De’Andre Hunter’s 3-pointer with 1:07 left gave Atlanta the lead and the Hawks held on for a 122-120 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night despite a career-high 43 points from Kristaps Porzingis.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
AP Photo/Lawrence Kesterson
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
WASHINGTON (AP) — De’Andre Hunter’s 3-pointer with 1:07 left gave Atlanta the lead for good and the Hawks held on for a 122-120 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night despite a record-setting Kristaps Porzingis’ career 43 points.
The teams will wrap up the two-game set in Washington on Friday night.
After Hunter put the Hawks up 117-114, Bradley Beal made just one of two free throws with 52.7 seconds left for Washington. Beal then stole the ball from Trae Young but couldn’t convert on the layup, and Hunter’s two free throws pushed the lead to four.
Beal was then called for a trip, one of several mistakes he made in the fourth quarter as the center of the offense moved toward him and away from Porzingis.
“Happy with the effort and proud of tonight, I think our team was just competitive,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “I thought we really competed.”
Porzingis made all five of his field goal attempts in the fourth — including four 3-pointers — but his last-second 3 only cut the final deficit to two. He finished 17-of-22 from the field, 7-of-10 from beyond the arc.
“He was unstoppable tonight,” Snyder said. “When he’s that big and makes a contested 2. I thought we gave him some threes.”
Young led Atlanta with 28 points and 10 assists. He shot 11 of 14 from the field.
“I’m glad my offensive game matched my defense tonight,” Young said.
Beal finished with 24 points on 8-of-19 shooting — he was 1-of-6 in the final quarter — and Kyle Kuzma had 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Wizards.
Atlant remained in sole possession of eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Washington had a chance to tie the game with the Hawks — and if Atlanta had lost, Toronto would have had a chance at the No. 8 seed later Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Hawks trailed by as many as 15 points, but after a 14-0 run that spanned the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth, they went up 100-94. Washington responded with 11 straight points and it was tight the rest of the way.
The Wizards were playing for the second night after beating Detroit on Tuesday.
“Honestly, I wish we were a little bit tougher,” Porzingis said. “Somewhere we give ourselves discounts. Yes, that’s true. Of course we’ve got four games in five days and it’s tough and we were away yesterday but we can’t put it in our head. It won’t help us.”
TIPS
Hawks: Seven Atlanta players scored in double figures. Dejounte Murray scored 17 points and Hunter added 15.
Wizards: Washington had 19 turnovers to Atlanta’s 11. … Monte Morris (back) returned for the Wizards but did not start. He scored five points in 16:29.
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Follow Noah Trister at https://twitter.com/noahtrister
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