Trae Young returns to Atlanta tonight, and the Wizards need to be better than Wednesday
Trae Young makes his first trip back to State Farm Arena as a visiting player Friday night, two days after the Hawks handed Washington a 120-105 loss at Capital One Arena. The Wizards (4-4) have real problems on the glass and behind the arc.
In brief
Trae Young returns to Atlanta tonight, and the Wizards need to be better than Wednesday
When the Washington Wizards tipoff at State Farm Arena at 7 p.m. Friday night, Trae Young will walk into an arena where he played for seven-plus seasons, made four All-Star teams, and built the closest thing Atlanta had to a franchise cornerstone since Dominique Wilkins. This time he shows up as the away team.
It is the most anticipated homecoming game on Washington's early-season schedule, and also the second half of a home-and-home set the Wizards badly need to split. Young faced his old team for the first time Wednesday night in the Hawks' 120-105 win at Capital One Arena. Washington's 4-4 record looked solid enough before that game. What unfolded over 48 minutes was a reminder of exactly how far this rebuild still has to go.
Atlanta outrebounded Washington 57-41, paced by 16 boards apiece from Onyeka Okongwu and Dyson Daniels, and led 19-6 in made three-pointers. Those are not close numbers. The Wizards are last in the league in three-pointers per game, averaging 8.8, and fifth from the bottom with 41.0 rebounds per contest. Both areas have shown up as problems repeatedly, not just once.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 26 points for the Hawks, who held the Wizards to 44 second-half points and added to their advantage late after leading throughout the final three quarters. Kyshawn George added 25 points, but that was not enough to overcome the Wizards allowing 120-plus points for a third time this season.
"Our defense wasn't good Wednesday either, but our offense has been lacking, really to be honest, all season, and our defense has been what's carried us," Young said after the loss. Coach Brian Keefe took a measured tone: "I've got to give them credit; they came out with great pace to start the game."
Young made four All-Star appearances in seven-plus seasons before Atlanta dealt him to Washington for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert in January. The deal flipped Atlanta's most recognizable player in years for a veteran combo guard and a sharp-shooter, and now both franchises are trying to figure out what they actually have. Atlanta has won the past two games without 2025-26 All-Star Jalen Johnson, who is out with a left ankle sprain. Hawks coach Quin Snyder acknowledged Young is not an easy cover: "Trae is one of the very best pick-and-roll players in the league, and they're a handful in those situations. We're going to have to be even better when they come to Atlanta. Any time you guard a great player, it takes five guys."
The Wizards are not a finished product. That much is obvious. After finishing with the worst record last season, Washington held the first overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft and selected AJ Dybantsa. Young has averaged 19.9 points and 10 assists per game, helping the Wizards get off to their first winning start through seven games since 2021-22. The front office built this roster to grow, not to win 50 games in November. But 4-4 at this point of the season, with Dybantsa alongside a legitimate lead guard, was a reasonable place to be before Wednesday night unraveled some of that optimism.
Washington heads into tonight shorthanded. Reece Beekman is out with a shoulder injury, Justin Champagnie is out with a foot injury, and Anthony Davis is listed as day-to-day with an ankle issue. Davis has been the team's leading scorer at 23.4 points per game. If he sits, the interior collapses. With Alex Sarr also sidelined, DeAndre Ayton has been drawing starts but remains a secondary offensive option, and his upside looks restricted in the current rotation.
Atlanta is not operating at full strength either. Pierre-Luc Dubois will not play Saturday because of illness, and coach Spencer Carbery said Dubois' next step in his recovery is simply returning to the team facility before he's back in the mix. That is a Capitals note leaking into the broader DC sports weekend, but it speaks to how beat-up these rosters get in mid-November.
What Friday night at State Farm Arena offers, beyond the basketball itself, is a snapshot of two organizations moving in opposite directions on a roster construction question that neither can fully answer yet. Young's return to Atlanta was listed among the marquee homecoming games of the 2026-27 NBA season for a reason. The city invested in him for eight years. The Hawks' front office decided the team's ceiling with him at the helm was lower than starting over.
Washington, meanwhile, is betting the other way. The Wizards' coaching staff and front office used a full tank season to land Dybantsa at No. 1 and then packaged what Atlanta wanted to get Young in the building. Washington entered the first game of this home-and-home set having won back-to-back games, something that happened only four times in all of last season. The trend line, before Wednesday, was pointing somewhere better than it had been. The Wizards need a road win tonight to prove that Wednesday was noise, not signal.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
