 90 seconds of the period, Atlanta outscored the Wizards 30-17, giving them a 56-50 advantage heading into the break.
Similar to Wednesday night, Atlanta started the second-half slowly, with the Wizards going on a 19-11 run over the first 6:00 of the 3rd quarter (powered by Porzingis and Beal, who scored 15 of Washington’s 19 points during this stretch) to regain a 2-point lead for the home side. Atlanta did not take long to answer though, closing the third quarter on a 19-6 run to take a 85-75 lead into the 4th. The fourth quarter was far tighter than it needed to be*, with Washington cutting the Hawks lead to 4 with 4:30 left to play. The next few minutes were tight, however a deep Trae Young three gave the Hawks a 5-point lead with 1:17 remaining, which all but iced this one for the Hawks**.
* Atlanta committed 7 of their 14 turnovers in the fourth quarter tonight
Tonight’s victory brings the Hawks’ record to 2-1 in the season series against Washington and 3-3 new head coach, Quin Snyder. Young was fantastic for the second consecutive game, nailing 6 three’s en route to 28 points while also dishing out 9 assists. De’Andre Hunter added 18 points on 7-14 shooting. Dejounte Murray (who has been in a bit of a shooting funk since torching the Portland Trail Blazers for 41 points last week), put up 16 points while snagging 7 boards and handing out 7 assists. Bogdan Bogdanovic and Saddiq Bey combined to knock down 7 three’s and score 29 points between them and gave the team a big boost off the bench tonight. Onyeka Okongwu also had a nice game despite going just 1/4 from the field. The third-year man was active on defense and was a +12 in 20 minutes played tonight.
*Murray shot 5-11 in the second-half after going 1-5 in the first-half
For Washington, after combining for 92 of their team’s 120 points on Wednesday night, Bradley Beal, Kyle Kuzma and Kristaps Porzingis “only” scored 62 of the Wizard’s 107 points tonight. Beal led the way with 27 points on 11/24 shooting.
Atlanta is now 34-33 on the season and are 3 games ahead of Washington for the 8-seed in the Eastern Conference, though they have a quick turnaround before their next matchup against the always-greuling Boston Celtics tomorrow night.
Tipoff for that one is at 7:30pm from State Farm Arena!
