(Photo: Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports)
The Cleveland Cavaliers arrived as Capital One Arena and Scott Brooks wanted to see if LeBron James could replicate “the shot” from last season that forced overtime in a regular season game to remember. Little did Brooks know that the Cavs would rest the majority of their rotation players and throw out a starting lineup of Kay Felder, Kyle Korver, Cedi Osman, Jeff Green, and Ante Zizic. Despite some ugly play in the second half, Washington was victorious 102-94 over Cleveland.
Kelly Oubre Jr. Flashes In Starting Role
Scott Brooks tweaked his starting lineup by sliding Otto Porter Jr. to the power forward position instead of Jason Smith and promoting Oubre from the bench to the starting small forward spot. The third-year player finished with 10 points on 4 of 8 shooting and five rebounds, but during the second half with the reserves, he certainly flashed on both ends of the floor.
“He’s improving right in front of our eyes, so that’s good,” Brooks said about Oubre. “He’s a great worker, he’s active on the defensive end, he’s making shots, his right-hand finishes are much better than in past, usually last year you could play him, make him dribble to his right hand. He’s worked on it, it’s improved, it’s something he worked on last season and this summer.”
“We were able to switch a lot on defense,” Beal said of the new look starting lineup. “Our talking still has to be a little bit better, but as far as our spacing, the floor is very spaced and we have multiple shooters on the floor. I think it gives us a different dynamic that a lot of teams aren’t very used to seeing from us. We are usually a two big team and that will definitely give us a different look. I’m curious to see what Coach (Brooks) wants to do with it.”
One wrinkle with such a starting lineup is there is a vacancy at the backup small forward position. Brooks rolled with a three-guard lineup of John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Jodie Meeks to fill some of the gap, but I would expect Tomas Satoransky to also get some run on the wing. Meeks shot 3 of 4 from deep against Cleveland to bring his preseason total up to 9 of 13, which lives up to Brooks calling him one of the best shooters in the game.
“We definitely will use that line up throughout the season,” Brooks said of Meeks joining the House of Guards. “I mean, every team is doing that with three guards, three-point shooters on the floor with Brad and Jodie and then you have John’s ability to make the defense make some tough decisions with his speed and quickness and his ability to finish around the paint. So, we just have a lot of different guys that we like to throw out there, we feel like they can all play with one another.”
Potentially Sad Ending for Mac’s Season
Second year drafted wing Sheldon Mac left Sunday afternoon’s game midway through the second quarter with a lower leg injury. Mac helplessly gave up the ball during live play and collapsed to the floor in agony. The Miami product was carried off the court with a reported torn Achilles, which would end his season before it began. Mac was fighting to see rotation minutes this season, but now may not make the team. He will undergo an MRI either Sunday night or Monday morning to learn the extend of the injury before making any surgery decisions.
“I did see it live. It’s sad. It’s devastating,” Beal said. “Sheldon (Mac) is a great guy. He’s a great teammate and even better player, too. You never want to see anybody go down, especially with an injury, in which you know it could be serious potentially. We can do nothing but pray for him. He’ll be back. He’ll be back when he’s back, but you know, the most important thing is that he’s taking care of his body and he gets healthy.”
“It's super tough,” Oubre said. “He's a brother. Our hearts dropped when he went down on the floor. I said a prayer for him when he was on the floor and I was standing over him. All we can do is just pray that he has a speedy recovery and continue to support him no matter what.”
Carrick Felix, 27, may now be able to fill out the opening day roster spot as a needed wing body. Brooks can related to Felix as he is a hard working effort player much like he was back in the day.
“He plays with maximum effort,” Brooks described. “That is his strength. You saw the last play -- he contested the shot when the game was pretty much over. That’s how he plays. He has one way of playing, he has the play hard button and he plays it and uses it every game and he steps on the floor and does the same thing in practice, every practice he brings it. He’s given himself a good opportunity to make the team and that’s what you want all of your players to do, and play hard and that’s to me that’s the easiest thing to do and a lot of times in the league that doesn’t seem to be the case. That’s the easiest thing to do is play hard and the hardest thing to do is to play well.”
Injury Update
Backup point guard Tim Frazier (Grade 1 groin sprain) could have played against Cleveland were it a regular season game, but Brooks did not see the reason to rush him along given that he is not been able to practice with the team yet. Frazier will likely practice with the team fully on Monday and make his Wizards debut in South Beach.
Markieff Morris (sports hernia surgery) returned to the team last week, but is not doing much on the court besides stationary shooting. He is unsure when he can get back to cutting on the court, but believes the next step is some light jogging on the treadmill. He understands that rest is currently the best medicine and is not rushing the process.
Washington will travel to Miami on Wednesday for the penultimate preseason before finishing up the exhibition games on Friday