Looking for that tank-fest between Washington and Atlanta? Oh, I am so terribly sorry. You’ve arrived a couple days too early!

But since you’re here, stick around and treat yourself to a potpourri of prodigious point-guard passing tonight, as the Atlanta Hawks try to fend off the Washington Wizards at Philips Arena (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN Washington).

You’ve got two of the three leaders among Eastern Conference teams in assists between the Hawks (24.4 APG, 2^nd in NBA) and the Wizards (23.4 APG, 6^th in NBA). Guided by the extra-terrestrial Sam Cassell, John Wall (19.6 PPG, 9.1 APG) has been asserting himself well of late, zooming past Jeff Teague (7.8 APG) into second place among NBA guards in assists.

Atlanta leads the NBA in assisting on two-pointers (58.5% of field goals made assisted), with the Wizards not far behind (54.1%, 7^th in NBA). Meanwhile, Washington trails only Miami on assisted threes (93.1% of made threes assisted), the Hawks the next best team in the East (89.3%, 7^th in NBA).

Those percentages look awfully stellar when you’ve got scorers who know instinctively what to do with the ball once they get it, but not so much when ten players are on the floor playing Hot Potato with the Spalding. You shoot it! No, you shoot it! As a result, you get two teams not bad enough for the dregs of the East, but each rocking the Struggleface coming into tonight’s action.

On Tuesday night versus Oklahoma City, Hawks leading scorer Al Horford showed everyone he’s in a giving mood and filled with the holiday spirit. In fact, he’s already prepped for the sixth day of Christmas, laying a not-so-golden goose egg in the second half (0-for-4 FGs, 0 rebounds, 3-for-10 with 7 points on the night) while bedeviled with foul trouble. Ten field goal tries in a game is a nice night, maybe, if you’re Matt Prater.

Rather than leaving it up to 2011 Wizards second-rounder Shelvin Mack (career-high 17 points, 6 assists vs. OKC) to save his team, the former All-Star Horford must consistently fight for advantageous position in the post and demand the ball from his guards. Against Marcin Gortat (league-worst 5.5 opponent FGs at the rim per game), who’s not likely to get any help from an injured Nene, Al will also need to produce much more than the three boards-a-getting he gave to us in D.C. a couple weeks ago.

It was all cherry blossoms and chili bowls back when Washington, absent leading scorer Bradley Beal, trumped the Hawks at Verizon Center, part of a 7-2 run up the standings after a frustrating 2-7 start. Getting it done even without Lotto Otto Porter ready to contribute, many professional prognosticators were all set to proclaim Wall’s club the rightful heir to the second-place seat among the Southeast Division’s perennial also-rans. Not only that, but also the disparagingly default title of “Third-Best Team in the East,” sort of like being the Royal Crown among colas.

But right when they were poised to achieve a winning record for the first time in four years, Washington's monumental momentum went “poof!” What happened?

Well, last Friday, Wiz fans looked on helplessly as Khris Middleton broke out for 29 points, carrying Milwaukee to just their fourth win all year while the Wizards could only shoot 39.8% from the floor, 0-for-6 in overtime. Beal’s replacement in the starting lineup, Martell Webster, suffered a sprained ankle in the first quarter. Nene had been soldiering on for as long as he could, but eventually declared he needed to shut himself down for a day or twelve, as persistent tendinitis in his foot made running about as pleasurable as getting a Brazilian.

Then, on Monday night, the Wizards shut the Nuggets down to a season-low 75 points and 41% shooting… only to lose at home by one point. They shot just 36% as a team (20.8% at three-point range), letting another small forward, Wilson Chandler, have his way inside and on the right wing, while Nate Robinson drove Wall up a wall with his on-ball tenacity. The backups Washington was left with could muster only Congressional-scale production, just five points in 62 combined minutes. One of the few teams outside of NYC that genuinely wants to make it into the postseason, the Wizards sit at 9-11, trying to right the ship with Brooklyn and Cleveland nipping at their heels in the playoff race.

The Bucks and Nuggets figured out what the Hawks (a season-high 12 Wizard threes, on 50.0 3FG%) could not. When it comes to defending against D.C., cutting corners is actually a good thing.

Washington remains second in the NBA with 3.8 corner threes per game, lofting a league-leading 8.6 per game. This becomes a more pressing issue for Atlanta if Webster (45.2% corner 3FG%; 36.8 3FG% above-the-break) returns as expected tonight. Trevor Ariza is burying shots from the corner (2.0 3FG per game @ 52.6 3FG%), but is not nearly as effective above the break (0.7 per game @ 27.5 3FG%). The Hawks’ swingmen must patrol the edges, cut off swing-around passes, and funnel Wall (41.3 FG%; 35.2 2FG% outside the paint) and other ball handlers into the muddled middle, compelling them to make things happen without bailout shooters available.

Go Hawks!

~lw3