Onyeka Okongwu Uses Familiarity With Trae Young to Help Hawks Beat Wizards

Onyeka Okongwu picked off three Trae Young passes Friday night. The last one came with 1:06 left and Atlanta ahead 131-127, and the Atlanta Hawks went on to beat the Washington Wizards 139-132 at State Farm Arena.

Okongwu finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 steals. He went 8-of-12 from the field, 2-of-3 from 3-point range, and 4-of-4 at the free-throw line.

His 10th rebound came on Young’s missed 28-footer with 7.9 seconds left. Alex Sarr fouled him at 4.5 seconds, and Okongwu made both free throws for the final points of the night.

On Monday at Indiana, Okongwu had 13 points and 10 rebounds. He had 14 points and 16 rebounds Wednesday in a 120-105 win at Washington.

Okongwu scored 6 points in the first quarter, 13 by halftime, and 20 through three quarters.

He hit an 8-foot turnaround at 9:34 of the first. With 2:53 left in the second quarter, he stole a Young pass, and eight seconds later he hit a 25-foot 3 off a Dyson Daniels pass to make it 59-49.

In the third quarter, he scored on a 7-foot hook off a Luguentz Dort pass at 10:07 and hit another 3 at 5:02, this one from Kingston Flemings, for an 89-79 lead.

Okongwu wants to find himself in the game earlier and be more aggressive.

“I’m just trying to find my groove offensively,” Okongwu said. “I’m finding myself into the game more, earlier in the game, be more aggressive. Obviously, my teammates give me a lot of confidence to take my shots and be aggressive out there.”

Okongwu made all 4 of his free throws. Atlanta went 19-of-20 at the line, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker was 10-of-10.

Young and Okongwu were teammates in Atlanta until the Hawks traded Young to Washington in January. Young finished Friday with 23 points and 10 assists, and he turned it over 9 times.

Washington scored on four alley-oops. Deandre Ayton finished three of them, including one from Young with 1:51 left in the first quarter that tied the game 28-28, and Sarr finished the other.

Okongwu’s steals came at 2:53 of the second quarter, 7:48 of the third, and 7:16 and 1:06 of the fourth. AJ Dybantsa threw the pass on the third one.

On one Young lob, Okongwu said, he did a good job getting in position.

“Man, it was [Trae] Young,” Okongwu explained. “I’ve been playing him for so long. I know that lob was coming all the way. So I just did a good job getting in position and trying to break it up.”

Atlanta had 11 steals and scored 26 points off Washington’s 16 turnovers. Young committed 5 of those turnovers in the third quarter.

Ayton grabbed 7 offensive rebounds in 23 minutes, 5 of them in the first quarter. Washington had 10 offensive rebounds and 12 second-chance points in the first half.

After halftime, the Wizards had 4 offensive rebounds and 5 second-chance points. Okongwu had 7 of his 10 rebounds in the second half, 5 of them in the fourth quarter.

Okongwu wanted to get rebounds late because the Wizards had been getting a lot of them.

“Obviously, they have two [bigs] down there,” Okongwu said. “Same thing, just try to keep them off the glass. They did a good job crashing early, but the more the game went through, [we] did a better job keeping them off the glass.”

Atlanta outrebounded Washington 43-41. Anthony Davis, who had 26 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday, sat out Friday with a right ankle sprain.

Jalen Johnson sat for a third consecutive game because of his left ankle. Atlanta also ruled him out Wednesday, and Dort has started in his place.

The Hawks are 6-4 and host the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET.