If Washington ends up being pushed out of the top ten in the East, it will surely remember the last two such games that cost it a ticket to the play-in games. The Wizards again lost at home to Atlanta, for the second time in three days, as the guest from eighth place in the Eastern Conference celebrated tonight (between Friday and Saturday) with 107:114. Danny Avdia scored only 5 points in 18 minutes and added 6 rebounds, and the tenth-ranked Wizards are now only half a game away from chasing Chicago.
The Israeli who started the game on the bench entered for the first time 5:57 to the end of the first quarter, in which he scored all his points. 1:22 he snipe a three-pointer from the corner that made it 19:25 for the host, and he closed the quarter with a dunk that made it 24:29 locally after 12 minutes. The guest converted in the second quarter and increased the lead to nine, but Daniel Gafford shrunk to 56:50 at the break.
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Gafford completed a turnaround in the third quarter, but then the guest ran again and took a record lead of 75:88 at the beginning of the last quarter. Monte Morris had already shrunk to just 2 with a minute and a half remaining, but a tremendous 3-pointer by Trae Young later increased the lead and from there DeJohnta Murray and DeAndre Hunter closed the story from the penalty line.
The third meeting between the teams in the last ten days ended like the previous two times with a victory for the away team (one for Washington and two for Atlanta), when the leading scorer of the winner was Trey Young with 28 and 9 assists. DeAndre Hunter added 18 points and 7 rebounds, Dejonta Murray scored 16, distributed 7 assists and collected 7 rebounds. Bradley Beal led the loser with 27 points, Avdia as mentioned scored 5, added 6 rebounds and 3 assists on 2 of 5 from the field in 18 minutes. For him this is the third game in a row in single digits.