Wizards advance in Game 6 blowout of Hawks, 115-99: 3 takeaways
By John Buhler
The Washington Wizards outlasted the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, beating Atlanta 115-99 to win their best-of-seven series in six games. Here are three takeaways.
The No. 4 versus No. 5 series in the 2017 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals has come to a close on Friday night. Game 6 goes to the Washington Wizards, as they were able to dominate the Atlanta Hawks on the road 115-99, advancing to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Wizards will face their emerging rival Boston Celtics in round two.
This best-of-seven first-round series had been a great one through the first five games, with the home team winning each of those games. Atlanta gave Washington a solid effort, but ran out of gas at the end both halves to lose in blowout fashion. Washington took care of business and will play in its second Eastern Conference Semifinals in three seasons.
Here are the three biggest takeaways from Washington’s series clinching win over Atlanta.
Takeaways
From Wall Street to Beal Street, this was the Wizard’s night. Just looking at the stat lines from Game 6, it’s obvious that Washington leaned on its two best players — point guard John Wall and shooting guard Bradley Beal — to knock off the rival Hawks.
Wall had his best playoff performance to date with 42 points on 16-25 shooting with eight assists, four steals and two blocks in 43 minutes. He just straight up crushed the Hawks. Beal did his thing with 31 points on 11-17 shooting with three assists, three rebounds and three steals. He didn’t have to take a ton of 3-pointers to drain the Hawks. His mid-range game was a big part in the Washington win.
When a team’s two best backcourt players shoot 64.0 and 64.7 percent from the field and score a combined 73 points, it will be difficult to lose that ball game. Washington as a team shot 53.8 percent from the field. The Wizards really pushed around one of the better defensive teams in basketball on their home court to eliminate a divisional foe.
Atlanta loves turnovers more than Arby’s. What ruined Atlanta’s hopes for a Game 7 in Washington more than anything was the absurd number of turnovers the Hawks coughed up. Washington is elite in transition offense, so turning the basketball over that rapidly was literally a death sentence for Atlanta.
The Hawks turned the ball over 22 times to Washington’s 16. Atlanta’s three guilty parties on Friday night were Kent Bazemore, Paul Millsap and Dwight Howard.
Bazemore looked like Chance the Rapper trying to play in the NBA with a terrible seven turnovers. Millsap played well otherwise with 31 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and a block, but those six turnovers of his were painful. Howard got off to a fast start in the first quarter, but nine points, seven rebounds and five turnovers wasn’t good enough to help Atlanta fight another day.
Markieff Morris won the Crybaby War? Remember when Wizards power forward Markieff Morris called Hawks power forward a crybaby mid-way through the series? He sounded pretty petty with that remark about Millsap.
However, Morris had one of his better games of the first-round series in Game 6 — 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting with eight rebounds and three blocks. Morris didn’t find himself in foul trouble this game. That helped Washington stay ahead of Atlanta for most of the contest.
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His strong play in Game 6 was important to complement the stellar games of both Wall and Beal. Morris may have lost the initial Battle of the Crybabies with Millsap mid-series, but his team did advance over Millsap’s. Morris won the Crybaby War over Millsap. His award is the Celtics. Millsap gets a Crying Jordan heading into free agency.