Photo from Hawks Twitter
On the second night of a back-to-back for both teams, the Washington Wizards handed the Atlanta Hawks their second loss of the season. The Wizards improved to a surprising 4-1 start after their 122-111 victory Thursday night, and sent Atlanta to 3-2 overall.
In the first of four battles of Southeast divisional rivals, the Wizards controlled the pace and tempo for most of the evening. Hawks guard Trae Young started the game as a facilitator and had eight assists in the first frame alone. He finished with 15 points and 13 assists on the night, but shot a woeful 6-of-17 from the field. John Collins played the lead man for Atlanta against a depleted-Wizards frontline. He finished with a game-high 28 points on a scorching 14-of-16 from the field, and added 12 rebounds, as well.
Collins’s superhuman effort was in vain as the Wizards had four different players score 20-plus points. Wizards guard, Bradley Beal, lead the way and hammered the Hawks all night on his way to a 27 point, 8 rebound and 8 assist outing. It truly seemed as if the Los Angeles Lakers haunted Atlanta as newly-minted Wizards, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Kyle Kuzma, finished with 25, 21 and 21, respectively.
For the second straight night, Atlanta was outscored behind the three point line and again shot below 30% from beyond the arc. The Wizards shot a respectable 38.2% from three. On a night where the Hawks on paper, seemed to have a down-low advantage, the Wizards out-rebounded Atlanta 51-46. Also to note, there were a total of six technical fouls called on the evening, four for Atlanta and two for Washington.
The Hawks are off until Saturday when they hit the road for their big matchup against the the Philadelphia 76ers. This will be the first time these two teams are meeting since the epic 7-game series in last years playoffs. Tip-off is at 7:30pm eastern in Philly.
