Wizards 105
Pistons 101
April 11, 2017 - The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI
The quest for 50 remains a possibility and will happen if Washington avoids the South Beach flu and beats the Miami Heat, who will be playing for their playoff lives, on Wednesday.
First things first, though: the Wizards avoided blowing a 15-point lead in The Palace’s basketball finale thanks to a strong performance from the Big Panda. Washington completes the biggest turnaround in NBA history following a 2-8 start by recording their 49th win, a 105-101 win over Detroit.
Quick Hits:
John Wall (quad) and Otto Porter (back) sit out.
The Washington Wizards' point guard sat out his first game since November 12th, the back end of a back-to-back against Chicago. In his first three seasons in the league, Wall played in just 184 regular season games, while in the last four he has already played in 316. It is likely that Wall would have played if there was something more substantial on the line with regards to seeding or the playoffs itself, but there is no reason to aggravate a legitimate injury. “[I've] missed too many games in my career already,” Wall said after the Charlotte game on Tuesday. “Rest don’t mean nothing right now. I want to play as many games as I can.”
There is a greater degree of concern with Otto Porter, though, who is sitting out his second straight game after taking a hard foul against New York. Porter said he needed a day for himself before missing the Miami game on Saturday and did not sound confident when asked if he would be able to play if this were the playoffs. Despite Porter’s diminished 3-point shooting post All-Star Break, he is still an important starter that ensures Kelly Oubre can play off the bench and help anchor that unit.
This Wizards team has something in common with the Randy Wittman era.
Yes, you read that correctly. That something is the element of balanced scoring. John Wall, Bradley Beal and Marcin Gortat remain starters from the #WittmanFace era while Otto Porter and Markieff Morris have taken the place of Trevor Ariza, Paul Pierce, and Nene. Washington has all five starters averaging double figures and even without Wall and Porter tonight, Beal and Morris were money. Beal was 13-for-20 for 33 points, his 13th 30+ point game of the season, including this thunderous dunk at the end of the game to secure the victory for Washington:
Morris was 9-for-16 for 20 points to go along with 8 rebounds tonight, and went 3 -for-4 in the final four minutes of the game. In his last two games, Morris is 18-for-29 (62%) from the field and 5-for-8 from three (62.5%) for 41 points. He will be a major X-factor in the playoffs..
Playoffs!? You talking about playoffs!?
Yes, let’s talk about the possibilities for the rest of the Eastern Conference even though the Wizards are locked into the No. 4 seed.
Boston is the No. 1 seed if they beat Milwaukee at home on Wednesday OR Cleveland loses to Toronto at home on Wednesday.
Atlanta is the No. 5 seed if they beat Charlotte at home on Tuesday or if they beat Indiana on the road on Wednesday. The Hawks can also be the five seed if they lose both of their final two games AND Milwaukee loses at Boston because Atlanta (4-3) would own the three-way tiebreak over the Bucks (4-4) and Pacers (3-4).
Miami is in the playoffs if they beat Washington at home on Wednesday AND (Chicago loses at home to Brooklyn OR Indiana loses at home to Atlanta)..
Highlights:
It was simply this kind of night for Bradley Beal.
Sato at the buzzer!