Credit the Wizards, who continued to scrap through the end of the fourth quarter when it looked like the Hawks had taken the win out of Washington's sales mid-way through the final period. But Atlanta played the part of the experienced, playoff-bound team and came away with an 99-92 win Saturday night.
The Wizards have now lost eight in a row and the next two -- against Milwaukee and San Antonio -- don't offer an immediate respite before Washington heads back on the road.
The Wizards shot the ball as well as any team could hope, but surrendered large advantages at the foul line and on the glass. Atlanta is too good a team to lose when spotted 10+ points at the charity stripe.
Josh Smith added his name to the list of bigs who have given the Wizards a headache. He finished with XX points and XX rebounds, and was a tough matchup for Andray Blatche off the dribble.
Nick Young again led the Wizards with 21 points, and the rest of the Washington starting lineup got into double digits.
Fortunately for the fans in attendance, the game as doubled as a dunk contest with several highlight slams to keep the crowd entertained. Ultimately though, this was a game the Wizards could have won if they had just taken care of a couple statistical categories on the defensive end.