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Magical Pixels, Wizards vs. Hawks: Win nearly slips away on slick Verizon Center court

Because the floor was wet with NHL ice, you see.

By Jeff Newman
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Twas a squeaker, but the Wizards pulled out the 101-97 win over the Hawks, cutting their magic number to one, and increasing their lead for the sixth seed to three games.

But almost as concerning as the win nearly slipping away, was the slip-in-slide surface the Wizards found themselves playing on. Apparently, a quick turnaround for Verizon Center crews following an afternoon Capitals game led to some moisture seeping its way up onto the court.

The results were a handful of Three Stooges-type falls, only without the comedy. Bradley Beal fell a few times, including an ugly slip in the corner in which his right leg got bent back beneath him. John Wall slipped, and Trevor Ariza suffered a groin injury on his own fall.

Anyway, one night after leading the Wiz to a huge win over the Pacers, Wall did so again against the Hawks, scoring 25 points (3-of-4 from three) to go with six assists, seven rebounds and three steals. Marcin Gortat recorded another double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Beal had another poor shooting night, finishing with 14 points on 5-of-15 from the field, but found other ways to contribute, chipping in five assists and six rebounds. Ariza scored an efficient 13 points on six shots. Drew GODden (16 points, 5-of-5 shooting) and Andre Miller (10 points, 4-of-4) were perfect from the field.

Way to get the win, Wizards. Now sop up that floor. Next up, a road game in Charlotte against the seventh-seeded Bobcats. A win would give Washington a pretty firm grip on the sixth-seed. In fact, Washington is only one game behind the Nets for the fifth seed.

Oh, and everyone remember to root hard for the Warriors today -- a win over the Knicks, and the Wiz needn't worry about that magic number anymore. THEY'LL BE IN THE PLAYOFFS BABY, WOOO!!

KEY LINKS

Road team recaps: BF StoryStream | Washington Post | AP | CSN Washington (recap, sidebar) | Wiz of Awes | Wizards.com | Monumental Network

Home team recaps: Peachtree Hoops | Atlanta Journal-Constitution (gamer, sidebar) | HawksHoop

Game highlights

Postgame interviews: Randy Wittman | John Wall | Marcin Gortat | Trevor Ariza | Al Harrington

KEY STATS

38.1 - Bradley Beal's field goal percentage in March. That's bad.

46.4 - John Wall's three point percentage (32-of-69) in March. That's really, really good.

TWEETS OF THE NIGHT

Cue the irony bell.

VIDEO/GIF OF THE NIGHT

Yes it is, John. Yes it it.

GAMETHREAD COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

Protip: Office references = automatic win.

My relationship with Trevor Booker is the same as the one between Michael Scott and Toby Flenderson

by elliotlevy2 on Mar 29, 2014 | 5:57 PM

GAMETHREAD ROLLCALL

# Commenter # Comments
1 qthaballa 121
2 Hands11 98
3 HailSkinz 94
4 elliotlevy2 68
5 TheBackCourt 44
6 Baird15 42
7 UNOIMRITE 37
8 richkam14 35
9 tw10 33
10 LRJ 31
11 Wall_Hopeful 26
12 MC-Sneaks 25
13 BulletsBaby 21
14 BealMVP4ever 21
15 DCKRS 20
16 Inside Job 16
17 DMV Cock 11
18 _Chris 11
19 HSLex 11
20 John Wall Stan 10
21 Banode 7
22 TyeBrown 6
23 abdou77 6
24 segrt12 6
25 Zachary Beard 5
26 b3nz 5
27 hambonejackson 4
28 do.itch.big 4
29 t0Shihiro 4
30 Houseofguards 4
31 Bradley_B3al 3
32 KurisuDevil 3
33 Big Spoon 3
34 little stevie colter 2
35 bartek.biadasiewicz 2
36 lahtdah 2
37 freshcat 2
38 Roman Wizards Fan 2
39 hotplate 2
40 ATrueNigerian 2
41 obeast 2
42 thewiz06 2
43 The Hoops Guru 2
44 Asdesas 1
45 Entr0py 1
46 Kend3zy 1
47 makpilot23 1
48 LRaydellMundo 1
49 Im_So_DC 1
50 WAAAAALL-E 1

In This Stream

Wizards vs. Hawks: The magic number is down to one

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