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Hawks vs. Wizards: 3 things you need to know

Jason Getz / USA TODAY Sports

The spotlight given to Hawks-Wizards series will pale in comparison to the attention paid to the other three Conference Semifinal series', especially the other East semifinal, but with Kevin Love's injury weakening the favored Cavs, the East is wide open, and one of these two teams could very well pounce on the opportunity.

The all-Southeast series will also ensure that the division is represented in the East Final for a seventh consecutive season.

Here are three things you need to know before the series tips off on Sunday afternoon.

Rest vs. rust

The Hawks have only one day off between Friday's Game 6 series clincher in Brooklyn and Sunday's series opener against the Wizards, while Washington earned itself six days off with their stunning first-round sweep of Toronto.

Beyond Game 1, the layoff won't matter much. But in the early stages of Sunday's game, we should see some kind of indication as to whether the Wizards look well rested or rusty compared to a potentially fatigued but sharper Hawks team.

Playoff Wittman and Power Pierce

The Wizards turned Games 1, 2, and 3 around against the Raptors by moving Paul Pierce to the 4-spot in smaller lineups, with sophomore swingman Otto Porter excelling in lineups that included Pierce, John Wall, Bradley Beal and one of Marcin Gortat or Nene.

The utilization of Pierce at power forward, the unleashing of Porter (32 minutes per game versus Toronto compared to 19.4 MPG during the regular season), and a more fluid offense brings back memories of the 2013-14 Randy Wittman, who suddenly seemed capable of making the necessary in-game adjustments when the playoffs rolled around.

Lineup Net Rating Per 100 Possessions
Wall-Beal-Pierce-Nene-Gortat (Regular season) +7.4
Wall-Beal-Pierce-Nene-Gortat (Playoffs Round 1) +4.6
Wall-Beal-Porter-Pierce-Center (Round 1) +35.4

Mike Budenholzer and his top-seeded Hawks should be better equipped to combat Wittman's inexplicable genius than Dwane Casey and the Raptors, but if Washington finds a way to knock off the 60-win Hawks while winning another game or two on the road, critics will have to reconsider how they talk about the head coach.

Perimeter regression

A big component of Washington's improved playoff offense is that they're generating better shots and taking more threes as opposed to settling for the midrange and long-two attack that opponents are happy to concede.

But the Wizards also had some luck on their side in Round 1, and if the percentages begin to regress to the mean, they could be in for a shooting slump.

During the regular season, the Wizards shot a solid 36 percent on threes, but ranked in the bottom four in terms of field goal attempts that came from behind the arc (20.4 percent). Through four playoff games, 29.6 percent of their field goal attempts have come from long range and they've connected on a playoff-leading 44.3 percent of them.

The Wizards converted 55.6 percent of their Round 1 field goal attempts when a defender was within two feet. Washington led the league in this category at 50.4 percent during the regular season, but 55.6 is an absurd conversion rate on what NBA.com defines as "very tight" coverage, as evidenced by the fact that the next best team (the Spurs) plays at 49 percent.

On the flip side, the Hawks shot just 35 percent from deep against the Nets, which included Kyle Korver - a career 43 percent 3-point shooter who shot better than 49 percent during the season - connecting on 39 percent of his attempts.

Like Drew Gooden knocking down half of his threes, it seems unlikely that these trends will continue through two rounds of action.

Projected Starting Lineups

Position Wizards Hawks
PG John Wall Jeff Teague
SG Bradley Beal Kyle Korver
SF Paul Pierce DeMarre Carroll
PF Nene Paul Millsap
C Marcin Gortat Al Horford

Series Outlook

Date Time (EST) Location Network
Sunday May 3 1:00 p.m. Atlanta ABC
Tuesday May 5 8:00 p.m. Atlanta TNT
Saturday May 9 5:00 p.m. Washington ESPN
Monday May 11 7:00 p.m. Washington TNT
*Wednesday May 13 TBD Atlanta TNT
*Friday May 15 TBD Washington ESPN
*Monday May 18 8:00 p.m. Atlanta TNT

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