John Wall and Bradley Beal are a backcourt combination known to light you up at any time. Throughout this series, they have done just that. John Wall tallied 20 points, 14 assists and Bradley Beal notched 27 in a huge game five wins over the Atlanta Hawks.
What went well for Washington
First and foremost, the defense was there for Washington, especially down the stretch. Bradley Beal has been playing phenomenal defense down the stretch of these games, and they held Atlanta to just 40 percent shooting from the floor. Washington paced the game very well, winning the fast-break battle with 20 points compared to 12 for Atlanta, and only had seven turnovers in the game.
When you only have seven turnovers, you are going to win a lot of games.
What went wrong for Atlanta
Dennis Schroder played great for Atlanta. Schroder scored 29 points on 10-18 shooting to go with 11 assists. Other than him and Millsap who had 21 points, they didn't get much help from anyone. Kent Bazemore shot 3 for 12, Dwight Howard was a non-factor, and no one could get any shots going from three-point range. It was a rough night for the other players on the team.
Adjustments for Atlanta
This was a huge game for Atlanta, and they needed this away win to take this series realistically. Obviously, it's not over yet, but facing elimination and having to come back to Washington and win is one tall task.
Atlanta needs to hit shots, and they need a well-rounded scoring effort. Bazemore and Ilyasova both need to pave some offense for the bench. If Bazemore isn't scoring well, then Atlanta won't be able to hang with Washington.
Secondly, the Hawks need to slow down Washington. They gave up 20 fast-break points to Washington, and they have to manage this.
Part of it comes from missing shots, but numerous points came from just getting back slow and John Wall getting the ball out of bounds and taking it coast to coast.
Washington is in a great spot now. If you want to critique them, they still need to hit more threes. They shot 7 of 24 from beyond the arc, and they need to hit that 40% threshold.
They can win without hitting a ton of threes, but if they want to get a rhythm going for their next series against the winner of the Bulls and Celtics, they'll need to hit shots. Bradley Beal is a big portion of this. He's their sharpshooter and shooting 1 for nine from three isn't helping anyone. The Wizards are a night and day team when Beal shows up and is knocking down threes.