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Behind John Wall and a bit of animus, the Hawks and Wizards gave us a series
This is still the NBA TV series, we haven’t evaded that. Just because Atlanta and Washington’s date for Game 4 is scheduled to run on TNT on Monday, same as Game 3 was, that batch of semantics won’t be enough to overcome what we expected from this series and what has been confirmed through three, at-times forgettable games.
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The Wizards will enter Monday night’s affair looking to put a crimp on Atlanta’s chances and take a 3-1 series lead with the win, but the Wizards are also the same squad that couldn’t be bothered to anticipate ATL’s of course moment in Game 3 – the Hawks hopped out to that early, 19-4 lead on its way to an 18-point win.
This came after the Hawks struggled to the point of frustration in the team’s attempts to wrangle anything out of its visit to Washington to start the series. The best that we gleaned from that 2-0 Wizards run was the acknowledgment from Wizards forward Markieff Morris that this was going to turn into a “Double MMA” type of series, a curious comment in a first-round matchup that has mostly given us high-octane offense ahead of the typical, grab-and-bore approach that “NBA TV series” denizens have given us in the past.
Which is cool, because these two never had a chance with us. To many, the Wizards are still the squad that started 2-8 and to just as many all you need to know about the Atlanta Hawks is that they somehow snuck two seven-game losing streaks into a 43-win season.
Just because these clubs are mercurial, though, and just because they failed in their achievable attempts at toppling the Cavaliers at the peak of the East in the regular season, this doesn’t feel like a series to turn away from.
Games 1 and 2, performed on national television but with other competing NBA playoff games partially sharing its time slot, still left you compelled in ways that you weren’t in the past when, say, the Hawks matched up with the Heat or the Hornets went to toe-to-toe with, well, the Heat. John Wall’s monstrous play and fully realized reminder of his station amongst the stars wasn’t just Game 1’s defining moment, as we had Paul Millsap (playing in what could be his last month with the Hawks) and Markieff’s back-and-forth for that. Still flexing, Wall and Bradley doubled-up to drop a combined 65 on the Hawks in Game 2.
Meanwhile, Game 3 was a blowout throughout, a wire-to-wire win for Atlanta performed on a network (TNT) and time (mid-afternoon, Saturday) usually reserved for giving ‘Blast From the Past’ another try. It shouldn’t have acted as appointment viewing, but there the fun was: Dennis Schröder teetering on the edge per usual, Millsap giving that max contract another nudge, Markieff Morris willing in his in-and-out looks from the baseline and John Wall carping to the crowd after a made shot during the failed comeback attempt, as if to remind us that “18 points ain’t [stuff].”
It was, it turns out, as Atlanta held on to win. Only more enmity to grind in the mill, we reckon, as the Wizards look to turn the corner against a Hawks team (if not rotation) that knocked the out of the playoffs in 2015.
Via the Associated Press’ Paul Newberry:
”They’re the last team that knocked us out from the playoffs,” Bradley Beal said. ”We’re still a little bitter about that, even though it was two years ago. I still remember it like it was yesterday.”
Even the new guys are on board, starting with first-year Wizards coach Scott Brooks:
”It’s the playoffs,” Washington coach Scott Brooks said Sunday after his team worked out at Georgia Tech’s practice facility. ”We shouldn’t like each other. We want to win and they want to win. It’s not a friendly contest.”
Few of these are, at this point.
Russell Westbrook entered his series with Houston preferring a leather ball to the friendly presence of actual friend James Harden, Doc Rivers refuses to admit Rudy Gobert is good at basketball these days, Fred Hoiberg thinks Isaiah Thomas’ hands are made of stickum and coated in delicious Marmite, Kevin Love kicked Paul George, Rajon Rondo kicked Jae Crowder, while the Grizzlies and Spurs express their longtime devotion toward one another via various prods and pokes.
What makes this series different is the genuine entertainment factor, even with Dwight Howard out there playing like Super Felton Spencer (six points per game, 10.7 rebounds, one block; they never pass him the ball). John Wall is a star, he’s averaged 31 points and 10 assists in this series even though his teammates failed to connect off of several of his feeds in Game 3, and he keeps you from clicking away.
Atlanta can’t offer the same star power, no matter what they hand Paul Millsap this summer, but what it can bring is the animus. Atlanta never seems like it’s an easy place to be, partially due to the insistent nature of coach and [personnel status still undetermined] Mike Budenholzer, desperate in a year that has denied him consistency throughout.
That’s your draw, even with Giannis Antetokounmpo on another channel on Monday, even with Golden State and Portland’s backcourts about to tip off. The Wizards and Hawks backed their way into a series worth our time.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
