Who’s crying now?
The Hawks protected home court for a second consecutive game for a 111-101 victory against the Washington Wizards in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series Monday at Philips Arena.
The series is tied at 2 and moves back to Washington, D.C., for Game 5 on Wednesday. There will be a Game 6 at Philips Arena on Friday.
The Hawks went on a 14-5 fourth quarter run to earn the much-needed victory. The run included a highlight worthy put-back from Paul Millsap as he fell backward following a foul. The three-point play gave the Hawks a 103-93 lead.
Yes, it was that kind of night for the Hawks’ star.
The Hawks placed seven players in double figures. Millsap led the way with 19 points. Dwight Howard had his best game of the series with double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds. Dennis Schroder (18), Kent Bazemore (16), Tim Hardaway Jr. (15), Taurean Prince (11) and Jose Calderon (10) also scored in double figures.
The Wizards were led by their backcourt duo as Bradley Beal finished with 32 points and John Wall had 22 points and 10 assists.
The Hawks led by as many as 10 points in the third quarter but lost the advantage. The Wizards never re-took the lead but the teams were tied five times, including at the end of the period at 77.
The Hawks took a 59-50 lead after a dominant second quarter. All of the damage was done with Schroder on the bench after he picked up three first-quarter fouls. The Hawks erased an early deficit and outscored the Wizards 31-15 in the second quarter.
Howard had a double-double by halftime with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Bazemore had 10 points and five assists through two quarters, including feeds to Howard for alley-oop dunks on back-to-back possessions. Howard had 10 points and six rebounds in the second quarter. Calderon played 11 minutes in the second quarter with Schroder on the bench. He had eight points and was a plus-22 in the period but also had three fouls plus a technical.
To sum up the first half, the Hawks led by nine points with their starting point guard with no points, no rebounds, one assist and three fouls in nine minutes.
The Wizards led by as many as nine points in the first quarter thanks to a 15-2 run in the middle of the period. They took a 35-28 advantage into the second quarter before the Hawks’ rally. Millsap got off early with seven first-quarter points with his Wizards’ nemesis Markieff Morris picking up two fouls in the first six minutes.
The Millsap-Morris individual battle has drawn much of the attention in the series. Morris called Millsap a “crybaby” after Game 3. Millsap has clearly gotten the better of the matchup in the past three games.
“First of all, I know why I voted for him an All-Star because this is what he is,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said before the game. “He’s a terrific basketball player.
“He is good. He can score in a number of ways. He’s got a great handle. You’ve seen a number of times he’s brought the ball up the court. He makes great decisions whether it’s for himself attacking the rim or finding the open shooter in the corner. That’s what he does. He’s one of the better players in the league at that position.”
How important was the series-tying win? Entering the 2017 postseason, the league has had 498 best-of-seven series since its first season of 1946-47. Only 11 teams have come back to win after being down 3-1.
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