Regular-season meetings between these two clubs were a fairly one-sided affair, but the Washington Wizards are here to change all that after deftly sweeping the Toronto Raptors in their opening round. The Atlanta Hawks had a slightly more difficult time upending the Brooklyn Nets, but they'll remain favorites in this series until something happens to change that.
That's what a 60-win season and No. 1 seed will do for you.
Atlanta's only regular-season loss to the fourth-seeded Wizards came late in the campaign when head coach (and Coach of the Year) Mike Budenholzer opted to rest his starters. Washington will have to look elsewhere for confidence, perhaps counting on its stout front line to establish an advantage over the relatively undersized Al Horford and Paul Millsap.
Making short work of the Raptors certainly hasn't hurt, though.
"I think myself individually and as a team, we did a better job of handling [the pressure]," shooting guard Bradley Beal recently told reporters, per Todd Dybas of The Washington Times. "I think we were a lot more focused than we were last year. I think we k ...
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Article written by Stephen Babb
Washington Wizards vs. Atlanta Hawks: Second-Round Analysis and Predictions
May 2nd, 2015 by Stephen Babb Leave a reply »
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