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The Washington Wizards continued their hot start, despite missing starters Rui Hachimura, Spencer Dinwiddie and Daniel Gafford with a 122-111 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday night at Capital One Arena.
Four Wizards scored 20 or more points, led by Bradley Beal with 27, Montrezl Harrell with 25, while Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 11 each.
Washington led at halftime in this game, 64-55. Beal, after a tough showing last night score 17 of his points in the first half on 8-of-16 shooting. Still, they allowed the Hawks to shoot 55 percent from the field. If it weren’t for a strong rebounding game, they have been playing from behind for most of this contest.
But it was the third quarter when the contest began to turn into Washington’s favor as they were able to extend the lead up to 20 points at one time. Kuzma scored 10 and Harrell added 9 more, and he continued to make his impact on the defensive end in an intimidating yet friendly way.
@MONSTATREZZ | #DCAboveAll pic.twitter.com/hnY3uyjPx1
— NBCSports Washington (@NBCSWashington) October 29, 2021
The Hawks were able to get the score down to five with 4:11 left in regulation after a John Collins dunk. But as Wizards radio crew members Dave Johnson and Glenn Connor noted, the Wizards were able to take punches and keep moving forward. They sounded like Rocky Balboa to be honest.
The #RadioParty of @davejsports and @glennconsor sounds like Rocky Balboa right now.
— Albert Lee (@aleeinthedmv) October 29, 2021
“It Ain't How Hard You Hit. It's How Hard You Can Get Hit and Keep Moving Forward. It's About How Much You Can Take And Keep Moving Forward!”
That’s the story of this game.#WizHawks pic.twitter.com/lCs3Wp9EGM
But really, the Wizards were able to get on a run of their own to get the score back to double digits after back to back dunks by Montrezl Harrell and Bradley Beal, and were able to lead by double digits with a minute left. Let’s see that Beal dunk for a sec.
Can't stop watching this #DCAboveAll pic.twitter.com/kwE6KuMa5b
— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) October 29, 2021
Collins led the Hawks with 28 points.
The Wizards’ next game is on Saturday when they face off against the Boston Celtics at home. Tip off is at 5 p.m. ET.
Washington is looking really good right now. The NBA is on notice!
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