Alex Brandon/Associated Press - Washington’s John Wall tries to drive by Atlanta guard Jeff Teague during the second half at Verizon Center. Wall had 19 points as seven Wizards scored in double figures in a 115-83 rout of the Hawks.
The Washington Wizards were in an interesting predicament as they hosted the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. With a win, the Wizards would improve the first-round draft selection they received from the Hawks in their trade-deadline deal involving Kirk Hinrich. With a loss, they would improve their chances of winning the NBA lottery.
It didn’t take long for the Wizards to show they had decided to go for the win and worry about getting lucky in the lottery later.
More than three years of pent up frustrations were unleashed on the unsuspecting Hawks, as the Wizards snapped a 12-game losing streak to Atlanta — their longest against any opponent in the NBA — with a resounding 115-83 victory before 19,771 at Verizon Center.
In one of their best efforts against a quality team this season, the Wizards dismantled the Hawks and got production from all over, with at least nine players receiving 20 minutes and Andray Blatche leading seven players in double figures with 23 points. Before the game, Wizards assistant Don Zierden reminded the players of how much the Hawks had dominated them in recent years. The Wizards hadn’t defeated Atlanta since Jan. 11, 2008.
“Coach Z, he told us he wanted us to give them a beating, beat ’em bad,” John Wall said after getting 19 points and seven assists. “We hadn’t won against them in a long time.
“We just wanted to keep fighting.”
JaVale McGee got the highlight-filled night going early on as he caught a pass from Wall on the break and finished with a reverse dunk. Former Hawk Jordan Crawford stole the ball from all-star Joe Johnson, then fired a pass ahead to another former Hawk, Maurice Evans, for an exciting two-handed slam dunk. Wall faked out Jeff Teague by wrapping the ball around his waist before making a whirling layup.
Wall later tossed a lob to Yi Jianlian, who dunked over Hinrich. Hinrich, facing the Wizards for the first time since the trade, frowned as he walked away from the play, displaying a look of consternation that was a regular occurrence in his brief stint with Washington.
The Wizards welcomed back Hinrich with some humor, leaving the Kansas alum a Virginia Commonwealth T-shirt hanging in his locker room stall when he arrived.
“We had a little bit of fun with him,” Coach Flip Saunders said. “Just a little bit of reminder of what VCU did to Kansas. We’re not going to just let him off lightly. All kinds of little things to make him feel at home.”
Then, the Wizards handed out a serious beatdown. Since defeating the Wizards on Feb. 5, the season has gone south for the Hawks (44-36), with them losing 19 of 30. They are 10-13 since trading for Hinrich, who had just three points.
Crawford and Evans rarely played for the Hawks but got some semblance of revenge with a victory over their former team. Crawford had averaged 21.4 points since being inserted into the starting lineup, but he wasn’t complaining after finishing with just six points — his worst scoring output since becoming a starter. He did hand out a team-high eight assists.
“I definitely wanted to come out and show that I can play in the NBA. I didn’t get a chance the first couple of months,” Crawford said. “It felt good. I just wanted to do a good job of getting my teammates the ball.
“It takes more than one person to win.”
Evans scored 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting, getting three dunks and two layups, including a tip-in with 0.4 of a second left in the first half that helped the Wizards take a 61-46 lead into the locker room.
“Every time somebody gets traded, you want to help them go at that team. That’s what we did, we let them go out and have fun and try to beat them as bad as we could,” said Blatche, the only member of the team who knew what it felt like to defeat the Hawks while wearing a Wizards uniform. “We came out with a lot of energy.
“Guys was hitting shots and guys coming off the bench were on point, and that’s how we got a great lead on them.”
Most of the Wizards starters sat in the fourth quarter, while a unit that featured Yi (15 points, nine rebounds), Kevin Seraphin, three former members of the NBA Development League — Othyus Jeffers (13 points, 11 rebounds), Larry Owens (10 points) and Mustafa Shakur — was able to extend the lead to as many as 34 points. The Wizards outscored the Hawks, 27-11, in the final quarter.
The Wizards have won four of their past six games and will play their home finale on Monday against Boston.
“In our league, every team, I don’t care who it is, no matter how good you are or how bad you are, there’s a point in every game, if you jump on every team, they say, ‘tonight’s not the night,’ ” Saunders said of the Hawks. “We played well from beginning to end. Unexpected in very rarely do you see a team in four games in five nights in four different cities come out with great energy, but our guys had great energy. Hungry.”
| Wizards | Hawks |
| 115 | 83 |
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