WASHINGTON (AP) - For a while the mantra around the Washington Wizards was: “Everybody eats.”
With the regular season winding down, the slumping Wizards are starving.
Taurean Prince scored 23 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, and the Atlanta Hawks rallied to beat the Wizards 103-97 on Friday night.
Washington, which led by six points in the fourth quarter, dropped its fourth straight game and fell into eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
“Nobody wanted to share the basketball tonight. Simple as that. Nobody wanted to share the basketball tonight,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “When you take bad shots you end up missing. Simple game.”
Washington shot 40.2 percent (35 of 87) from the field compared to 48.1 percent (38 of 79) for Atlanta.
Bradley Beal led the Wizards with 32 points.
Wizards point guard John Wall sat out what was the second of back-to-back games for Washington, and forward Markieff Morris left with 4:11 remaining in the first quarter when he picked up two quick technical fouls.
Six Hawks scored in double figures. Reserve Tyler Dorsey had 22 points, including 13 in the second half for the Hawks, who had lost two straight.
Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 13 points for the Wizards and Otto Porter Jr. had 10.
“The ball has been sticking,” Porter said of the Wizards’ offense. “We’ve got to do a better job of moving the ball, looking for the extra pass, looking for the right pass.”
The Wizards trailed by four to start the fourth quarter, but Beal scored seven straight points to put Washington ahead 93-87 with 5:28 left to play.
Atlanta rallied and Mike Muscala’s corner 3 gave the Hawks the lead at the 2:04 mark.
Prince scored four straight points to make it 99-93 as the Wizards went over five minutes without a field goal before Tomas Satoransky’s basket cut the deficit to 99-95 with 43 seconds remaining.
Dewayne Dedmon’s dunk off a pass from Prince pushed the Hawks’ lead back to six.
“They made a little run in the fourth and we just battled back,” Dorsey said. “And we just made big shots. Timely passes, timely shots.and we finished the game strong with big plays.
Beal was 0 for 4 from the field down the stretch.
“When you lose a lead in the fourth quarter and you’re on the road it’s not easy,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said.
TIP-INS
Hawks: Earned a split of the season series. … Improved to 7-33 on the road. … DeAndre’ Bembry missed a pair of free throws early in the fourth quarter and, as a result, everyone in the arena won free fast food. … The Hawks were just 16 of 23 from the free throw line.
Wizards: C Ian Mahinmi (concussion) did not play and is day-to-day. … Topped 2,000 assists (2,016) for just the second season since 1992. . Morris has 13 technical fouls on the season. … Beal recorded the 21st 1,800-point season (1,825) in team history, joining Wall as the only player on the active roster to accomplish it.
FINDING HIS RANGE
Oubre hit multiple 3-pointers in a game for the first time since March 23. He went 3 for 7 against the Hawks after going 2 for 35 over the past seven games.
DORSEY DOING IT
Dorsey is finishing his rookie season strong, averaging 16.8 points over his last five games. “He’s just grown with his opportunities, doing more and more, making big shots,” Budenholzer said.
UP NEXT
Hawks: At Boston on Sunday.
Wizards: Host Boston on Tuesday night.
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