On a night when the Wizards were without All-Star point guard John Wall, Paul Pierce put on a shooting display that nearly brought them back into the game, but it wasn’t quite enough and the Wizards fell to the Atlanta Hawks in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

Paul scored 15 points, all coming on three-pointers, and scooped up five rebounds while also dishing out an assist, but Washington could not overcome 16 turnovers without its primary ball handler and facilitator. The game was close throughout, but a late Atlanta run increased the margin, bringing the total to a misleading 106-90.

“I thought we really defended well for the most part,” Paul said after the loss. “We could have had better execution there in the fourth, they got some offensive rebounds that really hurt us there in the fourth quarter. It was a tight ballgame, we put ourselves in a position in the fourth quarter, right where we wanted to be, I think we were down five, or four, with five minutes to go. That’s all you can ask for on the road, give yourself a chance. But we’ve got to have better execution down the stretch, regardless of if John is playing or not. We felt like this is a game we could have won.”

Washington Wizards v Atlanta Hawks - Game Two

Though backup point guard Ramon Sessions filled in well for the injured Wall—he scored 21 points, including 10 straight to open the second half—the Wizards missed their young star’s playmaking ability.

Wall was terrific for Washington in the Game 1 victory, falling just three rebounds short of a triple-double with 18 points, 13 assists, seven rebounds, three blocks and a steal. He also helped pave the way for Bradley Beal’s 28 points and got The Truth, who scored 19, a few easy looks.

However, Wall landed hard on his left hand on a drive to the basket early in that game. He didn’t miss any action, but he was holding his lower arm throughout the game and was clearly in pain. It was only decided about an hour before tip off that Wall’s hand had swelled up too much to play.

Without all that the star point guard brings to the team, the Wizards never established the same offensive rhythm in Game 2, scoring 14 fewer points than they did in the first contest.

“Definitely you miss Wall,” Paul said. “That’s an all-star starter, our best player. Of course you miss him, but we’re not going to cry foul and use it as an excuse. We’ve got to band together collectively, use the guys we have, because we feel like we can beat them with what we have.”

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The Truth was raining down jumpers from deep all night, which helped cover some of the ground lost by Wall’s injury—No. 34 went 5-for-8 from beyond the arc, continuing his red-hot postseason shooting spree.

In the playoffs so far, Paul is shooting .537 from three-point range at a clip of 6.8 attempts per game. It is easily the most efficient he has ever been in the postseason from deep and he is among the league leaders in postseason three-point shooting in both quality and quantity.

He got started early in this one, dropping in a triple to put Washington up 7-6 at the 8:32 mark of the first period, then he added two more in the second to go 3-for-5 in the half.

After a collision between Paul and Hawks point guard Jeff Teague, and the trio of triples No. 34 had already put in, the Atlanta crowd began chanting “Paul Pierce sucks” as the future Hall of Famer jogged to the bench in the final seconds of the first half.

Paul, who absolutely loves when opposing teams and fans egg him on, simply replied with a smile, saying as he headed off, “No, I don’t.”

The Hawks must even have been convinced Paul would come out firing, as they kept a close eye on him to start the third, which allowed Sessions room to penetrate the defense. The fill-in point guard was scorching hot to start the second half, draining a pair of threes and a pair of runners near the basket to open the third period.

The Truth was held scoreless in the period, much to the delight of the Atlanta crowd, but the 17-year veteran was nowhere near done for the evening.

He entered the game at the 9:55 mark of the fourth period with the Wiz down 84-75 and the Hawks in the midst of a 6-0 run. After Sessions got to the rack for a successful and-one, Paul banged in a trey to get Washington back within three.

However, after tha, the Wizards went cold and the offense fell apart, committing three turnovers and missing three shots over the next five minutes as the Hawks began to run away with the game. By the time No. 34 launched his next shot, another triple that dropped, an 84-81 game had turned into a 95-83 game, and the Wizards showed exactly how much they missed having Wall run the offense late.

But Paul’s fifth three of the night brought the Wiz back within single digits, giving Washington one final shot to pull off a miracle.

Beal followed that up with a long jumper, but his toe was on the line so it was just the longest of twos, and suddenly Washington was back within seven with more than three minutes left.

But Atlanta’s Kyle Korver drained a corner three that gave the home crowd a shot in the arm and put the nail in the coffin for Washington.

“They made more plays down the stretch,” Washington head coach Randy Wittman explained to reporters after the game. “We had a missed layup and a missed shot at the rim, and they came down and scored and got fouled on the other basket. We definitely were right there point blank with two baskets that we didn’t get, and they came down and scored five or six on those two possessions. It’s a two or three-point game, and all of a sudden now it’s nine.”

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NEXT UP

Each team has three days off before Game 3 in D.C., the first to be played at the Verizon Center this series.

Wall remains day-to-day with what has been called a sprained hand, but he is seeking another opinion to see if it could be worse than it was originally thought to be. If he is unavailable to play Game 3, Sessions is expected to start in his place once again.

The Wizards, who swept the Toronto Raptors in the first round, are 2-0 at home this postseason but went just 1-4 on their home court a year ago. Paul stressed upon arriving in the nation’s capital that he wants the Wizards to protect their home court, and the next two games will be the ideal chance to do so.

Game 3 is scheduled for a 5 p.m. ET tip on Saturday evening and it will be televised nationally on ESPN.

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