The Hawks needed to play like a No. 1 seed.
That’s exactly what they did.
The Hawks regained home-court advantage in their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Washington Wizards with a much-needed 106-101 victory Monday night at the Verizon Center. The Hawks return to Atlanta for Game 5 on Wednesday with the series tied at 2 in what is now a best-of-three with two games at Philips Arena if a Game 7 is needed.
Jeff Teague led the aggressive-minded Hawks from the opening tip. He finished with 26 points and eight assists. His 3-pointer with 1:12 remaining gave the Hawks a seven-point lead.
That’s the Playoff Teague many have been waiting to emerge.
“I’m just playing basketball, being a confident individual knowing you can make shots,” Teague said. “That goes across the board for our whole team. Al (Horford) made big plays. Dennis (Schroder) made big plays. That is what is going to happen if we are going to be successful.”
The Hawks also got a double-double from Horford with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Paul Millsap, who battled foul trouble much of the game, had 19 points and Schroder added 14 points and eight assists.
“It was actually pretty calm,” Millsap said of the postgame locker room. “We haven’t proved anything yet. We still have to get two more wins. We want to completely stay poised because we know things can turn around. But we know how we need to play, how we need to come out every game.”
With the injured John Wall out for a third game, Bradley Beal was a one-man wrecking crew for the Wizards. He scored a career playoff high 34 points with seven assists and six rebounds. Thirteen of his points came in the fourth quarter.
The Wizards never led after holding a 21-19 advantage in the first quarter. They sure made it close.
Paul Pierce, the hero of Game 3, missed a wide-open 3-pointer with 3.7 seconds left that would have tied the game at 104. The Hawks’ DeMarre Carroll took a significant shove from the Nene to set up the final attempt. Carroll was walking with a significant limp following the game and told reporters he may have a hip pointer.
Millsap hit two free throws with .9 seconds left after the miss and the Hawks escaped.
“The mentality of our group coming out to start the game and working to maintain both ends of the court, how important us being aggressive on defense, us being aggressive on offense, we’ve got to find a way to do that for more of the 48 minutes,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Tonight we got closer to that.”
The Hawk led by as many as 14 points in the first half and they took a 65-55 advantage into intermission.
The Hawks started with an aggressive offense, especially in the first quarter where they shot 59 percent from the field and had 18 points in the paint. They led 29-26 after the first quarter and only because the Wizards were nearly perfect from 3-point range. Of the Wizards first eight field goals, six were from long range.
The Wizards would continue into the second quarter as seven of their first nine and eight of their first 12 field goals were 3-pointers. They ended the first half making 10 of 15 from outside the arc out of 19 field goals.
The Hawks continued to plug away on the inside. Millsap and Horford combined for 25 first-half points in the front court and Teague and Schroder combined for 21 first-half points in the backcourt, most of which came on drives to the basket.
“I thought both Jeff and Dennis were super aggressive,” Kyle Korver said. “Their mindset was I’m getting to the basket. Even if they hedge out on me, I’m making it to the paint. That was big for us today.”
With a 9-0 run to start the third quarter, the Wizards pulled to within a point, 65-64, at the 9:46 mark. Significant in the run was Millsap picked up his third and fourth fouls in the first 1:42 of the period. The Hawks called a timeout and then answered with a 9-2 run of their own. By the end of the quarter, the Hawks lead was back to double-digits at 85-75.
The Hawks finished with 48 points in the paint, a significant number consider how their offense has run for much of the postseason. Budenholzer used a lot more of the combination of Teague and Schroder together and it paid big dividends.
“It’s tough for teams because we can both get in the lane,” Teague said. “We are both really fast with the ball. He can create for others. I can create for others. We both were making shots tonight.”
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