Hawks complete successful road trip with 137-129 win over Wizards

The Atlanta Hawks traveled to the nation’s capital for a bout against a division foe in the Washington Wizards for the final stop on what has been a seven-game, two-week road trip that started in Chicago, traveled all over the west coast, and ended on Monday night in Washington. The trip spanned 6,498 overall miles of travel for the team in just a 15-day period.

Head coach Lloyd Pierce went with the same starting lineup as he did Saturday night: Trae Young, Kevin Huerter, Taurean Prince, John Collins and Dewayne Dedmon. The Wizards started guards Tomas Satoransky & Bradley Beal and forwards Trevor Ariza & Otto Porter along with center Thomas Bryant.

It was yet another game that started with little to no defense for the Hawks, as both teams reached the ten-point mark within the first four minutes of play, much like what unfolded Saturday night in Phoenix. On the bright side, Atlanta has somewhat made a habit of starting hot offensively of late.

After getting down 8-2 in just over two minutes of play, the away team fired back with an 8-0 run that stretched to 15-6, powered by two Huerter threes to force a Washington timeout about five minutes into the game.

The Hawks outscored the home club 33-12 over the final 9:53 of the first, ending the quarter on a 23-6 run with a 37-20 lead. Huerter was easily the best player on the floor in the period, scoring nine points on only four shots (3-for-4 from three-point-range) and picking up a steal.

Omari Spellman came off the bench with ten quick points for the away team, including two three-pointers. The rookie big was also active inside early, slashing for a strong two-hand slam.

Ignited by Spellman, the Hawks maintained their rampant pace on offense to begin the second quarter. Collins remained his active self, really getting it going in the paint and on the glass in the second, getting to the free throw line eight times in the first half as a whole, making seven.

The Hawks raced out past the 50-point mark under 18 minutes into play and the Wizards frankly struggled to keep pace. Their lone All-Star this season, Beal, struggled to get going early, as he was in foul trouble for the majority of the half. He picked up his third foul with 8:41 in the second.

The Wizards were able to fight their way back into the game eventually, but struggled to put together stops early in the period and failed to cut into the lead until around the four-minute mark when they cut it to nine after a Young turnover, prompting a Pierce timeout.

Following the timeout, the Wizards kept rolling, pushing their overall run to 17-3, pulling to within five. Washington got as close as three as the Atlanta offense ground to a halt the latter moments of the second. After being up by as much as 19, the Hawks led just 61-57 at the break. The Hawks offense was abysmal in the second, aside from Collins’ ten points.

Collins posted a first-half double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, adding two assists as well. Late in the first half, Collins suffered a laceration on his face and he did not return to the game. Spellman was second in scoring for the half with ten points in 13 minutes.

Several Wizards stepped up in Beal’s extended absence due to foul trouble, as Satoransky picked 11 first half points to go along with five rebounds and five assists. Jordan McRae added 13 second quarter points, while Ariza and Jeff Green each had 9 for the half.

Spellman started the second half for the injured Collins (facial laceration), and he and fellow rookie Huerter wasted no time, each hitting threes that were sandwiched around a Dedmon layup off a feed from Young. This sub-two minute 8-0 run prompted a timeout from the Wizards, mirroring how the game began.

Spellman didn’t wait long before banging home yet another three, putting the Hawks back up 14. The rookie continues to be a solid shooter from three-point-range.

Washington fought back once more to make it a nine point game at 80-71, but the Hawks instantly responded with an 8-0 run powered by Vince Carter and Young to jump back out to a 17-point lead. Carter scored five points himself (including a corner-three off a ridiculous feed from Young) then led the break and found the rookie point on the wing for three.

Carter hit two more threes in the ensuing moments, giving him 11 points in his first four minutes of action off the bench.

The Wizards cut the lead back to 10 by the end of the third behind a couple of threes from Ariza. Atlanta finished the quarter with 38 points, shooting 8-for-12 from three-point range in the period.

The home team shaved the lead to seven early in the fourth, only for the Hawks to respond with two quick baskets to push it back to double-digits.

Green hit a three to cut it to back to a seven-point deficit for the home team with just under nine minutes remaining in the game. Beal split a pair of free-throws to cut it to six before Kent Bazemore and Lin engineered another mini 4-0 run to push the score back to 114-104, forcing Wizards coach Scott Brooks to burn his last timeout with 7:18 to play.

Ariza, the best player in most of this game for the hosts, pulled his team to within five before Bazemore responded with another strong take to the rim. He didn’t play big minutes in this game, but he seemed to be the Bazemore of old in the fourth quarter of this game, playing hard on both ends of the floor and impacting the game.

Spellman and Huerter connected on a little bit of rookie magic, with Spellman throwing a Trae Young-esque dime to Huerter who executed the finish to keep the visitors out in front.

The Wizards and Hawks continued to trade scores on each end, with the Wizards pulling to five or six on multiple occasions, with the away side responding with points seemingly each time.

Back-to-back Prince threes left the Hawks up eight with under three to play, however Beal raced behind the Atlanta defense for a layup to cut it back to six within a matter of seconds, prompting a Pierce timeout.

Carter hit the Hawks 18th three-pointer of the game right out of the timeout on a kick-out from Young, pushing the lead to 131-122 with 2:30 to play. The Wizards got it back to four, before Prince hit a prayer of a three off the glass with 1:03 to play to make it 134-127, which sealed the game and a 4-3 road trip for Atlanta.

The story for the Hawks was the 20 three-pointers (20-for-41) they hit on the evening.

Prince hit four on his own in the fourth, finishing with 21 points (5-for-7 from three-point range). Huerter was also 5-for-7 from three with 19 points. Spellman and Carter added eight threes off the bench in their 12 attempts.

Young finished with ten points and ten assists, committing only one turnover in the contest. Spellman and Carter both added 16 points off of the bench, making four threes each.

Beal finished with 27 points to lead Washington scorers, while Green (26), Ariza (25), and McRae (20) rounded out most of the scoring for the Wizards.

Following this triumph, the Hawks will finally be on their way back to Atlanta, with an impressive 4-3 road trip behind them.