The Atlanta Hawks stayed rolling with a, 130-121, victory over the Washington Wizards at State Farm Arena on Wednesday night. The win brings the Hawks’ record to 3-2 on the season.
While neither side had it going from beyond the three-point stripe (Washington shot 10-40 – 25% – from the perimeter, while Atlanta went 9-32 – 28.1% -), the Hawks dominated the rebounding and free-throw battles, resulting in a +14 advantage in second-chance points and a +20 advantage at the free-throw line, which ultimately proved to be too much for the Wizards to overcome.
While Atlanta secured the victory in the end, it took them a little while to find their legs in this one. They shot just 40% from the floor in the opening frame (scoring 0.93 points-per-possession), and failed to make Washington uncomfortable on the defensive end as well – allowing a Wizards’ team slated to finish in the bottom-3 of the Eastern Conference to score 1.15 points-per-possession, with Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole combining for 19 of Washington’s 30 points first quarter points.
The second quarter is where Atlanta really put their foot on the gas. The Hawks scored 1.31 points-per-possession while giving up just 0.78 ppp to Washington, and a 25-7 run over the final seven minutes of the period gave the home side a 59-51 lead going into the break. The Hawks’ had a +12 rebounding advantage in the second period, snagging 40% of their missed shots, while only allowing Washington to grab 10% of their misses – a big swing factor in this quarter.
Trae Young and Dejounte Murray were the catalysts for Atlanta in the first-half, with Young scoring 11 points and handing out 6 assists and Murray continuing his heater from Monday night with 16 points on 7-9 shooting from the floor, and 2-3 from three-point land.
Atlanta extended their lead to 17 points by the end of the third quarter – doing a lot of their damage from the free-throw line (13/15 from the line, +12 FTM advantage in the quarter) as Washington racked up 10 team fouls in the period. Additionally, 8 different Hawks’ players got on the scoreboard in the third, and it was great to see this team reap the rewards of an “equal-opportunity” offense.
While Atlanta’s fourth-quarter execution left a lot to be desired (Washington had 6 steals, shot 74% from the floor and scored 1.39 points-per-possession in the final frame), the Hawks had built themselves enough of a buffer over the second and third quarters for Washington to be unable to really threaten the outcome of the game in the fourth.
Thanks to a 29-32 mark from the free-throw line, Atlanta finished this one with a 118.2 offensive rating – a nice mark considering that the team did not exactly shoot the lights out (54.9% eFG) last night. They grabbed 34.8% of their missed field goals while only allowing Washington to snag 14% of their misses, and while it should be noted that Washington was missing their starting Center in Daniel Gafford (ankle), it was extremely encouraging to see the Hawks press their advantage on the glass to extent that they did.
Riding a three-game win streak (a rarity for last year’s Hawks squad), Atlanta is back in action Saturday night where they travel to New Orleans for a matchup with Zion Williamson and the Pelicans – tipoff is at 7pm on Bally Sports!
Disclaimer: All statistics used in this article are from nba.com or cleaningtheglass.com
