Atlanta Hawks Game Preview: Ariza Debuts for the Wizards?
By Chris Guest
A preview of the Atlanta Hawks next game against the Washington Wizards.
The Atlanta Hawks play tonight against the Washington Wizards, which will be the two teams’ second meeting this season. The Wizards won the first bout by a final margin of 131 to 117.
The first was a rousing win for the Wizards at home, and Washington will look to continue its solid play of late. Though the Wiz started the season on shaky terms, they’ve come around of late with far better play than how they started the season.
Though Washington still has a rather ugly record of 12-18, that puts them only 2.5 games out of the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference and only 3.5 games behind the currently 6th-seeded Detroit Pistons.
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The Wizards might be only 4-6 in their last 10 games, but the team’s most recent bout was an absolute trucking of the Los Angeles Lakers in which the Wiz completely dominated the ascendant Lakers.
John Wall had an incredible game, dominated in a fashion not seen for a while for the Wall-Star; he finished with 40 points on and extremely efficient 16 of 27 shooting (4 of 8 from three) with 14 assists (many of them flashy highlight-reel ones), 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks. A virtuoso showing to be sure.
This performance might’ve put to rest any doubts that people had about Wall’s preseason and early-season conditioning, as he did look a bit more rotund than we’ve come to expect from Wall. However, he seemed to be quite lithe and unstoppable in this game, so perhaps the Eastern Conference better watch out.
This game also might mark the debut of Trevor Ariza with the Wizards this season after the amusing occurrences surrounding the first trade being scrapped surrounding Ariza to the Wizards.
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This game tips off at 7:30 p.m. EST.