(Photo: Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)
Dallas 113
Washington 99
November 7, 2017, Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
Last season, the Washington Wizards did not drop back-to-back games at home. Ten games into this season and they have already lost three straight games at ‘The Vault.’ The 1-10 Dallas Mavericks came in as the worst team in the NBA and the Wizards allowed Harrison Barnes to look worthy of his max contract. Barnes took his 31-point outing to take a jab at Washington, “I guess they didn’t think I was a good iso-scorer. I had to make them pay.” The Wizards fell to the Mavericks at home for the ninth straight time in D.C. and are now 5-5 on the season. John Wall finished with 23 points and 14 assists, while Bradley Beal added 23 points of his own, but as has usually been the case, offense was not a big reason for the loss.
Slow Start, Again
Before the game, Scott Brooks said that if you play against a team’s record, you are not going to have success in the NBA. As if he was foreshadowing Washington’s eventual demise, the Wizards had another slow start defensively putting them behind the eight-ball. Dallas scored the first seven points of the game either scored or assisted by rookie Dennis Smith Jr. and eventually took a 23-14 lead midway through the first quarter. The Mavs were shooting 10 of 14 (71.4 percent) from the field at this point and.
Dallas only led by two after the first quarter, but had 36 points in the 12-minute frame, which put them on pace for 144 points when they only scored an average of 98 points per game through their first ten games. For the seventh time in ten games, Washington surrendered 30 or more points in the first quarter.
“Our start defensively,” Scott Brooks responded when asked what stood out from the loss. “It’s been not good the last couple of games. I think if I can remember, Cleveland had 42, we gave up 36 tonight. We keep talking about being a defensive team, but now it’s actions. We’ve got to be an action-defending team and right now we’re not doing that. In order to win in this league consistently or to give yourself a best chance, you got to do it. I got to figure out a better way to get guys on the floor to be active on the defensive end and not worry about their shots.”
“We just did not guard anybody,” John Wall said about what went wrong early in the game. “Flair screens or one on ones in the post. Getting out in transition they just basically got whatever they wanted. Missed shots, they leaked out got layups, and we did not do a great job, but we try to outscore people like I said, the last couple of games. We are not a team that can just outscore anybody. You have to be able to guard in this league and we have not done that this beginning of the season.”
Out Rebounded, Out Hustled
Statistically, Washington and Dallas were pretty even in every major category except one. Rebounding. Dallas won the battle of the boards 53-39, which gave them 16 more field goal attempts. In the second half alone, the Wizards were outrebounded 31-18. The Mavericks also won the second chance points category by a count of 18-7. Rebounding is mostly a matter of effort and the home team inexcusably did not have it on Tuesday.
“The first thing is you should never have to talk about effort,” Brooks said. “You shouldn’t. If you’re going to expect to win in this league consistently you have to do the winning basketball plays. That’s stopping the ball, contesting shots, blocking out, and rebounding the ball. We are struggling doing that, not throughout the game, just spirts of the game. You can’t win consistently. We have enough good players to be able to put better effort.”
“You wake up every morning, you get to play the game that you love,” Wall explained. The easiest thing you can do is go out there and compete. I mean that is the easiest thing you can do, no matter if you are missing or making shots, or turning the ball over, you can compete. I think we do a better job of that when we are playing against each other on the practice court. We take more pride in guarding ourselves down there then we do on the court against other teams. We do not know the reason why, but that is something we need to figure out ASAP.”
Ian Mahinmi Benched
In the second half, last summer’s $64 million man stayed on the bench for the entire 24 minutes of game time. Instead of providing his usual six to eight minutes of breathing time for Marcin Gortat, Jason Smith was asked to play backup center. Smith has been a DNP – Coach’s decision the past two game with Markieff Morris’ return, but got the call today as Washington was reeling and in need of a spark. Mahinmi’s play so far this season has been a liability and if that continues, he may continue to sit despite the expensive price tag he carries.
“We were down 12, 13, 14 points and the only way we were going to make an effort was to bring some energy,” Brooks explained. “One thing Jason [Smith] does is he plays hard and he plays his butt off for the team. I got to figure out how to play him more. That’s been on me the last few days and my job is to figure out how I get him more minutes. He deserves it.”
Bench Provides A Surprising Spark
With less than a minute to go in the third quarter, the Wizards trailed 90-74 at home and were all but certainly going to get ran off their own court. To begin the fourth quarter, the bench along with Otto Porter Jr. took the floor and rattled off a 12-0 run, 14-0 overall starting at the end of the third quarter, in just over two minutes. Tim Frazier hit a layup, Jodie Meeks hit a three-pointer and then knocked down three from the free throw line after drawing the foul, Porter hit a and-1 runner, and Meeks hit a technical free throw. All of a sudden, the Dallas lead was cut to two with nine minutes to play. The key was a couple shots blocked by Smith and three turnovers forced on the defensive end.
“In the huddles, the team was sticking together, talking about 'We knew it was going to be tough. We're going to play through this. Don't worry they're not going to get the lead.’ Everybody was positive, upbeat, and optimism is a big factor in success,” Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle said.
Struggling To Finish Comeback
Between John Wall missing three of four free throws in the fourth quarter and Dallas finishing the game shooting 7 of 13 (53.8 percent) from the field, the Wizards failed to complete the comeback. The bench put the starters in an unlikely position to secure the victory, but they could never get over the hump to take the lead. Wesley Matthews hit one of his four three-points to finish a quick 5-0 run and the Wizards could never get with arm’s length the rest of the way. Barnes had a five-minute spurt of nine points late in the game and Washington finished the game getting outscored 23-11.
“I probably sound insane trying to tell you something different but it's the same thing over and over,” Bradley Beal said. “We've developed a bad habit of not coming out with energy. I'm taking it on my shoulders, because I have to do a better job of defending and getting the bench going. It starts with me and John. We got to come out better, and be better leaders with our team and the rest will follow. Overall our defensive effort isn't there. We keep worrying about offense and offense isn't a problem, it's our defense.”
“Oh we do this every year,” Wall said. “This is not the first time. We’ve been here. So until we lock in and figure it out and everybody takes pride in guarding one on one, and if somebody gets beat, you help the helper and make extra efforts, we are going to deal with the same problem.”
Next Game: The Wizards still have a chance to win their next three games at home against subpar opponents to come away with a decent 3-1 showing during this homestand, but as Brooks and Beal pointed out after the game, things will stop being “early in the season struggles” quickly.
“It’s early, but 20 games is early, 30 games, yeah, it’s still early,” Brooks mocked of such an excuse that eventually spirals. “I don’t believe in that philosophy, early is game one. That’s what you’re supposed to do is play with great effort game one.”
“I'm not going to sit here and say, 'On to the next game, on to the next game', because eventually you run out, but at this point we know what we need to do,” Beal said. “We got to turn it around and it starts Thursday for sure.”