WASHINGTON -- The Hawks have had trouble closing out games as of late but they held on to down the Wizards 130-126 on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena.
Here are five observations:
1. The Hawks led 123-108 with 2:16 left in the game. Wizards guard Tyus Jones completed a four-point play after burying a 3 and making the free throw after he drew a foul. It kicked off an 18-7 run that saw the Hawks give up a couple 3s, a pair of layups, two dunks and three free throws, while they missed seven free throws.
The Hawks’ final two minutes nearly erased one of their most complete games as of late. They came back from trailing 17-4 with 7:21 left in the first quarter to leading 70-58 at halftime.
“As ironic as it sounds, we did a really good job playing with a lead today,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “The end of the game, we missed free throws. We lost track of some shooters at the wrong time. We we made a lot of mistakes defensively. But the other side of that offensively, we took care of the ball, we inbounded the ball, we got good shots. You know, the only thing we didn’t do offensively was make free throws.”
2. The Hawks moved the ball around the court on Sunday, with six different players putting up double-digit points. On top of that, they had four different players end the afternoon with double-doubles.
They made the right plays at the right time with Trae Young dishing out 13 of the Hawks’ 27 assists.
Both Young and backcourt partner Dejounte Murray played off of each other as they kept the offensive productive when the other went to the bench. Young scored 40 points to go with his assists, while Murray scored 32.
“It’s a talented group (and) bunch of guys that could do a lot with the basketball, a lot of guys that could guard on the other end,” Murray said. “And that’s just important to basketball. Just having everyone engaged and feeling like a team on both ends of the floor and being there for each other.”
3. Just like Young and Murray did a good job of setting up plays, the Hawks did a solid job of helping each other on the glass. Leading up to the Sunday, the Hawks have talked about getting bodies into opponents and boxing them out so that they can effectively rebound.
The Hawks decimated the Wizards on the boards, outrebounding them 58-42, with three different players in Saddiq Bey, Clint Capela and Jalen Johnson pulling down more than 10 rebounds apiece.
4. Johnson returned to Capital One Arena, the site of the left wrist fracture that sidelined him for a month. But he showed zero hesitation while stepping back onto that court again. In his first 20 minutes of play he scored 18 points, and had eight rebounds by the end of the first half.
Johnson also punished the rim, throwing down a few thunderous dunks. With 7:19 to play in the first half, he trailed Young in transition before leaping from almost the free-throw line and completed the alley-oop with one hand.
Johnson showed confidence in his jumpers too, after banking in a turnaround jumpshot with 8:40 in the second quarter, before sinking a 3 from the wing with 1:52 to play in the first half.
He had a double-double less than three minutes into the third quarter and he scored a career-high 23 points and had 13 rebounds
5. The Hawks did not have Onyeka Okongwu on Sunday afternoon due to an illness. So, that opened up minutes for Bruno Fernando coming off the bench. Fernando averaged 4.7 minutes per game coming into the afternoon and he gave the Hawks plenty of energy.
But it ended with a little frustration with Fernando getting called for four fouls in 15 minutes. Three of them came in roughly two minutes after dealing with a number of no-calls under the basket.
Stat to know
13 -- Trae Young broke a tie with LeBron James and Allen Iverson for the eighth-most 40-point, 10-assist games in NBA history after putting up his 13th.
Quotable
“Our execution both during the meat of the game, in our flow, and then also in dead balls like the side out of the deep corner out of bounds with one second on the shot clock, they executed and DJ got a 3. I mean, those are winning plays.” -- Hawks coach Quin Snyder on Trae Young and Dejounte Murray’s execution.
Up next
The Hawks host the Thunder on Wednesday at State Farm Arena.
