The Hawks have had a strangely competitive recent streak against the moribund Washington Wizards. Tonight, they looked to handle business in NBA Cup action against their division rivals.
Minus Trae Young,
the Hawks had everyone available for this one. The Wizards were without their breakout player Kyshawn George, lottery pick Tre Johnson, and veteran former lottery pick Marvin Bagley III.
The early minutes were one-sided against the Hawks’ favor. They simply couldn’t buy a bucket, and CJ McCollum and company poured in almost every attempt on the other end. In a flash, the Hawks were in an 18-2 hole. The had to get out their shovels and start digging.
Somehow, it got worse. The Hawks defense parted like the Red Sea for a few possessions and gave up open layups. The score ballooned to 31-8 with under eight minutes played in the game.
And then, amazingly, it got worse. The Wizards began 8-for-8 from three and Atlanta just looked mentally checked out before the first quarter had ended.
After one quarter, it was a blowout, 45-23.
The Hawks regained some footing in the second quarter, but it was difficult to put a dent in the huge deficit. Still, they registered some nice defensive stops and cut a once 29-point gap into just being down 13 points around halfway through the second quarter.
Here, Jalen Johnson more than meets Bub Carrington at the rim:
But the Wizards pushed back, and, led by CJ McCollum’s 27 on 10-for-13 shooting, they took a 77-55 lead into halftime.
The second half isn’t even worth recapping. It was a dreadful showing against a previously one-win team that the Hawks need to never let happen again.
Wizards won 132-113. CJ McCollum dropped in 46 points on 17-for-25 shooting. No Hawks deserve their stat line highlighted.
The team will have almost 72 hours to stew on this awful performance before they play the Cavaliers at home on Black Friday.
