Things are getting worse after each passing day for the Atlanta Hawks. They lost their fourth-consecutive game this Monday to the middling Charlotte Hornets, 105-90, as their playoff seeding continues to dip so much so that they may reluctantly face this Wednesday’s opponent, third-seeded Washington, in the first round of the postseason.
Six Atlanta players scored in double digits that game – led by point guard Dennis Schroder’s 20 points – but the team as a whole did not shoot well from anywhere on the court. The Hawks finished with clips of 44 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from beyond the arc against on Monday, and they even made just four of their 10 free-throw attempts.
It’s clear that head coach Mike Budenholzer sorely misses two of his key starters in the lineup in Paul Millsap and Kent Bazemore. Neither of them will make the trip out to DC as they continue to deal with their respective knee injuries, so you should expect more dysfunctional play from the team this Wednesday. Atlanta committed 15 turnovers in Charlotte as the Hornets also downright outclassed the Hawks’ bench in scoring, 43-22.
With four losses in their last six road games (SU/ATS) and with each of those defeats holding the team to less than 100 points scored, don’t count on the ailing Hawks the break out of their slump anytime soon, let alone this coming Wednessday night against the Wizards.
We really shouldn’t be giving the Washington Wizards too much credit heading into Wednesday’s clash against the Hawks. They fell to the Boston Celtics on Monday, 110-102, for their fourth defeat in five games after having a superb five-game win streak this month in the midst their West Coast road swing. And with the loss, Washington is now 2.5 games behind Boston for the second seed in the East.
Similar to the Hawks, the Wizards saw six of their players score in double digits on Monday. John Wall had a relatively a meager 16-point, eight rebound outing, while Bradley Beal led his team with 19 points on just 6-of-15 field-goal shooting.
Washington simply couldn’t overcome the triumphant return of Boston’s star player Isaiah Thomas, who missed his past couple of games with (you guessed it) a bummed knee and returned to score a game-high 25 points. In turn, the Wizards played very sloppily in Beantown that evening as they committed 18 turnovers and a season-high 28 fouls. Not only that, but the C’s also dominated them on the boards, 54-39, with 20 of those 54 rebounds coming from the offensive glass.
On the bright side, Washington got power forward Markieff Morris back into the starting five on Monday after a two-game bout with an unspecified illness. Morris finished with 14 points, four rebounds and a block in 31 minutes of action.
We’re also confident that the Wiz can bounce back from that testy contest against the Celtics this Wednesday, considering that they’ve won four of their last six meetings against the Hawks (SU/ATS). Two of those four victories over their Southeast rivals, by the way, were 20-point blowouts.
Writer’s Prediction
The Wizards (-7) snap out of their funk with a much-needed victory, 104-93.
