Eastern Conference Playoffs Round 1, Game 2 Wizards lead 1-0
Wizards vs. Hawks
April 19, 2017 at 7:00 PM Verizon Center | Washington, D.C. TV: CSN Mid-Atlantic Radio: 1500 AM
What to watch:
Let the brutality recommence!
Following Game 1, a traumatized and battered Paul Millsap said the Hawks were playing basketball, but the Wizards were "playing MMA." I say Paul Millsap was playing soft and I thank him for the compliment.
While Millsap bitches about the Wizards' aggression, I'll remind you why he's really mad:
Getting called a "bitch" by Morris:
Getting yammed on by Morris:
And finally, getting #PolishHammered by Gortat:
This is the gotdamn playoffs. And a team competing in the playoffs has the objective of making their opponents come out of the game feeling brutalized, like, yanno, the way an MMA match would. While Gortat and other select Wizards dismissed the charge, I feel they should have embraced it. They should have embraced it considering the newness of this realm known as the postseason for so many of the players, including the one who sparked Millsap's initial dismay.
Markieff Morris was a dog on Sunday. His aggression, combined with his production was a tone-setter not just for the Wizards in this series, but for other inexperienced pups like Kelly Oubre.
After the savagery Millsap faced in Game 1, I understand why he's disgruntled, but I won't empathize. Keep the pedal to the metal. Foot on the throat. Make Game 2 an even harsher reality.
Key Matchup:
Keef Morris vs. Paul Millsap
After Keef set the tone of this series by making Paul Millsap feel like he was TKO'd in an MMA match, there's no question that, being this a league of grown ass men, the superseding objective for the Hawks tonight is to match Washington's physicality. That begins with Morris and Millsap but also doesn't exclude Gortat versus Howard. And surely, as promised by Dennis Schroder, they will come out throwing proverbial punches..
With the Wizards taking the first major swing and landing it with a Game 1 victory, Atlanta is ready to counter. So, the question becomes, how will the Wizards counter back? I wouldn't worry about it too much. The confidence level of this squad, primarily of Keef as the brutal catalyst, is high enough to ensure they'll handle whatever Atlanta lobs at them just fine. Is it 7PM yet??
X-Factor:
Rally towels!
Verizon Center was poppin' on Sunday afternoon, but while the fans were great, many of them didn't wear their rally shirts. Instead, it seemed they didn't notice the sleeves and used them as rally towels. Tonight, fans will be given actual rally towels so let's hope they don't use them as shirts.
Despite that, the crowd was great, and according to Scott Brooks, was a large factor to the Wizards win. They promptly booed various Hawks players when they had possession, they made deafening chants of "MVP" for John Wall. They even earned free Chick-Fil-A at the expense of known Atlanta villain Kent Bazemore. The Wizards' dominance at home has been a staple of their success all year, and it's earned them their position now, which is taking Game 1 at home, and now facing an opportunity to go to Atlanta up 2-0.
"A big part of our win was our crowd." - Scott Brooks
Fun Factor:
#DeathRowDC has hit the national stage.
It was revealed in late February/early March via the Instagram accounts of John Wall and team security extraordinaire David "Flave" Best that Wall, Beal, and Keef were referencing to themselves with the hashtag #DeathRowDC. After a monstrous start to the 2017 postseason, that nickname has hit social media timelines worldwide and is now being embraced (and hated on) by fans all over. The Vertical and several other outlets dropped photoshopped images of Wizards players replacing the faces of Suge, Pac, Dre, and Snoop, and so we obliged, and did it better.
