With Kyle Kuzma out of action with a groin injury, Washington Wizards head coach Brian Keefe opened the game with three rookies and a second-rounder, and the team promptly took the lead. It was the youngest starting lineup in franchise history — a group so young that Jordan Poole served as a grizzled veteran, and he's only 25 years old.

All the children had standout moments, but none had more than Bilal Coulibaly. The second-year winger followed up a dominant defensive performance against Trae Young on Monday night (when Young was defended by Coulibaly, the Atlanta Hawks guard shot 0-7 from the floor and had five turnovers in the previous game) with an extremely efficient offensive game And more outstanding defense.

Coulibaly shot 11-14 from the floor, 3-5 from three-point range and had 3 steals and a block en route to 27 points (a new career high). While he kept making shots, he forgoed traditional heat checks and just kept making the next right play. He finished the game with an offensive rating (points per possession x 100) of 161. The league average so far this season is 112.7. His usage rate was 20.1%.

Coulibaly had plenty of help. Jonas Valanciunas couldn't stop the Hawks from scoring inside, but he scored 22 points on 10 field goal attempts, grabbed 8 rebounds and dished out 6 assists in 25 minutes.

Rookie Bub Carrington – the fourth youngest player in the NBA this season – played an outstanding game – 16 points on 8 shots, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 turnovers. He defended effectively and became feisty as he fended off a hard foul from former Wizards shooting guard Garrison Mathews.

Kyshawn George, the team's oldest rookie (at 20 years old), was solid – 11 points on 10 shots, 4 assists, 3 steals and zero turnovers.

Alex Sarr, the team's top pick in the 2024 draft, had some trouble finishing in the paint, but he knocked down two three-pointers and blocked four shots. In the fourth quarter, his presence near the rim prevented the Hawks from even attempting a shot.

Jordan Poole's game looked a little too similar to last season for my liking. The controlled approach and smart decision-making of the first three games was missing for long stretches. He shot just 6-17 from the floor and had five turnovers. And yet he went 4-9 from three-point range, had 9 assists (showing excellent synergy with Valanciunas) and had three steals.

It wasn't an efficient night (109 offensive rating on 34.9% effort), but he had 24 points, 9 assists and 3 steals. And the team was +14 when he was out there.

After being forced into a poor performance on Monday night, Atlanta guard Trae Young bounced back with an efficient 35 points and 15 assists. The injury-depleted Hawks didn't have nearly enough to overcome the Wizards' youthful energy, length and athleticism.

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.