Today at 1:00 p.m. ET on ABC the NBA Playoffs' second round tips off with the Atlanta Hawks, No. 1 seed in the East, taking on the red-hot Washington Wizards who swept the Toronto Raptors in a shockingly dominant first round performance. Live stream the game free by clicking this link. Hawks fans can listen to the radio broadcast on Sports 92.9 Atlanta, while Wizards fans may do likewise on WFED-AM 1500.
While the Hawks surprisingly struggled at times with the Brooklyn Nets, the Hawks remain confident that their best is good enough against any opponent.
"When we are playing the right way," Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll said, "we can beat anybody."
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer believes that the losses to the Nets may actually be a benefit when compared to the Wizards, who easily got by the Raptors and haven't played in a week.
"The fact that we've been playing, we've been in a rhythm every other day, if you can make that an advantage, then it's to our advantage," Budenholzer said. "You try to turn everything into a positive."
One thing that the Wizards have on their side now is versatility. Whereas their offense struggled at times to find a rhythm when Washington's dual big men clogged the lane for John Wall, the Wizards unlocked a new level of offensive efficiency by slotting Paul Pierce in at power forward to stretch out Toronto's defense. They might try pounding the Hawks in the paint with their big men, but if Budenholzer's bunch gets hot from beyond the arc they can turn to Pierce as a stretch-four and pile up points of their own.
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