Atlanta Hawks: Lucky 7, Hawks Take Down Wizards on Bazemore’s Career Night

The Atlanta Hawks, for the first time since Game 6 of the Eastern Conference playoffs a season ago, matched up with the Washington Wizards on Saturday night.  And much like the last game between these two Southeast Division Rivals, the outcome was in the Hawks’ favor as the team notched their 7th win of the season in a somewhat sloppy 114-99 victory.

Kent Bazemore led the way for the Hawks with a career high 25 points on 10-15 shooting, including 4 three’s.  He chipped in with four boards, three assists and two steals on his way to his best game with the Hawks.  Paul Millsap carried the load early, and finished with 21 points and seven rebounds continuing his stellar start to the season.  Five Hawks players scored in double figures, and no player who played for Atlanta scored less than 6 points -with the exception of Walter Tavares who entered the game for the final 53 seconds.

For the Wizards, they were led by second year player Otto Porter who carried the team for much of the second half. Meanwhile, John Wall and Bradley Beal struggled mightily to get anything going.  Nene and Marcin Gortat both had double doubles, but it wasn’t enough in the end, as the Wizards never really gave themselves a chance because of turnovers.

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If you tuned in early, then you got to see what was the Hawks’ worst first quarter of the young season.  The team scored just 19 points in the first, a quarter dominated by turnovers, fouls and missed shots.  And it wasn’t just the Hawks with the jitters early.  The Wizards were equally as bad, scoring only 19 points themselves in the game’s first 12 minutes.  The Hawks missed their first 8 shots of the contest before Kyle Korver popped the lid off off the basket with a mid-range jumper five minutes into the game.

The Hawks trailed 45-41 at halftime thanks to a solid second quarter from John Wall.  And while the score wouldn’t indicate as much, the Hawks were actually playing well in the first half.  They were moving the ball and getting good looks but the shots just weren’t falling.  Dennis Schroder provided a spark off the bench in the second, as he has become almost unstoppable on the high pick and roll.  If opposing teams switch, he’s just too quick and will go right to the basket; and with his improving jump shot, he can make guards pay if they try to slip under the screen.

Atlanta Hawks
Atlanta Hawks

Atlanta Hawks

The second half was an entirely different story for the Hawks who scored 73 points in what was their best scoring half of the season.  They out-hustled the Wizards from the opening tip and it showed as the Hawks out rebounded the Wizards on the offensive glass, were diving on loose balls and were just more active all the way around.  Kent Bazemore was terrific in the second half, doing a little bit of everything to help the Hawks seal the victory against their first true “test” of the season.  The team answered the call, and through the first two weeks of the season, have silenced any critics who thought that last season was a flash in the pan.

Up next for the Hawks is a home game against the young and talented Timberwolves led by Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns on Monday night at 8:00 pm ET at Philips.  This will be the Hawks 6th game in nine days as the schedule makers didn’t do the team any favors with the 3 back to backs in the season’s first two weeks.

For the Wizards, they’ll try and see if they can cut down on the turnovers (25 tonight) as they head back to the Nation’s Capitol for a tough test against the Oklahoma City Thunder in what could be a teaser for Wizards fans as the Thunder’s Kevin Durant has been rumored to be considering Washington if he hits the free agent market this summer.

Next: Hawks Team Grades vs Pelicans

Atlanta takes the court again on Monday night at Philips Arena as they host the Minnesota Timberwolves at 8 pm ET. The contest will be televised by Fox Sports Southeast beginning at 8 pm ET.