#1. Atlanta Hawks (60-22) vs. #5 Washington Wizards (46-36):
The Atlanta Hawks come into this series having taken out the Brooklyn Nets in six games, a series many thought wouldn't go past five games. As for the Washington Wizards, they swept the Toronto Raptors despite not having home court advantage. The rest vs. rust factor will certainly be tested in this series: The Wizards came into this series not having played since April 26 and the Hawks played on Friday.
The Hawks won the regular season series 3-1 and the lone Wizards win was at the very end of the season when the Hawks had everything locked up. Given the fact that neither of these teams have a lot of playoff experience, one definitely has to give the Hawks the edge because they have the best record in the East and home court advantage in addition to winning the regular season series.
That being said, the Nets stretched the Hawks and the Wizards are certainly a better team than the Nets. In addition, while the Hawks have the better record and more regular season success, the Wizards have the best player in the series in John Wall and the most playoff seasoned player in Paul Pierce. There's plenty of reasons to pick the Wizards based on those two guys alone in addition to the way they dismantled the Raptors.
If the Hawks are going to win this series, they will have to get good production from Jeff Teague on both ends of the floor. As their starting point guard, he has the responsibility to make sure Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap, and Al Horford get into a good rhythm offensively as well as making sure John Wall, who also plays point guard, doesn't eat them alive. The point guard battle is going to be a key thing to watch over the course of this series and will certainly have a huge impact in determining its outcome.
The other huge factor in this series is the rebounding battle. The Wizards have some good rebounders in Marcin Gortat, Drew Gooden, and Nene to combat the Hawks on the glass, who rebound very well thanks to Paul Millsap, Al Horford, and DeMarre Carroll. Whichever team wins the battle on the glass will have a definite edge in this series.
What will ultimately decide this series is which team is able to execute their game plan better. This sounds ridiculously obvious since to a certain extent this is true of every series. But in this series, execution will be huge. If John Wall and his backcourt mate Bradley Beal are able to play big and be the best players in this series, the Wizards likely win the series. If the Hawks are able to get everybody into a rhythm and get some quality production from some of their role players like DeMarre Carroll, they will win the series. If both things happen, then we will see a very tight series that goes seven games.
When it comes to making a prediction, I'm going to pick the Hawks to win the series in seven games. The Wizards are going to really test the Hawks and give them everything they got, but I have to respect the fact that over the course of the season, the Hawks were by far the better team. I think that if the Hawks are able to play to their highest level, they will win this series. The Hawks aren't afraid to go on the road and get a win, and while they did lose Game 1 today, they had a super quick turnaround from Game 6 in Brooklyn to today. I expect the Hawks to turn it up when they absolutely need to and find a way to get it done.
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord for NBA news
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