Washington Wizards Take On Atlanta Hawks

 

Tonight, the Washington Wizards play the Atlanta Hawks for the third time this season. The Wizards look to beat the Hawks for only the second time in the past 19 games. It will be a difficult task, to say the least.

Once again, the Wizards are playing without starting point guard John Wall. They are playing without back up point guard A.J. Price, too. The team is also without Trevor Booker and Trevor Ariza. Nene Hilario should play tonight after sitting out the last game Saturday versus the Miami Heat to rest his sore foot.

It’s simple: the Wizards need the Hawks to come in and not really want to be there in order to have a shot at winning. Even then, a win is not guaranteed. As long as Jordan Crawford has the duty of starting point guard, I don’t see the Wizards improving their league worst 89.8 points per game stat. The Wizards also happen to have the league’s lowest field goal rating at .407 percent per game. Porous isn’t a strong enough word for the ineptitude displayed on offense.

The Wizards defense happens to be in the  middle of the pack as far as giving up points is concerned. Unfortunately, when you give up an average of 15 turnovers a game, you are giving the opposing team extra chances at the basket. The Wizards also have to stop allowing bench players and role players to go off for big games against them. It seems as if every time the opposing team takes a shot, I think it’s automatically going in. No pressure, no urgency, bad effort on defense. Yep, that sounds like the Wizards on defense.

Tonight, the Wizards need a miracle to pull off the upset of the Hawks. Basically, the Wizards need to be as close to perfect as possible. Randy Whittman needs to summon every ounce of talent out of the available players and still hope the Hawks take a night off. Tonight, the Wizards will probably be 3-19.