Washington's list is just as long. Alex Sarr missed the Orlando game with a knee injury, Reece Beekman hurt his right AC joint and gets re-evaluated in about 3 weeks, and Anthony Gill (back), Tristan Vukcevic (hip), Justin Champagnie (foot) and Jamir Watkins (ACL) are all out too. The Wizards have been grinding out wins anyway.
Our recap of that Orlando game shows how they're doing it. Washington won 103-94 at Kia Center without Sarr, Gill or Vukcevic. It was tied at halftime, then the Wizards took the 3rd quarter 19-9. Before that they held Charlotte to 79 in a 95-79 home win. Those were 2 straight wins on defense, against a Magic team on the 2nd night of a back-to-back and missing Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs and Anthony Black. That's a soft spot, but the Wizards still had to win it.
Atlanta's defense has been heading the other way. Through the Pelicans game, the Hawks had lost 4 of their last 5 and allowed 120 or more in all 4 of those losses, including 2 straight to Houston and 129 to Miami. The win in that stretch was a 114-111 game against Cleveland. Atlanta also played Indiana on Monday, so check that result before Wednesday.
So it's a 4-3 team against a 3-4 team, and both coaches are going deep into the rotation. Washington is set up to slow the game down and make it ugly, which is how it beat Orlando. Atlanta wants to push the pace, which only really works with Johnson handling the ball. Tipoff is 7:00 PM ET.
