WASHINGTON --- As he sits on the bench at the start of each game, Jamal Crawford analyzes the opposition, the defenses they are employing, and the flow of the game. The Atlanta Hawks are sure glad their sixth-man extraordinaire is a quick study.
Crawford scored 29 points and the Hawks avoided a three-game losing streak by beating the Washington Wizards 105-99 on Thursday night.
"You get a chance to see what teams are doing on coverage and how you can kind of pick them apart and dissect them," said Crawford, who has led the Hawks in scoring 21 times this season. "Then I can come in and try to help do that."
The Hawks were unable to shake the Wizards for nearly three quarters before Crawford scored 12 points in the final 3:37 of the third quarter, connecting on two of his four made 3-pointers and then finishing with six free throws.
"I just wanted to mix it up," Crawford said. "I didn't want to settle just for threes after that. I knew they would get up closer so I wanted to get by them and get to the free-throw line and kind of slow the game down a little bit."
The free throws spurred a 13-1 run bridging the third and fourth quarters to help the Hawks take an 85-73 lead.
"He just comes in and changes the game," Al Horford said of the Hawks' super sub. "He really gave us a lift when we needed him to. It was tied 66-66 and he came in and made two threes and I think that changed the complexion of the game."
Horford and Joe Johnson each scored 18 points in Atlanta's first trip to the nation's capital this season for the makeup of a game that was postponed Feb. 6 due to a blizzard which left 2 feet of snow in the area.
The Wizards have lost five straight and seven of eight.
While the Hawks had a strong shooting night, including making 8 of 17 from beyond the arc, their defense was from stellar and they were also outrebounded 42-29.
The Hawks improved to 16-5 when Crawford makes at least three from 3-point territory.
"He's been fantastic all year He's a big part of what we do," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said of Crawford, who scored five points in the final 29.3 seconds of the first quarter to put Atlanta ahead 27-22. "He's made big shots for us. He's run our offense. He's put us in position where we are today."
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
