3/16 Washington Wizards vs Atlanta Hawks Game Day Preview: All You Need to Know
By Editorial Staff
Who?: Washington Wizards (14th in East) vs Atlanta Hawks (6th in East)
When?: March 16 2012; 7:30 PM (Eastern Time)
Where?: Philips Arena (Atlanta, GA)
How?: SportSouth HD (TV) & 680 AM (93.7 radio)
Other Atlanta Hawks Coverage: Atlanta Hawks Fan Site, AJC Blog, Peachtree Hoops (SB Nation), Hoopinion (TrueHoop)
FanSided’s Washington Wizards Blog : Wiz of Awes
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Projected Starting Lineups:
Washington Wizards:
PG: John Wall | SG: Jordan Crawford | C: Kevin Seraphin | PF: Trevor Booker | SF: Chris Singleton
Atlanta Hawks:
PG: Jeff Teague | SG: Kirk Hinrich | C: Zaza Pachulia | PF: Josh Smith | SF: Joe Johnson
Injury/Inactive Players Report:
Washington: Rashard Lewis (left knee) is out. Nene will not dress tonight, according to Michael Lee of the Washington Post.
Atlanta: Al Horford (left pectoral surgery) and Jason Collins (sprained left elbow) are out.Willie Green (back), Marvin Williams (hip flexor), and Vladimir Radmanovic (back) are game time decisions. Ivan Johnson is back with the team after missing past few games for family reasons.
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Current Records/Streak & Hot, Lukewarm, or Cold:
Records: The Washington Wizards are (10-32) and the Atlanta Hawks are (24-19).
Streak: The Wizards are on a 1 game win streak while the Hawks are on a 2 game losing streak.
Away/Home: The Wizards are (4-16) on the road, and the Hawks are (12-6) at home.
Against .500+ teams: The Washington Wizards only post a record of (2-21) against teams with winning records.
Against .500 or less teams: The Atlanta Hawks have done well by posting a record of (16-5) against teams that don’t have a winning record.
Washington Wizards- Warm. The Wizards have lost 10 out of their last 13 games, but they are on a one game winning streak….so for their standards, one win (@ New Orleans) makes them “warm”. Wins are rare for the Wizards. Especially road ones.
Atlanta Hawks– Getting cold. The Hawks are on a 2 game losing streak, and they only managed to win 2 games out of the six game road trip. Granted, 3 out of the 4 losses could have easily been wins, but the last loss vs the Clippers was just bad. They played terribly. Things could change tonight though if they start getting players back from injury.
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Season/Past Season Series:
This will be the second of three meetings between the two teams.
The Hawks currently hold the season series, 1-0, as they won the first meeting on December 28th in Atlanta, 101-83.
The Hawks have won 7 straight games against the Wizards when the game is played in Philips Arena. Washington’s last win in Philips Arena came in January of 2008.
The two teams will meet for a final time this season on March 24th in Washington.
Game Preview:
Well, the Hawks are finally back at home after their six game road trip! Hallelujah!
The Hawks have played the most road games (25) in the entire NBA this season, so that means, a lot of home games will be coming the Hawks way in this last stretch of the schedule.
As Kris Willis of Peachtree Hoops wrote, out of the 23 remaining games in the schedule, 15 of them will be played at home! It’s time for some home cookin’!
The first victim of the Hawks in this last 23 games, is the Washington Wizards.
The Wizards aren’t exactly what you would call a “good” team. I wouldn’t call them “average” either. Frankly, no offense to that team, they’re quite terrible. They’ve just had a horrible season. They’re arguably the most laughable team in the NBA. The Bobcats are obviously worst record wise, but at least they don’t have as much bone headed players and as much bone headed highlights than the Wizards.
But who knows, things might change for the Wizards now. They traded two of the main culprits (Javale McGee & Nick Young) yesterday before the trade deadline. They traded McGee, Young, and Turiaf in a three team trade which resulted them getting back former Denver center, Nene, former Clipper, Brian Cook, and a 2015 second round draft pick.
Nene was easily the most talented player involved in the trade, but luckily for the Hawks, he won’t suit up tonight.
This game should be easily won by the Hawks (they’re 11 point favorites according to Vegas), but of course, as we all know, you can never guarantee a Hawks win because you don’t know how they’ll perform in any given night.
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3 Things I’m Looking Out For:
- John Wall. Always a player to watch out for whenever you face the Wizards. Jeff Teague is pretty fast himself, but John Wall is just on a different level when it comes to speed. This guy can flat out go from one end of the court to the other end in a matter of 3 seconds. John Wall can hurt the Hawks, and I’m hoping Larry Drew had him circled in the scouting report. If the Hawks can limit his productivity and make him inefficient tonight, it’s hard to see the Hawks lose this one.
- Players coming back. The Hawks have had so many players inactive in the past few games, but tonight could be the night where the Hawks will have most of their players in uniform. Willie Green has missed the last 8 games due to a back strain, Marvin Williams missed the last game due to a hip flexor, Vladimir Radmanovic missed the last game due to back spasms, and Ivan Johnson has missed the last 3 games due to personal reasons. I’ll be watching to see how many minutes Larry Drew will give them. I’ll be watching to see if any players are affected by their injuries (Green, Williams, and Radmanovic) and or just simply by rust (Green & Johnson).
- Jordan Crawford & Chris Singleton. These are the two players the Hawks traded for Kirk Hinrich last season. Both have Atlanta Hawks roots in them. Jordan Crawford was drafted by the Hawks in the 2010 draft, while Chris Singleton would have been available if the Hawks kept their 2011 first round draft pick. Also, Chris Singleton is a native of Canton, GA. But I’m intrigued by how they’ll perform tonight, I would assume that both players are probably a bit more motivated than usual.
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Atlanta Hawks– Unknown. I can’t call them hot. I can’t call them cold. Nor can I call them warm or heating up. The Hawks lost last night’s match-up against the Denver Nuggets, but honestly, it was a better game than I expected from the Hawks.