Washington Wizards Three Takeaways: Wizards Get Revenge Again, This Time Against Indiana
Washington Wizards avenged their blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and then did the same against the Indiana Pacers at home on Wednesday.
Prior to Wednesday’s home win against Indiana, the Washington Wizards had won six straight at the Verizon Center.
The team is clearly playing better and it has been great to see the fanbase rally behind them.
Much was made early in the season (rightly so) about the lack of local fan support for the team, but recently we’ve seen higher attendance and loud cheering at moments other than opponents trips to the “fowl line.”
The Wizards, now 15-16 on the season, have won 8 of their last 11 games since the mindblowing loss at home to the Magic on December 6th. In fact, that was the team’s last loss at home, and as of the final, sit in 8th place in the conference.
The team will look for its 8th straight win at home on Friday against the Brooklyn Nets. Washington hasn’t won 8 straight games at home since December 2014 – conveniently the last season the team made the playoffs.
The Wizards showed last week, in a one point loss to the Pacers in Indiana, that they can compete with Indiana and Washington was able to hold on this time around.
Wall dazzles…again
Wall, like much of the team, got off to a rough start in the first quarter.
After one quarter, Wall had two points on 1-5 shooting, with a few frustrating drives that didn’t lead to free throws.
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Instead of letting that negatively affect him, The Wall Star used it as motivation, leading to point totals of 11, 12, and 11, in the second, third, and fourth quarters respectively.
Wall mixed in pull up jumpshots (6-10), quick layups (3-5), and threes (2-3) to complete his complete shooting arsenal.
Rename this team the Bullets and call him General Wall.
After that 1-5 start from the field, Wall shot 10-14 in the final three quarters and added a robust 12-13 shooting display from the free throw line.
The rest of the team shot 15-24 (62%) from the free throw line, and the sharp shooting from Wall certainly helped the home team in what ended up being a six point win.
In addition to helping out by scoring the ball, John Wall had a complete game, producing 11 rebounds and 9 assists to go along with his 36 points.
Wall had 8 assists and 8 rebounds coming into the fourth quarter, seemingly ensuring he reach his 8th career triple double, but with Indiana making an early run in the fourth, it was evident the team would need the scoring, especially with Bradley Beal missing the entire second half
Beal gets injured…again
Bradley Beal was one of the only great aspects to come out of the first quarter.
Monday’s hero, Otto Porter, picked up two quick fouls, as did starting power forward Markieff Morris. Beal started out strong, making four of his first five shots for nine of the Wizards’ 23 first quarter points.
Beal was only 1-3 on three-point shots, but his midrange jumper was really falling.
He’s made a concerted effort to limit these shots, but when they are open shots and the shot is falling, he’ll gladly take that from the defense.
With Wall struggling on his shot early, he looked to get Beal involved, routinely passing early to Beal to bring the ball up the court, and contributing two assists on Beal’s five makes, including this gorgeous find in the opposite corner.
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Things changed, however, with 1:29 left in the first quarter when Beal took a bad step on a fastbreak drive against Monta Ellis.
Beal got the benefit of the doubt on a phantom foul call, but clearly his ankle was of more importance.
Beal walked it off, made one of two free throws and finished the first half with his usual 18 minutes.
Soon after, he was ruled questionable to return with a sprained ankle, and ultimately never did make it back into the game.
It will be important to monitor his improvement over the next 48 hours.
Although the Friday game against Brooklyn is the last game of the week, Beal has been outstanding over the last month, and any missed games could surely halt his momentum.
Smith balls out, Wizards go off in second half
Everyone’s favorite backup big man had a great game on Wednesday, contributing in just the ways Washington needs to win.
He had by far the team’s best plus/minus at +15, added 7 points on 3-4 shooting, and even hit a corner three to boot.
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Jason Smith was important throughout the game, as he spelled Morris while in foul trouble, and backed up Marcin Gortat, who had 13 points and 16 rebounds in 41 bruising minutes.
Smith also ignited the bench early in the second quarter by providing a hustle in the form of crashing the glass.
Three of Smith’s seven rebounds were on the offensive glass.
When Morris reentered the game with 7:45 left in the second quarter, the score was 30-30.
From that point on, Washington outscored Indiana 28-18, and should have had even more success, except for a rather questionable call to end the half, when Wall stole the ball and ran the court for an And-1 layup, which ended up being called a charge.
Wall scored nine of his 11 second quarter points in the last 2:23 of the period, including this beauty of a play near the end of the first half.
The Washington Wizards outscored Indiana by 12 points in the period and got solid contributions from every player who touched the court during that quarter.
The bench is still inconsistent and lacking in production, seen by only 18 bench points, but they did enough in the right places tonight to help the team get a great win at home.
Otto Porter, coming off 32 points Monday, was quiet in the first half, but stepped up in the second half with Beal out, adding 16 points after the half, 22 in total, and some clutch shooting late, as has become the norm.
The Wizards will look to close out 2016 on a positive Friday night at home against the Nets.
