Hawks take down Wizards in an overtime nailbiter 100-95

WASHINGTON -- Wow. Hell of a game, eh? Hard fought all the way through, but they couldn't pull it out in the end. An unfriendly roll here, a no-call there. And that's the difference in this game.

But being the optimist that I am, I saw a lot that I liked in this game, so here's a quick list of highlights (with NO lowlights):

BRADLEY BEAL!

Besides a scare in the 3rd quarter when Beal hit the deck hard, there's not one thing I disliked seeming him do this entire game. He was aggressive going to the basket. He scored from outside. He played defense. He scored 17 points, and it could have easily been more had he not been out for that stretch in the 3rd after his fall.

EARL BARRON!

Remember him? Been a while since we'd seen him, but Barron played some great defense in the first half, and had some great offense in the second half. He finished with 14 rebounds in 24 minutes, because why the hell not.

JORDAN FREAKING CRAWFORD!

27 points on 22 shots? Not so good. 5-10 from 3? Not a bad clip, JCraw. But the best part was his 11(!!!) assists, tying a career high he set against Cleveland in April 2011. But maybe he should keep passing throughout the whole game. Alas, live and learn.

NENE!

Sure he had 18 points, but his defense is what this team needs. That drawn charge on Jeff Teague that sent the game into overtime was so clutch, it made my heart skip a beat. I don't know what that even means, other than Nene is a good defender, and he makes a huge difference on this team.

What else did you like? I guess since I didn't mention any, what didn't you like?

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