If you are looking at a master NBA schedule sent out before the season started and don’t see an Atlanta-Washington matchup scheduled for Thursday night, that’s because this game originally was set for Feb. 6 in D.C. but the Hawks couldn’t get into town because of a massive snowstorm.
Obviously it’s a much different Washington team than back on Feb. 6, and the Wiz are 7-point home dogs on WagerWeb.com’s NBA odds.
While it would seem that Atlanta would have little trouble tonight, the Hawks have been running in place a while, going just 23-19 since the day after Christmas and 7-5 since the All-Star break. Oftentimes defense is the problem, as eight of their last 18 opponents have made at least 50 percent of the field, and the Hawks are 3-5 in those games.
Atlanta has lost two in a row, having been held to fewer than 100 points in both of the road losses (Miami and New York) after averaging 115.3 points during a four-game winning streak. Forward Mo Evans (flu-like symptoms) did not travel with the team for tonight’s game at Washington and isn’t expected to play.
The Wizards have lost four straight and six of seven. They’ve averaged 84.2 points over the last five games. Tonight begins a stretch of five games in six days. No team has been forced to play that many games in such a close period of time since the lockout-shortened season in 1998-99, when the league had to cram a 50-game schedule into four months.
Andray Blatche is averaging 20.1 points, 9.6 rebounds in 15 games as a starter this season for Washington and has been a pleasant surprise. In 11 games since the All-Star break, Blatche has averaged 23.5 points and 10.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game, has recorded five of his eight double-doubles on the season.
The Hawks won the first two meetings, both by double digits and both coming in Atlanta. In fact, the Wiz haven’t beaten Atlanta in D.C. since March 2007.
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