WASHINGTON - Joe Johnson took over down the stretch, leading the Atlanta Hawks to their season-high fourth consecutive victory.
Johnson scored half of his 32 points in the final quarter Friday night, and Atlanta beat Washington 97-92 to move past the Wizards and into second place in the Southeast Division.
Marvin Williams added 22 points and Josh Smith had 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Hawks, who hadn't won at Washington since December 2003.
Antawn Jamison led the Wizards with 30 points and nine rebounds, but the team's top scorer, Caron Butler, was limited to 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
As the teams went back and forth early in the fourth quarter, Johnson scored 10 straight Hawks points. Then, with the game tied at 86 and a little more than a minute to go, Johnson set up Smith's 3-pointer to give Atlanta the lead for good.
Rookie Nick Young (14 points) made two free throws to pull Washington to 89-88. Then, after Josh Childress caught Smith's air ball and put it in to restore Atlanta's three-point lead, Young made a driving layup to make it 91-90 with 18.3 seconds to go.
Johnson went 2-for-2 at the line 2 seconds later for a 93-90 edge. After Young missed a 3-pointer with 11 seconds to go, Atlanta's Mario West made two free throws.
With point guards Gilbert Arenas (left knee surgery) and Antonio Daniels (sprained right knee ligament) sidelined, Roger Mason Jr. was in Washington's lineup at tipoff, his first start in the NBA since 2003-04, when he was with the Toronto Raptors.
Mason promptly missed his first three field-goal attempts and wound up 1-for-6 for three points and one assist.
Atlanta, which has won seven of eight games, took a 68-67 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Hawks led by as many as 12 points in the first quarter and were still up by six points midway through the second period. But that's when Washington went on a 12-0 run with Jamison and Darius Songaila doing all of the scoring to take a 39-33 lead.
The Wizards were still ahead 47-45 at halftime, led by Jamison's 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting.
Notes: Atlanta outrebounded Washington 49-33. ... Mason moved into the starting spot Young held the prior two games. Young shot 4-for-16 in that span, including 1-for-10 his previous time out. ``We knew Nick was going to have some bumps along the way,'' coach Eddie Jordan said. ... G Mike Wilks made his Wizards debut, entering as a substitute late in the first quarter. He signed with Washington this week and was in uniform Wednesday against Chicago but didn't play. ... Childress played after missing Atlanta's previous four games with a strained right groin. He finished with four points and 11 rebounds.
Tuesday
April 29th, 2025
8:55PM
