Late Hawks comeback against Wizards comes up just short, 121-119

Tough but avoidable loss taken.

The Hawks and the Wizards matched up in a Monday night game in State Farm Arena. The big feature was the first meeting of no. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher and no. 2 overall pick Alex Sarr — at least the first in an NBA setting.

De’Andre Hunter missed his second straight game with right knee inflammation, so Risacher was tapped for his first ever home start alongside Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson, and Clint Capela.

Atlanta got off to a blazing 12-2 start with 5-for-6 shooting from the field and three steals defensively.

You can probably guess who spearheaded the offense for Atlanta during the opening moments.

Larry Nance Jr. made his Hawks debut with Onyeka Okongwu on the shelf for this one, and he cashed in on his first shot from the field.

The Wizards mounted a comeback with their bench unit, and so Atlanta had to settle for a 28-25 edge after one quarter.

Jalen Johnson has had a bit of a rough time getting going this season, but he displayed some aggressive scoring in the first half tonight.

Atlanta picked up their defensive intensity in the second quarter and once again stretched the lead out with some timely steals and turnovers forced.

Garrison Mathews has also been a heater to begin the season behind his deep range shooting.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however. Unfortunately, Vit Krejci picked up a right adductor injury and left the game in the second quarter and did not return.

At half, the Hawks led 61-54. Jalen Johnson put together his best offensive half of the young season with 12 points, three rebounds and two assists. Trae Young added nine points and nine assists.

Washington hit the gas in the third quarter, hitting some threes in transition after bad Hawks misses. Quin Snyder was forced to call a timeout with the lead shrunk to just two points after three minutes of second half action.

Atlanta responded with an 8-2 run, and Jalen Johnson was a big part of that.

But Washington never went away behind the hot shooting of Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma.

Two-way player Keaton Wallace entered the game for Trae Young late in the third quarter following the injury to Vit Krejci.

But Atlanta could not stop the bleeding as they continued to fumble away the ball and let Washington get wide open threes galore. As a results, a Kispert three gave the Wizards an 84-83 lead at the end of the third — their first lead since early in the first quarter.

The Wiz continued to rain down threes (partially aided by lax Hawks perimeter defense), but Larry Nance Jr. did his best to keep pace.

The Hawks largely sputtered during the middle portion of the fourth quarter, and they found themselves down nine with just over four minutes left to play.

Atlanta regrouped a bit and committed to attacking the basket when faced with that deficit. The Hawks were trying a Young-Daniels-Mathews-Johnson-Capela lineup before swapping in Risacher for Mathews to close the match.

Johnson continued to try to will his team towards a comeback victory.

Atlanta got a few stops and a runout dunk from Clint Capela officially made it a clutch situation for the good guys down the stretch.

But Jordan Poole’s step back three with 50.1 second remaining pushed the lead back to six. Atlanta was able to draw free throws on two straight possessions with a stop in between to cut the lead to two with 16.0 seconds remaining.

After two made Poole free throws, Dyson Daniels hit a pull up three to now pull the Hawks to within one at 120-119.

After a split at the line for Kispert, who was intentionally fouled on the inbounds with six seconds left, a Trae Young leaning shot went begging, and the Hawks fell 121-119.

Jalen Johnson finished with a career-high 29 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.

The Hawks will now look to exact revenge against this very team in the District of Columbia on Wednesday evening.