Eastern Conference Semis - Game 4

Wizards 121

Celtics 102

May 7, 2017 - Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.

To quote the great Paul Millsap, the Washington Wizards are back to a 0-0 series. It is now the best of 3 as the Wizards won both Game 3 and Game 4 at home easily. In Game 3, Washington had an amazing 22-0 run at the end of the first quarter and one would think there is no way that they could top that, right? Wrong. The Wizards exploded for a 26-0 run and closed things out with the bench one more time to square the series away 2-2.

Another MONSTER run.

Brad Stevens is clearly searching for his fifth starter to go along with Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder and Al Horford. Today, he reverted back to Amir Johnson and it looked to be working well to start the second half as the big had five straight points.

In a six-minute stretch from 10:41 to 5 minutes left in the third quarter, the Wizards went on a 26-0 run. Boston shot 0 of 5 from the field during that stretch, while Washington was 10 of 13 including seven buckets around the rim. The Wizards took advantage of the Celtics turnovers woes in the quarter as the road team had 10 miscues that resulted in 21 of the home team's points in the frame, half of the total 42 scored in the third.

Markieff Morris and teammates attributed to the run to picking up their defense, which may have been possible because of a short film session at halftime. “Blow them the fuck out, keep pressing them, that’s the mindset all of us had.”

“We played inspired basketball for each other,” Scott Brooks said about the third quarter. “We talked about that many times. It’s about playing for each other and we’ve been doing that all year. It’s probably our best stretch of basketball. Defensively we were in the right position and we made some adjustments at the half. We didn’t make silly mistakes that we made early in the game. It pays off. Make them take tough shots over a hand and rebound and get out and use our speed. John [Wall] is one of the fastest point guards in the league. We got some good shooters on the wings and we have to take advantage of that. It doesn’t work if we don’t lock in on the defensive end.”

“You don’t anticipate going into a game against the best record in the East, be on a 26-0 run after they score the first four or five points with a timeout in between,” Brooks said. “That happens. That has happened to us, maybe not to that extent but it happens. Defensively, it gave us a chance to get out in transition. We were active, we were solid in our positioning. We have to continue to do that. With all that being said we won our two home games. When we were down 2-0 our guys don’t panic, they believe in each other. They knew that we needed to come home and take care of business. Now the series is tied. We are looking forward to going up to Boston.”

“It was all our defense,” Bradley Beal said. “That’s all it was. We realized at halftime that we weren’t defending the way we were capable of. It was still a tied game [and] we just came out in the third quarter with a better mindset that everything was going to stem from the defensive end. We were able to force a lot of turnovers. On top of that we converted, we’re one of the best teams in the league at converting off turnovers. It was important that we got hands on 50-50 balls and be able to convert on the opposite end.”

“We knew that we didn’t play our best ball in the first half,” Otto Porter said. “We knew coming out in the third quarter that we could definitely get it going defensively, and that’s what we did.”

John Wall bouncing back because you cannot keep a Point Gawd down.

When Wall started the game 0-for-9 from the field, I was not too worried because six of his shots were around the rim and it was simply a matter of him starting to finish and/or get foul calls. He finished with 24 points on 8 of his last 16 shooting, 12 assists, and a career playoff high 5 steals. His success despite the poor start was brushed off by himself and teammates.

Last series Bradley Beal told reporter, “a miss is like a lady.”

Last night, I asked if John Wall has a similar motto to get out of a slump.

Wall: “She just ain’t acting right. She just ain’t acting right.”

Beal: “That’s how it be. Sometimes she don’t fall through that basket.”

Wall: “Sometime she stubborn.”

Beal: “You have to forget about it.”

Wall: “It’s like having a sister, they going to be stubborn from time to time.”

“Just from my team I know that I have to be aggressive – offensively and defensively,” Wall continued. “I was getting good looks, I was just missing easy shots [and] layups hitting the rim and not slowing down. My teammates let me keep being aggressive. Just the way we got stops, that kind of got me into a momentum and a rhythm of seeing the ball go into a basket.”

“That’s nothing,” Morris said of Wall’s 0-for-9 start. “Wall’s a great player. He start 0-for-20 and he’s still going to get into it, he’s still going to have an effect on the game. He didn’t let that effect him.”

“John was pushing the ball [and] pushing the pace, he was able to get good looks,” Porter said. “Just continuing to be aggressive and that’s what he does.”

“I thought we did a really good job defensively in the first half overall,” Brad Stevens said. “I felt really good about it. But he [John Wall] made big shots as the game went on. When he gets in transition and he’s low, he’s just as good as it gets in transition.”

Isaiah Thomas has been neutralized in D.C.

Take away a 11-minute stretch from 7 minutes left in the first quarter to 8 minutes left in the second quarter where Thomas scored 17 points including five three-pointers, he had a rather unpleasant time in the Nation’s capital. In the other 85 minutes, he was a combined 4 of 14 for just 15 points. Tonight, Thomas also had six turnovers and was so frustrated that Washington’s defense that he picked up a fourth quarter technical.

“We made quite a few mistakes early on things that we have talked about after Game 2,” Brooks said. “We can’t have that. If you do, this is what you see: a three, a three, a drive, a three, a three, a drive. You have to be able to execute our game plan. With that even being said, it’s not guarantee that he is going to miss shots. He had wide-open looks. They made an adjustment, I thought we did a good job of figuring that out. We have to be aware of how he plays. He is one of the hardest guards to guard in this league. He gets wherever he wants with his ball handling skills. We have to continue to make him see a crowd.”

“We have to keep our high hands,” Brooks on keep Thomas off the free throw line. “Like all the great players in this league, they see your hands down they are going to go through it and get easy calls. We have to keep our hands high. I thought our bigs have been working on that and talking about that. We’ve been showing them. With all that it’s still hard to do. The temptation is to put your hand in the cookie jar and he is so clever. I thought our bigs did a good job staying vertical and it’s hard to do when he is penetrating to the basket. Our guys were really disciplined tonight and we need to do it again Wednesday.”

“Just make it tough for him,” Porter said. “If we can get it out of his hands we have the best opportunity to win the game. He’s their best player [and] their go-to player. If we make it tough for him, then we have a better chance.”

“We just have to corral him,” Morris said. “Like he’s a small guy, so at the end of the day, if you got three players around you, how can you make a pass? How can you make a shot? It’s just basically what we’ve been doing and just trying, you know, to get the ball out of his hands. Hopefully, the other guys miss shots like they’ve been doing.”

“I think they were locked into him the whole game, but, obviously more so after the barrage of threes,” Stevens said. “They did a little bit more switching – [Marcin] Gortat ended up on Isaiah on more than a couple of occasions. Certainly, any time that they could be aggressive off the pick-and-roll, blitz the pick-and-roll, whatever the case may be, they were really up into him. He did a great job in the first half of finding seams and finding avenues, and our guys looked for him [and] made plays together. I thought that we missed a ton of shots in the first half that I felt really good about. I was actually surprised at our shooting percentage in the first half. I would have thought it was worse because I felt that we were getting great looks. But then in the third quarter that six-minute spurt changed the whole game.”

Isaiah Thomas proceeds to rant about the officiating.

Let’s just say that it is a common theme around the NBA to complain about calls not going the losing team’s way.

“The refs were allowing them to hold and grab and do all of those things,” Thomas opened his press conference with. “I think, I mean, especially in that third quarter, I may have hit the ground five or six times. I'm not the one that likes hitting the ground, so like, I think it gotta be called differently. I'm not saying that's the reason why they lost. They went on a 26-0 run. We can't have that on the road, but I cannot allow to be held and grabbed every pin down, every screen and I don't even shoot one free-throw. I play the same way each and every night, that has to change.”

“But it does get a little frustrating when you continue to play the same way and there’s nothing being called,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t getting anything here. They were allowing them to be very physical with me coming off ball screens, coming off pin downs. And all I’m saying is when I try to be physical with them on the other end, they were fouls. And when guys went to the hole and maybe got hit a little bit on layups, they were fouls. And when we went to the hole, especially myself, I’m hitting the ground and there was no call.”

Kelly Oubre Jr. helped his team without even being on the court.

Washington is now 2-0 in the past four years after one of their players has been suspended: Nene vs. Chicago and Kelly Oubre Jr. vs. Boston.

“He should have been thrown out, he shouldn’t have been suspended,” Markieff Morris reflected on Kelly Oubre Jr. “It is what it is, guys came ready to play for him tonight. Got this for Kells.”