Story By: Erin Zollars
If the Wizards wanted to avoid playing in a Game 7 on Sunday, they needed to come out with some fire tonight in Atlanta and that they did and the fire was John Wall.
Wall’s 42 points was a personal playoff record and the combination of Beal and Wall was just too much again for the Hawks who kept it close in the fourth quarter, but the turnovers for the Hawks allowed the Wizards to capitalize and build a 7 point lead with under a minute remaining.
The Hawks fell behind by 22 early in the third quarter before making a game of it down the stretch. But the home team never led, and Wall stymied the rally with huge plays at both ends of the court.
Wall’s block of Dennis Schroder’s layup kept the Hawks from closing within a single point, and Wall hit every big shot in the closing minutes. He scored 19 points in the fourth quarter, ensuring that Washington picked up the first road victory by either team in the series.
“We just didn’t want to have to play Game 7 on Sunday and we came out and played as hard as we could tonight,” said Wall.
Washington pushed out to a double-digit lead late in the first quarter, and closed the first half on a 19-4 run to take a 65-46 lead at the break. The Hawks turned the ball over six times during that five-minute stretch, making things easy for the Wizards.
Atlanta finished with 22 turnovers, including seven by Kent Bazemore.
