Wall, Beal pace Wizards past Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks have won four straight home games.

So when you stack up the numbers and watch the games, the conclusion is clear: Wall – not Irving, Thomas, or Lowry – is the best point guard in the East.

Wizards coach Scott Brooks has a difference view of Wall’s surges.

The Hawks stayed in the game by getting to the free-throw line frequently. In fact, the Wizards wrestled it away to the tune of a 14-0 run in response and Marcin Gortat provided the energy for the home team with three blocked shots.

The entire starting five needs to play better the rest of the way, especially against Washington’s starting group. Kent Bazemore committed a two costly turnovers when the Hawks tried to play just a couple minutes without a traditional point guard. In addition, that three-point impotence marked the first time all season that the Hawks failed to knock down a three during a full half. He just been outclassed by Wall on his ascendance to bona fide superstardom.

The first-half was ugly for both sides, but the Hawks were happy to be within single digits at the break. A unusual anomaly from this game: Atlanta did not make a 3-point field goal during the entire first half. More noteworthy: There were 29 personal fouls in the opening 24 minutes, 55 for the game. The Hawks finished the game with 18 that led to 23 points for the Wizards. Rowland points out the absence of Dwight Howard, discusses Tim Hardaway Jr.’s porous defense, praises Paul Millsap‘s outstanding performance, and gets into several other Hawks related topics. He was shooting some free throws. Atlanta made 86.8 percent of its attempts at the charity stripe. And no matter what Atlanta tried, coach Mike Budenholzer’s team just couldn’t keep up.

Game 3 is Friday night in Oklahoma City.

If you like fouls, you would have loved this game. One of their best defensive players, Thabo Sefolosha, didn’t play in Game 1, but he could be a key to their perimeter coverage and could be used to try and slow down John Wall or Bradley Beal in Game 2. Both of the teams looking for their win in this Game 2.

Atlanta had 26 personal fouls to Washington’s 29.

Millsap took issue with the way Morris and the Wizards tried to overpower him in the Hawks’ 114-107 loss. Marcin Gortat is the third double-digit scorer and Markieff Morris is grabbing five rebounds. Still, Porter was a +19 when he was on the court and Morris was +16, even though they only combined for seven points, which shows how valuable their minutes were when they were in the game. In the fourth quarter, that all changed as they took matters into their own hands.

Over the course of the final six minutes, Wall, along with his backcourt buddy, Bradley Beal took over, hitting big shot after big shot down the stretch.

JaVale McGee has made a name for himself catching lob passes and reliably slamming them home to the pure delight of his teammates, and oh did those matter for short-handed Golden State as it moved one win closer to another National Basketball Association championship.