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The Wizards (12-25) take on the Atlanta Hawks (8-30) on Friday at 7:00 P.M. at Capital One Arena. The Wizards are looking to bounce back from a road loss to the Orlando Magic while the Hawks, who enter the game with the worst record in the NBA, are coming off a shootout loss to the Houston Rockets. Friday’s game will be the first of four meetings between the teams this season.
Bradley Beal (lower right leg soreness) will miss his fifth consecutive game.
Game Info
Capital One Arena | 7:00 P.M. | NBCSW | 1500 AM
Probable Starters
Wizards: G – Isaiah Thomas, G – Gary Payton II, G – Jordan McRae, F – Isaac Bonga, C – Ian Mahinmi
Hawks: G – Trae Young, G – Kevin Huerter, F – Cam Reddish, F – De’Andre Hunter, C – John Collins
Injury Report
Wizards: Bradley Beal (lower right leg soreness – out), Thomas Bryant (right foot stress reaction – out), Rui Hachimura (groin injury – out), Garrison Mathews (sprained right ankle – out), C.J. Miles (left wrist surgery – out), Moritz Wagner (left ankle sprain – out), John Wall (left Achilles rehab – out)
Hawks: Bruno Fernando (personal reasons – out), Jabari Parker (right shoulder impingement – out)
Storylines
Bertans back after missing nine games
After missing the last nine games with a quad strain, Davis Bertans will make his return to the floor Friday night against Atlanta. Bertans injured the quad late in Washington’s December 21st matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers and has not played since. This season, he is averaging 15.4 points on 44.9% from the field and 43.4% from 3-point range, ranking second on the team in both points and minutes per game. After a solid start to the 2019-20 season, Bertans took his game to another level in the month of December, averaging 23.7 points per game and shooting 50.7% on over 11 threes per game from December 1-10. Bertans scored 20-plus points in five of those six games, capped by a 32-point, nine-rebound showing against the Hornets in which he shot 8-12 from beyond the arc.
“The guy is a bucket getter,” Wizards head coach Scott Brooks said after Bertans’s career night. “He can get buckets all throughout the floor. Every shot is a great shot because it’s always squared up.”
Bertans’s 43.4% 3-point shooting rate is tops in the league among the 16 players shooting more than eight triples per game. With Bertans back, fans in attendance Friday night can expect to see plenty of offense as both Washington and Atlanta have struggled this season on the defensive end. The Wizards and Hawks each rank in the bottom three in the league in defensive rating and top eight in pace. The Hawks enter Friday’s game having scored 115-plus points in three consecutive games while the Wizards trail only Bucks and Clippers in games with 120-plus points this season.
Schofield’s career night fits a trend for the shorthanded Wizards
The most recent addition to the growing list of Wizards players to step up amidst the team’s month-long injury bug was Admiral Schofield on Wednesday night against the Magic. Schofield, who subbed in for Isaac Bonga less than two minutes into the game, set career highs in minutes (36), points (18) and rebounds (6). The rookie out of Tennessee shot 8-13 from the field, both career highs as well, and was 2-6 from 3-point range. Schofield wasted no time making an impact, scoring 14 of his 18 points in his first 14 minutes on the court.
“He was going to play and he knew was going to be playing,” Wizards head coach Scott Brooks said postgame. “He played well. First half he gave us a good lift…(we had) nine guys tonight so he was going to play some good minutes.”
Schofield joins Troy Brown Jr., Ish Smith, Garrison Mathews, Davis Bertans, Isaac Bonga and Ian Mahinmi as Wizards players who have set career high scoring marks in the last month.
Young leads the way for Hawks’ offense
The Hawks are led by point guard Trae Young, one of brightest young stars in the league who is putting up video game-like numbers on the offensive end. Young, who is just 21 years old and in his second NBA season, is averaging 29.2 points, 8.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game. No player under the age of 22 has ever put up those over the course of an entire season. Young’s stats don’t come from lack of reps – he ranks fourth in the league in usage rate behind James Harden, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic.
In Atlanta’s last outing on Wednesday night, Young and Harden squared off and put on a show for the record books, becoming the first players in NBA history to record 40-point triple-doubles in the same game, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Young finished with 42 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists – his second triple-double of the season – while Harden went for 41 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists as the Rockets went on to win 122-115.