With the news that the Atlanta Hawks would be without their best player, Jalen Johnson, on Wednesday night, the Washington Wizards, coming off back-to-back wins, could have taken Head Coach Quin Snyder lightly.

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Johnson’s absence not only leaves the Hawks without a reliable 20, 10, and 7 guy but also makes them much smaller, which the Wizards can attack with their size.

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And attack they did, as 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis had an early 6 points with two jumpers from the wing and then a lob thrown by rookie sensation AJ Dybantsa to go up 8-3 early.

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Despite not having Johnson, the Atlanta Hawks still had a group of very good scorers at guard and wing and took advantage early from deep. 3-pointers in the 1st from Nickell Alexander Walker, CJ McCollum, Onyeka Okongwu, Aaron Wiggins, and rookies Kingston Flemings, and Zuby Ejiofor made the fact that they were outscored 20-8 in the paint by the Wizards in the 1st quarter null and void as they held a 37-32 lead.

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Continued outstanding play by rookies Flemings and Ejiofor helped build the visiting Hawks a double-digit lead early in the 2nd quarter.

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The lead had grown to as much as 16 before the stellar play of Davis and Dybantsa, who brought Capital One Arena to its feet with a thunderous dunk helped cut it to only a 6 point game.

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Coach Snyder pointed out in pregame that “We’re not a team that is built around size anyway” and his Hawks leaned on that hard to great work outshooting the Wizards from deep with 13 3PTs to just 3 for Washington on 50% from deep enroute to a 68-61 lead after the 1st half in which the Hawks also lead the Wizards 30-7 in bench points, assists 20-17, and even head scratchingly in rebounds 25-21 which was supposed to be one of the major advantages of having so much more size than Atlanta.

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Regardless, there was another half to be played for the Wizards to win their 3rd game in a row for the first time in over a year.

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After a nip-and-tuck 3rd quarter that saw Wizards’ Davis and Hawks’ Alexander Walker take over for their respective teams, the Wizards cut it to just 4 off of a signature step-back 3PT with 2:55 to play in the period. They were unable to get any closer to the Hawks after that however, as off of a missed Will Riley 3PT that could have made it a one point game, former Wizard Corey Kispert knocked down one of his plus the foul off of the guy he was traded for in Young to push the lead back to eight.

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This was a game where it was one step forward, two steps back; however, for the Wizards, following an early turnover fadeaway from Kyshawn George that made it a 6-point game, the Hawks proceeded to balloon the lead back to double digits, winning 120-105 as the Wizards fall back to .500 at 4-4.