Another Turbulent Month for the Washington Wizards
A new month means a new selection of Wizards games to watch, take notes on, and prepare for a monthly review. And at the end of every month, I get to look through all of my notes and pick the most interesting four games for a monthly review article. The problem is that this month I need to recap one of the three games where the Wizards lost a double-digit lead.
I’ve decided to pick the second one, the Wizards’ second game of the month and the last game against the Brooklyn Nets this season. Not only did the Wizards lose to the Nets on February 4 (123-125), this was the second game in a row where the Wizards gave up a 20-point lead.
Despite their faults, there were a surprising number of positives.
Not only was this a great comeback game for Deni Avdija, who struggled against Portland the night before, but it was also an efficient offensive night for the entire team. In addition to Avdija’s 23 points, he also tied a career-high four steals in a singular game and attempted a career-high 12 free throws. Monte Morris scored 18 points, Daniel Gafford had 10 points/10 rebounds for a double-double, Kristaps Porzingis scored 38 points and shot perfectly in the first quarter, and Corey Kispert scored 15 points including the first five points for the Wizards. Bradley Beal was absent from this game with a foot injury from the previous night, leaving Kispert to step up again as the starting shooting guard. It’s also worth mentioning that the Wizards scored a season-high 44 points in the first quarter, but still, something went wrong.
Actually many things went wrong: Kyle Kuzma suffered an early injury, Delon Wright was unusually quiet from the bench and Kendrick Nunn, who is regularly inconsistent, didn’t show up for the bench squad. The end of the game had a blur of errors, including incorrectly called fouls, costly missed free throws from Monte Morris, a continued general inability to play transition defense from most of the team, and silly fouling even with the poor officiating.
It’s just shocking to watch this team blow two 20-point leads in back-to-back games when both games were easily won.
The next week, however, the Wizards closed out their series against the Indiana Pacers pretty well, winning 127-113. This game had similar highlights from the Nets game the Saturday prior, but the end result was different.
This game had no shortage of strength from the backcourt, to start. Monte Morris was dominant early on offense, Beal scored efficiently with 32 points on 13/18 attempted field goals, and from the frontcourt, Avdija shot efficiently with 7/8 attempted field goals that yielded 16 points. Porzingis scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds for another double-double, and defensively Gafford stepped up with four blocks. He also scored 13 points on perfect 6/6 field goal shooting.
Bradley Beal (3) attempting a three-point shot against the Indiana Pacers | Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images
Even without Kuzma, the Wizards played a strong offensive game against the Pacers. The only problems were, unfortunately, the usual: Beal led the team in turnovers with five, transition defense was lacking, and Wright still needed to do more.
Before moving into the second half of this monthly review, I want to highlight two milestone games from February. In the last game before the trade deadline, wherein the Wizards hosted and defeated the Charlotte Hornets 118-104, Deni Avdija had his eighth double-double of the season and reached 1,500 career points. Bradley Beal had his first double-double of the season in that game and in the loss to Golden State (135-126) on the thirteenth, Beal reached 15,000 career points. He is the second player in franchise history to reach this scoring milestone.
Daniel Gafford (21) and Bradley Beal (3) on court against the Golden State Warriors | Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images
In the last game before the All-Star break the Wizards traveled to Minnesota and defeated the Timberwolves 114-106.
One of the biggest positives in this game was that it was intelligently coached. Wes Unseld Jr made a beneficial and meaningful adjustment to start the second half by sitting Gafford and starting Kispert, which spaced the floor better. Kuzma hit a step-back three to claim the lead at the end of the game and Delon Wright arrived offensively with 10 points including two dunks. Avdija also scored 10 points and dunked twice and was key in the final defensive sequence that guaranteed the win with his steal at the end of the game. And, crucially, Beal stepped up. He scored his season-high (at the time) 35 points and came through when it was the most important.
Unfortunately, Beal looked just as bad as he did good by turning the ball over at the worst time and missing important shots. This game also revealed a lack of game-clock awareness from Porzingis, one of two players with a negative individual rating of a -2. Monte Morris’ rating was -19. This game was also one of continued foul trouble, including a technical foul for Avdija, and continued, unsuccessful attempts to double-team.
After the All-Star break, and after a slow start coming back from the break, things improved on the last day of the month. The Wizards opened their series against the Atlanta Hawks with a much-needed win, 119-116, thanks in part to Beal scoring a new season-high 37 points. Kuzma also had a strong offensive showing with 28 points, but the consistent defensive efforts of Gafford, who scored 13 points and had 12 rebounds, two blocks, and a steal, and Avdija, who led the team in boards with 13 rebounds, were just as, if not more important. Avdija had eight rebounds in the first quarter, which ties his personal best set last year. Jordan Goodwin, now on a permanent contract, also made an impact with six points, two steals, four assists, and a rebound.
This game, overall, was good. But it’s worth noting that shots weren’t falling for Avdija and Porzingis’ impact was definitely missed on the floor. Coach Unseld used his challenge less than two minutes into the game, which was a huge mistake. Even if the challenge had been successful, I’m not sure I would have approved of using it so early. There were at least three opportunities later in the game where a challenge would have been great, but we didn’t have any. I’d call this bad time management, even though it’s nice to see Unseld defending his players.
That leaves us at the beginning of March. The Wizards are clinging to the Play-In Tournament just like they have all season. I want to say that the Wizards will make it if they’re lucky, or if something shakes the Eastern Conference standings, but luck has nothing to do with it. If the Wizards are truly serious about making it to the postseason, the whole team needs to step up. I’m going to place more of the burden of responsibility on the Big Three and the head coach, though the entire team needs to step up in specific ways. Beal needs to work on taking care of the ball and needs to hustle more for the team, Kuzma needs to stay consistent and also limit his turnovers, and I want to see more confidence from Avdija. In fact, I want him to be a little more selfish and take more shots.
The postseason is within reach, everything just needs to come together.
