The picture is an AI-generated illustration, not a photograph from the match
The night was supposed to belong to Trae Young's return, and for a stretch of the third quarter it looked like it might. The Hawks won the last two quarters 52-44 instead and left Washington with another loss.
The second quarter that decided the night
Alexander-Walker hit six three-pointers after sinking a career-high-tying nine in Monday's 104-102 win at Indiana, and this time he needed only one quarter to make the difference.
Johnson missed his second consecutive game with a sprained left ankle, which pushed more minutes onto the bench unit and gave Kingston Flemings and Zuby Ejiofor bigger roles than their season averages suggest.
Onyeka Okongwu contributed 14 points and 16 rebounds, while CJ McCollum and Aaron Wiggins scored 15 points each to cover the absence of All-Star forward Jalen Johnson.
The game broke open on a 13-0 run that began at the first-quarter buzzer: Asa Newell's tip-in, two transition baskets from Ejiofor and a Flemings runner inside ninety seconds.
Atlanta's quarter scores of 37 and 31 produced a 68-point first half, and the game-high lead of 16 was built before the break.
Young's 18 and the four-point-play answer
Young's step-back three cut the deficit to 83-79 with a quarter still to play, the closest Washington came after the second-quarter collapse.
Anthony Davis had 26 points and 10 rebounds for the Wizards and Kyshawn George added 25, but the trio could not stop a third quarter that yielded only 24 points.
The answer to Young's three came from the other side of the same deal: Corey Kispert, the player Atlanta received in return, converted a four-point play on the next possession.
Washington sit at 4-4 with a 2-2 record at home, and the last twelve minutes produced only 20 points after a 29-point second quarter that had briefly kept the building interested.
Washington conceded 52 points after the break while scoring 44 of its own, and the lead never came back inside six points once Kispert answered Young.
Nine games in, what each side takes away
Friday brings the second half of the back-to-back series to Atlanta, with NBA Cup group standings on the line before either side has had a full week to fix what it got wrong here.
Atlanta will want the second game without needing six three-pointers from one guard again, particularly if Johnson's ankle keeps him out of the rotation.
In addition, the Wizards have now played nine games with Young as the primary creator and Davis as the second read, and the gap between halves is where the season is being decided.
The margin, in the end, was the second quarter: a 13-0 stretch and 31 points, against 29 before the break and 20 after it.
Nothing about this result is fatal for either side after nine games, but the Hawks have played two straight games without their best forward and still found a way to win both, which is the more encouraging data point of the week.
Editor's take: Atlanta's depth is the story here. Two games without Jalen Johnson and the Hawks still found 26 points from a guard and a double-double from a center.
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