After a very dire five-game winning streak from the Washington Wizards, they lost a big one at home to the Atlanta Hawks in very unimpressive fashion, turning the ball over eight times in the final period and giving up 41 points. The main storyline was Atlanta’s bench. After a shaky performance in their loss on Monday night, they decimated the second unit of Washington and basically won the game for Mike Budenholzer.

Bradley Beal was a ghost on the offensive end. He took only one three-pointer in 31 minutes, and he failed to make any kind of impact running the second unit. There are a bunch of average three-point shooters on the Washington bench and very little playmaking, and Beal was not able to get anything from penetration to an open shot against Atlanta’s defense tonight.

When Beal is playing well and shooting the lights out, the Wizards are a ferocious slash and kick machine. He is an awesome sidekick to John Wall, and he has acclimated nicely into the secondary creator attacking at a scrambling defense. But when he no-shows like he did against the Hawks, or is out injured, the team is left with one playmaker and viable ball-handler in Wall. The results are pretty bad, and they proved fatal.

A major factor in their success during the streak has been their ability to play a bigger lineup with the addition of Markieff Morris. They had found constant defensive success starting the Nene-Gortat frontcourt over the last three seasons, and their attempt at going small out of the gate backfired. Morris is a bigger body and he provides a similar height and length advantage as the previous lineup.

Since the trade deadline they have smothered the defensive boards and played a very sound defensive scheme, sporting the third best defense since the acquisition. Morris is only a little smaller than Nene, and has proved that he can stretch the floor on occasions as well – although he has shot just 25% on threes since joining the Wiz. His athleticism alongside Gortat is a much better fit than the slower Nene or even slower Dudley.

- Otto Porter is okay – he scraps for easy buckets within the flow of the offense. He is a midrange maestro in a league where that skill is becoming less useful, especially for a low usage wing. Washington could definitely use an improvement in his place, and they are hoping that Kelly Oubre can take that place but the rookie is many years away from understanding the fundamentals of an NBA defense. He can definitely throw down some ferocious dunks with his legitimate hops. 

- Dennis Schroeder is really good, and he dominated the game from the moment he checked in. Schroeder is quick enough to blow by his defender with a head of steam and long enough to finish in tight space.

There have always been questions marks surrounding his shooting, but this season he is shooting 44% on the mid-range shots and 33% on threes. When he has hot shooting nights like this one, he is pretty hard to stop.

- In the first half, the Hawks dialed their defensive pressure back a ton and settled way back against Wall’s pick and rolls. Wall still made them pay by hitting jumpers and making some insane next level passes. Midway through the third quarter they returned to their familiar form and started trapping the pick and rolls on the perimeter. Wall was able to shred this scheme on Monday, but he was stumped and his supporting cast did nothing to help the cause. The best coaches will throw different looks at the best player throughout the game, and this was a good example of a great in game adjustment by Mike Budenholzer. 

- Paul Millsap is so damn good and it is almost irritating why he doesn’t take 18+ shots a game and score 25 every night. He is one of the better post players in the NBA because of his ability to bully smaller defenders and beat the bigger behemoths with his quickness and long arms. Millsap is great at attacking the closeout. He is the perfect package at the 4, and his ability to play the 5 was really effective tonight against Washington’s bigger lineups. Gortat has no chance defending Millsap on the perimeter – or Horford for that matter. 

- Tim Hardaway had a fun offensive game, but he is still having some major blips on the defensive end. He gets lost constantly in rotations, and he has a knack for helping way too far off of viable three-point shooters. Regardless, he has a pure shooting stroke and an improved driving game. If he can ever understand the fundamentals of NBA rotations he could be a very good player for the Hawks.