Washington Wizards defeat the top-seeded Hawks
The Washington Wizards came out victorious in their last home game of the season against the Eastern Conference-champion Atlanta Hawks last night, winning the game by a score of 108-99. However, the win is not that impressive considering that Atlanta was without three of their starters. Al Horford, Kyle Korver, and Jeff Teague each missed this game due to a coach’s decision.
Last night’s competition was the Wizards last home game of the regular season, as they have now finished the season with a nice 29-12 record when playing in the Verizon Center. The victory also marks their 46th win of the season, which will guarantee the Wizards to have a record of 10 games or more over .500 for the first time in eight years.
The Wizards still hold the fifth seed in the East, and stand two games behind both the fourth and third seeds in the conference. With that being said, the Wiz will likely enter the 2015 postseason with the same seed that they had in 2014, despite a miracle occurring in the last two games.
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John Wall lead the way for Washington, scoring 24 points, while dishing out nine assists, and grabbing four rebounds. He also made two three pointers in the game, which is a rarity for Wall. He does not very often make any three-pointers in a single game let alone multiple.
The Wizards brought a 21-point lead into halftime, but power forward Mike Scott was able to pull the Hawks within single-digits. However, his 19 points were not enough to overcome the large lead that Washington built for themselves in the first half of this game.
If the season ended today, the Chicago Bulls would be the Wizards first-round opponent. We all know the irony involved in that. Washington could be travelling to The Windy City next week, the exact same place that they started the 2014 playoffs in.
Without any real scorer on their roster, Chicago struggled to put points up on the board and fell to the Wizards in five games. The task will be a little tougher for Washington this year, though. Derrick Rose has returned and the veteran Pau Gasol has added an extra scoring punch for the Bulls.
Whether it’s the Toronto Raptors or Chicago, making it past the first round will be no easy task for the Wizards. However, if everyone stays healthy and performs like they should, then the Wiz should be able to advance to the second round for a second straight season.