Jordan Poole played well for the third straight game, Bub Carrington drained three-pointers, Kyle Kuzma woke up in the second half, Corey Kispert made shots and Bilal Coulibaly blocked Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young. All it took for the Wizards to leave Atlanta with their first win of the season (121-119).

The Wizards survived a sloppy first half (13 turnovers) by knocking down eight three-pointers and grabbing a few offensive boards. They reduced turnovers and made even more three-pointers in the second half, finishing the game with 21 three-pointers compared to Atlanta's 15.

Poole played a reserved and efficient game – attacking when he had the advantage, bombing threes when open and holding his own on defense. He shot 6-8 from three-point range and increased his shooting percentage to 16-28 – 61.5% – in the first three games.

For me, the story of the game was Coulibaly, despite the somewhat boring numbers. That's because of his defense against Young. Coulibaly's length, agility and defensive skills harassed Young – one of the NBA's more skilled offensive weapons – and led to a terrible game. On a night when the injury-depleted Hawks needed Young to come up with big performances, he went 2-for-15 from the floor and committed six turnovers.

Offensively, Coulibaly appeared to be headed for a quiet night until he became aggressive in the fourth quarter. He repeatedly attacked the much smaller Young (who was going up against Coulibaly) and scored 11 points in the final period. Towards the end of the game, Coulibaly played the role of point guard – moving the ball up the floor, using ball screens to attack the paint and getting to the free throw line.

By the way, big praise goes to head coach Brian Keefe and his staff, who repeatedly used Kispert to set ball screens. One of my favorite offensive plays of the Wes Unseld Jr. era was a pick-and-roll in an empty corner where Kispert set a ball screen for the departed Bradley Beal. Kispert's shooting skills and ability to attack close-outs force defenders to make decisions.

Last night was Kuzma's best game of the season, and much of the positives came in the third quarter when he knocked down three straight three-pointers. He survived the required heat checks (misses) and hit a few more treys in the fourth round. His full game numbers were diminished by a weak first half (5 points on 2-8 shooting and 4 turnovers).

It was an ugly but entertaining win for the Wizards, made encouraging by the positive contributions of so many players, including their three youngest boys (Carrington, Alex Sarr and Coulibaly).

Sarr didn't play well overall, but his offensive rebounds helped boost the offense and he managed a steal and two blocks on defense. He had a handful of rookie-style defensive errors and missed a few shots from three feet away (he should have dunked, too), but made some helpful plays and got a chance to learn.

Back to Keefe for a final thought: It was interesting that he only used nine players in the game and only eight in the second half. In a competitive game, Washington's four young players (Coulibaly, Sarr, Carrington and Kyshawn George) all got significant minutes.

Four factors

Below are the four factors that determine wins and losses in basketball: shooting (EFG), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).

Statistics and key figures

Below are some performance metrics, including Player Production Average (PPA) Game Score. PPA is my overall performance metric that recognizes players for things they do to help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defense) and rewards them for things that hurt (misses, turnovers, poor defense, fouls). .

Match result (GmSC) converts individual production into points on the scoreboard. The scale is the same as points and reflects each player's scale Total contributions for the game. The lowest possible GmSC is zero.

PPA is a per possession metric designed for larger data sets. With small sample sizes the numbers can get strange. In the PPA, 100 is average, higher is better, and the replacement level is 45. For a single game, the replacement level is not particularly useful, and I would like to point out again that small samples sometimes produce strange results.

POSSIBLE is the number of possessions each player had on the floor in that game.

ORTG = Offensive rating, which is points scored per possession x 100. The league average last season was 114.8. Points scored are not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as the distribution of credit when an assist is received.

USG = offensive usage rate. The average is 20%.

ORTG and USG are versions of statistics created by former Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that takes into account the value of shots, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and the free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.

+PTS = “Plus Points” is a measure of the points each player gained or lost based on their efficiency in that game compared to the league's average efficiency on the same number of possessions. A player with an Offensive Rating (points per possession x 100) of 100 using 20 possessions would score 20 points. If the league average efficiency is 114, the league would average 22.8 points in the same 20 possessions. So the player in this hypothesis would have a +PTS of -2.8.