Hawks VS Wizards PREVIEW

NBA betting continues as the Washington Wizards will host the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, March 10th in this Eastern Conference matchup at Capital One Arena. This will be the second time in a week these teams play each other. The Hawks were able to claw out a win Wednesday against this same team. Can they do it again tonight?

The Hawks barely got the win Wednesday night after leading by 6 points after the first quarter. The Hawks were led in scoring by their best player in Trae Young who dropped 28 points while shooting an insane 79% from the field! Thinking he’ll be able to repeat that efficiency is a tall ask, but I would not be surprised at all to see Trae hovering around 30 points. The Wizards again got torched from behind the arc and look no further than Trae Young to continue to take advantage of that trend.

It wasn’t just Trae Young though jumping in on the scoring action. The Hawks had 7, yes you read that right 7 players in double figures. The Washington defense has been pourous for quite a while now and I don't expect that to change tonight. Only Dejounte Murray had a poor shooting night and I don’t think that happens in back-to-back games.

The Wizards got a career performance from the unicorn aka Kristaps Porzingis. The 7’3 center made 7 threes, shot 17-22 from the field, and put up a respectable 5 assists and 5 rebounds to go along with it. That surely guided the Wizards to an easy win right? Wrong, a 4th quarter collapse and an inability to play defense cost the home team a win. The Wizards have to turn things around on the defensive side to get the victory tonight.

That starts with the guard play. An inefficient Bradley Beal and a quiet Delon Wright have to put up better numbers in the backcourt to help the forwards for Washington. If your front court is combining for 68 points between Kuzma and Porzingis, the Wizards should come away victorious. I’m expecting a bounce back game from Bradley Beal tonight.

Head to Head

The Wizards and Hawks have played each other twice this season. Both times the road team won but the margins have been 2 and 3 point victories. Statistics would say that things come back to the mean and the home team pulls out the victory. Then again it’s the NBA.

Team Leaders

Our Betting Pick for Today

In this matchup, I’m taking the Wizards and the 1.5 points being given to the home team. I think the Wizards win the game outright. Something has got to give and a home team is going to win one of these games. Why not tonight? That is what I’m banking on.

The over under is sitting at 238 currently. The over cashed Wednesday. They combined for 235 their first meeting. The odds makers are splitting the difference in this one and I’m going to take the under. Both teams shot over 52%. I think that comes down some and even the slightest change doesn’t allow this high number to hit.