Hawks roll the Wizards 111-101, series tied 2-2

ATLANTA — Paul Millsap made the head-scratching claim in Washington that the series was just 0-0 in his mind despite a 2-0 Washington lead. He was referring to the Wizards holding homecourt, and how Atlanta was undeterred by the deficit, expecting to do the same.

Millsap was correct. Atlanta took both games once it returned home, tying the first-round playoff series with the Washington Wizards after a 111-101 win Monday night at Phillips Arena. The series will last a minimum of six games. Game 5 is Wednesday night in Washington. Game 6 will be Friday night in Atlanta, adding another trip south the Wizards very much wanted to avoid.

“Basically, what I see is two very good basketball teams, evenly matched, fighting for their playoff lives” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said.

Bradley Beal scored 32 points. John Wall added 22 and 10 assists. But, Washington was undone by an early fourth-quarter sequence when Atlanta moved to an eight-point lead against a band of the Wizards’ backup players. A rally by the Wizards’ starters stalled when Dennis Schroder watched a 3-pointer bounce, bounce, bounce and drop to give Atlanta a 10-point lead with 1:47 to play. An oddity when Schroder was off the floor will also be attached to this game.

In consecutive games, Washington has spent a single quarter being trampled. In Game 3, the Wizards took their lumps in the first quarter. Monday, it was in the second quarter when their dismantling began despite Schroder’s attacking ability and spot of yellow hair being on the bench.

He played just nine minutes in the first half because three fouls forced him off the floor. Schroder, who was averaging 25 points per game in the first three games, had two fouls with 4:08 to play in the first quarter. Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer left him on the floor. Less than 90 seconds later, Schroder committed his third and was done for the half. Enter Jose Calderon.

Instead of further progress after a 35-point first quarter, Washington reverted to the out-of-sync blend it was in the first quarter Saturday. A seven-point lead that existed after 12 minutes went away. Then, Atlanta began to build toward its nine-point halftime lead.

After not turning the ball over once in the first quarter, Washington turned it over eight times in the second. Calderon, the Hawks’ creaky 35-year-old backup point guard, survived defensively against Brandon Jennings, Bojan Bogdanovic, then, eventually, even Beal. The quarter ended when Wall took a spinning midrange jumper against multiple defenders. He missed. Beal was standing at the top of the key and open when Wall shot. Beal did not help Wall up after the shot. Instead, he walked off the floor irritated. Calderon scored eight points in the quarter and finished with 10 in the game. He had eight total in the prior three games. By the end of the evening, he was smiling at the postgame podium in a sweater any grandmother would approve of. Calderon was an astonishing plus-29 during his 20 minutes on the floor.

“That can’t happen,” Jennings said. “We’re just letting certain guys get off that we can’t let get off.”

“We can’t have him as an X-factor,” Marcin Gortat said, shaking his head.

Plugging away in the third drew Washington even. Beal scored nine points in the quarter, but picked up his fourth foul right at the end. He, like other Washington players, was a victim of Jennings’ inability to defend. Beal had to guard Schroder since it has been well-defined in the series that Jennings cannot. His fourth foul was a result of doing so. The Wizards had at least tied the game, setting up a fourth-quarter that could swing the series either way. That’s when Atlanta made Millsap look prescient with an early 8-0 run — again with Calderon on the floor — against a Washington group that had Otto Porter as the lone starter.

Going home even cuts the series to a best-of-three. Only Cleveland has advanced to the next round in the Eastern Conference. Everyone else remains fighting it out. Boston and Chicago are tied. Toronto moved to a 3-2 lead against Milwaukee on Monday night. By Friday evening, Washington will either be on the edge of ending another season well before it feels it should or on the verge of closing off a series in held a two-game advantage in before it slipped away.

“Still high,” said Jennings of the team’s mood. “When we took a timeout with 12 seconds to go, we all came together, just said, ’Stick together and get ready for Game 5.’”