clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Wizards at Hawks final score: Lack of hustle results in 113-99 loss

By Albert Lee
Washington Wizards v Atlanta Hawks Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The Wizards lost to the Hawks on Wednesday night, 113-99 after Atlanta went on a 35-23 run in the fourth quarter. Ersan Ilyasova led the way as he scored 11 of his 20 points in the last quarter that put Washington out of their misery. Dennis Schroder led all scorers with 21 on the night.

This loss is very disappointing, because the Wizards just came off a big win against the Celtics on Monday. The Hawks are in a year of transition to say the least and came into this game with the Eastern Conference’s worst record. But now, they just got their first set of back to back wins. Give credit to them for this accomplishment.

There’s another reason why this loss is disappointing. The Wizards, at least early on, were leading. They even raced to a 10 point lead quite early. But Washington had no tenacity, and really, no one played well tonight for the guys in Monumental Red.

Takeaways

Where are the rebounds? - The fourth quarter was when the bottom fell out. But Atlanta played with more tenacity throughout the game. In the third quarter, the Hawks’ shots weren’t falling as they only made 31.8 percent of them while the Wizards made 38.9 percent of theirs. In a vacuum, the Wizards should be winning, all other factors created equal. However, they were outrebounded, 16-8 in that period and 53-40 for the game.

What’s worse is the offensive rebound margin. The Hawks had 16 of them as well as 19 second chance points, while Washington had just nine offensive rebounds and 11 second chance points.

The Wizards are trapping themselves - The Wizards want to say that they’re not “playing to the competition.” But the bottom line is that they are. They were probably looking forward to the home game against the Rockets on Friday.

Next Game

The Wizards play the Rockets at home on Friday. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. ET. Don’t be surprised to see the Wizards win this game, and be happy if they do. But at the same time, losses like this are going to haunt the Wizards at the end of the regular season.