Hawks Beat Wizards 120-105 as Kingston Flemings Shines in First NBA Start

Kingston Flemings made the first start of his NBA career at point guard Wednesday night, and the Atlanta Hawks beat the Washington Wizards 120-105 at Capital One Arena.

CJ McCollum went to the bench to open the spot. Flemings hit a 25-foot 3 off an Onyeka Okongwu pass 22 seconds in and finished with 14 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists in 23 minutes.

Hawks coach Quin Snyder saw poise from the rookie in spite of his age.

“Sometimes the moment feels heavy or bigger,” Snyder said. “And he, I think in spite of his age, I thought there was, he was poised. And kind of let the game come to him, and that was good to see.”

Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 26 and made 6 of his 14 tries from deep. That came two nights after his 34-point, nine-3 game in a 108-104 win over the Indiana Pacers.

On the glass, Okongwu and Dyson Daniels grabbed 16 rebounds apiece. Okongwu’s 14 points gave him the 70th double-double of his career, and Daniels added 8 points and 8 assists.

The boards were crucial, Snyder said, and getting that many takes work.

“[Daniels] finds so many ways to impact the game,” Snyder explained. “And we’ve seen that with his defense. We’ve seen it with rebounding tonight. I thought the boards were something that was crucial for our team. And to get that [many], you got to work hard. And I think that’s kind of the thin red line that runs through everything with that is competitiveness.”

Off the bench, McCollum and Aaron Wiggins each scored 15.

Washington got 26 points and 10 rebounds from Anthony Davis and 25 from Kyshawn George, who shot 10-of-14. Trae Young had 18 points and 6 assists against the team that traded him in January.

Atlanta is 5-4 and has won three of four. The loss dropped Washington to 4-4 and ended its two-game winning streak.

Daniels missed a fadeaway 3 with 1.4 seconds left in the first quarter. Asa Newell grabbed it and tipped it in with a tenth of a second on the clock, and that made it 37-32.

Trae Young threw the ball away twice in the first 33 seconds of the second. Zuby Ejiofor came up with the first steal and Wiggins the second, and Ejiofor finished that one with a fast-break dunk off a Newell pass.

Twenty-five seconds later, the rookie cut for a layup off a Flemings feed. Wizards coach Brian Keefe called timeout with his team down 41-32.

Flemings finished a fast-break layup 29 seconds after play resumed. Wiggins hit a 24-foot pull-up off an Ejiofor pass at 9:43, and Daniels drove for a layup off a Newell assist with 9:06 left. That was 13 straight Atlanta points, and the Hawks led 48-32.

Washington scored the last 9 points of the half. Davis threw down an alley-oop from Young with 1:03 left, and Young capped it with a floater and a free throw at the 3.6-second mark. It was 68-61 at the break.

Contested shots were one thing. Keefe was more bothered by the second-chance points and the loose balls.

“I got to give them credit,” Keefe said. “They came out with great pace to start the game. They obviously made some tough shots, even some contested ones early. But the second chance points, some of the loose ones, loose ball ones, are probably the ones that hurt us more. I thought we tried to make a good run there to start the third. We were turning them over. Our defense kind of ramped it up, but we couldn’t overcome our start.”

The Wizards forced 5 Atlanta turnovers in the third quarter.

Davis’ alley-oop from George cut it to 71-67 with 8:31 left in the third. Young’s step-back 3 at 2:55 made it 83-79.

Will Riley missed a 26-foot transition 3 at 2:27 that would have made it a one-point game. Seven seconds later, Corey Kispert, part of the January trade that sent Young to Washington, hit a 24-footer with Young fouling him and made the free throw. From there, the closest the Wizards got was six.

Atlanta took a 93-85 lead into the fourth and won the quarter 27-20.

Guarding Young is a five-man job for Snyder, and Atlanta gets another try at it in two days.

“Trae, I said this before the game, and I’ve seen that Trae’s one of the very best pick-and-roll players in the league,” Snyder said. “And they’re a handful in those situations. And we’re going to have to be even better when they come to Atlanta next week. Any time you guard a great player, it takes five guys. And so I thought the importance of our rotations, being able to rebound out of rotations. We need everybody to be locked in. And for us, that has to become, we’re working to make those things habits.”

“I thought when we got a double-digit lead a couple times and we let up mentally, the things that we were doing to get the lead, we didn’t do as consistently,” Snyder continued. “And they ran off our turnovers, and they ran off quick or inefficient shots. And that’s something we’ve got to be better at.”

Washington turned Atlanta’s 15 turnovers into 19 points and added 15 more in transition.

Washington did most of its scoring at the rim. The Wizards had 62 points in the paint to Atlanta’s 50, and Davis and George accounted for 51 of their 105.

Atlanta took 23 more 3s than Washington and made 13 more of them, going 19-of-49 to the Wizards’ 6-of-26.

Thirty-four of the Hawks’ 45 field goals were assisted. They also won the boards 57-41, with 19 on the offensive glass.

Jalen Johnson’s sprained left ankle kept him out for a second straight game. He hurt it in the Oct. 31 loss at New Orleans, and Atlanta listed him questionable Tuesday evening and ruled him out Wednesday, the same pattern it used before Monday’s game at Indiana.

Jock Landale did not dress because of a left hip strain. Mouhamed Gueye, who has a left foot fracture, was also inactive.

The teams meet again Friday at 7 p.m. ET at State Farm Arena, in NBA Cup play. After that, the Brooklyn Nets come to town Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, and the Los Angeles Lakers visit Monday at 7 p.m. ET.