Hawks run out of gas in 114-98 loss to Wizards

The Atlanta Hawks rolled into Washington tonight on a relatively hot streak by their standards looking for their first win of 2019. The Hawks continue to be without Kent Bazemore so Daniel Hamilton drew another start alongside Kevin Huerter, Trae Young, Alex Len and John Collins.

The night got off to a roaring start as Huerter and Dedmon got the scoring underway for the Hawks. Then both teams began to go back-and-forth from beyond the arc as Trevor Ariza, Young and Collins all hit from distance.

Collins really had a fantastic opening frame for the visitors thanks to Young who was able to get John some really good shots which he was able to knock down. At the end of the first Collins was 4-4 from the field, including two three pointers, but the Wizards were able to take a 35-29 lead late thanks to a mini-explosion by Thomas Bryant.

Already down by six at the start of the second quarter the Hawks began to cool off from the field even more. Even through the struggles John Collins continued his tirade from beyond the arc making his way up to the 16 point mark before halftime.

However, the show belonged to Trae Young in the second quarter. Young was torching the Wizards with his passing and scored or assisted on the Hawks final five buckets to carry them into halftime still within shouting distance.

Washington had a really good offensive half which is an increasing rarity for them and despite that the Hawks were only down 64-53 at the break giving them some hope for another comeback.

The third quarter was huge for the Hawks as they were really able to make up some ground thanks to a swing in the Atlanta defense. Washington hit a dry spell at the Hawks capitalized with some solid play out of Alex Len who had a fantastic night. Len was all over the place getting offensive rebounds and put-backs in route to 20 points and 10 boards through three.

Atlanta posted their first 30-point quarter of the night and, in an instant, had themselves a game again as they went into the final frame down only 88-84.

In the final period, though, things went downhill rather quickly for the Hawks as Bradley Beal finally decided to make an appearance. The veteran took over for the Wizards scoring on three straight possessions to stretch their lead to six. Each team was below the 20 point mark on the quarter with just over three minutes remaining.

• In the closing minutes, the Wizards limped to the win as the Hawks faded on the offensive end. Atlanta was only able to manage 14 points in the fourth (on 6 of 21 shooting and 0 of 3 from three) after playing so well in the third quarter to get back in the game.

Len set his season high in points scored with 24 to pace the Hawks. In support, Collins just missed another double-double finishing with 21 points and 8 boards.

Young did not play much at all in the fourth quarter but ended up with nine assists on the night. Finally, Huerter played 44 minutes (a season-high for any member of the Hawks) in the loss and finished with 12 points and five assists.

Atlanta hits the road again as they travel to Milwaukee to take on ex-coach Mike Budenholzer and the Bucks on Friday night. Stay tuned.