Wall Powers Wizards To Game 1 Win Over Hawks

“Not only is [Wall] one of the best players at his position, he’s one of the best players in the game”, said Scott Brooks. “We got home court and we’re ready for sure”, he said.

Wall delivered a dominant 32-point, 14-assist masterclass to lead the Wizards to an 114-107 win over the Hawks to take a 1-0 series lead.

“I just got to be more aggressive”, Millsap said.

Wall was just fine. The Wizards prefer the latter.

Dennis Schroeder: The Hawks’ front office signaled their belief that Schroeder is their point guard of the future last summer when they moved on from Jeff Teague. They have done some damage against Atlanta this season. “He did a great job today”. He also played a big part in the Thunder leading the league in rebounding, which will be crucial in the playoffs for giving the team extra possessions. Even when the Wizards aren’t on the break in a traditional sense, Wall is operating against a defense that hasn’t had the chance to set up, and his team isn’t really running a play. Millsap, who missed eight games while resting a knee injury, went over 20 points in two of the four games after his return but was limited to an average of 16 points on 41.5 percent shooting in three games against Washington this season. The Hawks won the bench battle against their top-heavy opponents, but it wasn’t almost enough to keep them in the game. Gortat, with 14 points (7/11 FG) and 10 rebounds, put together a double-double and held Howard to seven points on 2/6 shooting.

Washington center Marcin Gortat finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Bradley Beal made three field goals and committed two fouls in the half.

Morris statistically outperformed Millsap during the regular-season meetings and did so again in the playoff opener.

Even though the Hawks will be making their 10th straight postseason appearance, the team has generated little buzz around the National Basketball Association or even in its own city, where home games continue to be marked by thousands of empty seats and most sports fans seem more focused on the start of baseball season, the NFL draft and a promising new soccer team, Atlanta United.

Wall dominated the period from there.

“I told the guys coming out it was going to be physical and we wanted to throw the first punch”, he said.

“We have a deep bench and I think we’re going to try to use as much of it as we can”, Budenholzer said.

This should come in handy when it comes to spacing the floor and freeing up room for Wall or Beal to drive.

Cats fans won’t get to watch superstars such as DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins, Anthony Davis, or Karl-Anthony Towns and plenty others – as their teams failed to make the postseason. It formed a foundation that the Wizards still relied on later in the game, when the offenses prospered.

The Hawks clinched the fifth seed by winning four in a row late in the season, including a home-and-home sweep over the defending National Basketball Association champion Cleveland Cavaliers. As for Atlanta, this loss is slightly worse than the seven-point defeat indicates.

“You’ve got to give them a lot of credit, they got it going”, Green said.

“We needed that extra little boost, that extra little nudge to get us back to where we needed to be”, Millsap said. “But when I’m into it like that, if I’m scoring or my teammates are scoring, I’m always going to be hyped”. Young has only played in 29 games this season, averaging 2.3 points in just 7.6 minutes per game.

Trail Blazers: McCollum is the eighth Portland player with 40-point playoff performance, the second ever of his career.