ATLANTA — Saturday’s result defined in everyone’s mind, if not by the clock, Bradley Beal slowly walked to the visitor’s bench looking at the ground. He sat, took a red towel and wiped the sweat from his head, then his right shoulder, a place that had been cold all evening but still needed a wipe down.
While Beal tended to his perspiration and lamented his 4-for-17 shooting, Kent Bazemore made a corner 3-pointer. The make vaulted Atlanta’s lead back to 22 points, which it had seemingly been since the opening tip. The Hawks took Game 3 with ferocity from beginning until end in Phillips Arena. The final score was 116-98, but it was over three minutes after it started. Washington leads, 2-1, in the best-of-seven series that resumes in Atlanta on Monday night.
John Wall tried to mitigate the disaster. He scored 29 points in three quarters. It took him just 12 shots. He received almost no help all evening. For the final two minutes of the third quarter, he sat next to Beal on the bench with a red towel of his own over his shoulders and another covering his lap. He would not have been faulted if he used a third to cover his eyes.
It can go like this in Game 3. The underdog returns home in various stages to an anxious arena. It can be looking to take a 3-0 lead in a series, all but ending it. If there was a split on the road, going up 2-1 after a home win shifts homecourt. Or, a team is loaded with desperation, as the Hawks were, because they trailed 0-2. Atlanta’s leader, Paul Millsap, said after Game 2 that the Hawks viewed the series as 0-0 because the Wizards had held homecourt, nothing more. How much he believed that, who knows? He knew a 3-0 deficit meant a severe hole, but not how much until being informed postgame. No team in NBA history that trailed 3-0 has ever won a seven-game series. Only three had even forced a Game 7.
Three minutes into the game, Wizards coach Scott Brooks called timeout. He could address the bad transition defense or the lack of passing. An 11-point Atlanta lead built in just 180 seconds was filled with detrimental issues to discuss. Choosing just one surely would be difficult.
These timeouts are presumably to stifle an avalanche already halfway down the hill. Instead, the situation just became worse for Washington. That 11-point lead went to 15 then 25 after unguardable — or unguarded, depending on perspective — Hawks point guard Dennis Schroder made a 3-pointer. At the end of one quarter, Washington had used 12 minutes to score 20 points. Wall scored 14 of them. His teammates spent the majority of their time chasing their tails and Atlanta.
“They jumped on us in that first,” Brooks said. “Their sense of urgency was very high. I wouldn’t say we came out relaxed, we came out missing shots, but we let that affect our defense. That’s happened before with us during the season and it’s not pretty. We have to make sure if we don’t make shots, they’re not making shots. The 38 points is not a good indicator of that. We were hoping they would miss instead of making them miss.”
Washington shot an abominable 30.4 percent in the first quarter. Atlanta made more 3-pointers (5) in the quarter than it had in Game 2 (4). The quarter was an epic mess that was never cleaned up.
“We just could never recover from a bad start,” Brooks said.
Searching for aid, Brooks sent Jason Smith and Kelly Oubre into the game. Smith committed two fouls in 53 seconds. Oubre missed three shots, committed a foul and turnover in 5:33 on the floor. Smith would eventually foul out in just eight minutes on the floor. Oubre was 3-for-11 from the field, on the court for much of the fourth quarter because of Otto Porter’s chest injury after a screen walloped him. Oubre fouled out, too. X-rays on Porter’s chest were negative and the team called the injury a “stinger.”
A surge to squeeze the lead never came from Washington. At halftime, Wall had 21 points on 7-for-8 shooting. His teammates shot 11-for-37 in the half. Beal’s inaccurate shooting came from behind the 3-point line, midrange and just about anywhere he released a shot. Beal was 3-for-11 at the half, one that included a two-possession spurt of back-to-back makes. He did not make a 3-pointer on the evening. That last time he did not make a 3-pointer in a game was Jan. 21.
“Every player will go through a stretch of games where you’re not going to shoot the ball well,” Brooks said. “He’ll bounce back.”
Meanwhile, Millsap powered his way to 29 points and 14 rebounds. Schroder finished with 27 points and nine assists. The Hawks’ role players flourished.
Once Hawks forward Taurean Prince dunked with 3:24 to play, Brooks took his starters off the floor. Rookie Daniel Ochefu entered the game along with fellow rookie Sheldon Mac. The starters sat with stoic faces on the bench. Washington had come to Atlanta expecting a stout shot from the Hawks. It received one.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.