Washington 113
Atlanta 94
November 11, 2017, Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
We are 12 games into this young season and it has been a roller coaster from thrilling wins to tough losses. The Wizards started out good, beginning 3-0 but then had some tough stretches here and there. From a few injuries to losing to teams that they should’ve beaten. On Veteran’s Day at “The Vault”, the Wizards rewarded both the military in attendance as well as their fans with a big 113-94 win over the Hawks.
Here are our five takes:
It’s Not How You Start, It’s How You Finish (From Three)
The Wizards shot a dismal 0-for-9 from three until Markieff Morris broke that trend with just over four minutes left in the second quarter. Since that three that Keef made, Washington shot 7-of-15 from downtown. Much improvement. Aside from Keef (2), Otto Porter Jr. (1), Bradley Beal (2) and Jodie Meeks (2) hit their shots from beyond the arc.
“They hit a couple of threes, an and-one and the game kind of changed,” Atlanta head coach Mike Budenholzer said.
Bench Carrying The Team
What a difference a year makes, at least for tonight. Last year, the Wizards bench was one of the biggest problems but this year they’ve become a solution and taking a chunk off the starters’ plates.
The Wizards went with their bench near the end of the first quarter and the start of the second. Scott Brooks went with his reserves again late in the third quarter and the entire fourth quarter. As a unit, the bench accounted for 54 for the team’s total 113 points with Kelly Oubre Jr. leading the way with 18. Mike Scott added 10 and both those guys and Tim Frazier and Jodie Meeks were on the court for over 20 minutes.
“Playing fast, playing unselfish, playing on both ends,” Scott said about the identity the bench is trying to create. “Speed. The first group with John, Brad, Keef. Second group, we just have to play together. We do that and I think we are one of the best benches in the league.”
Dennis Schroder’s Tough Night
While the Wizards-Hawks rivalry has sort of lost its fire with a new look Atlanta team and no MMA, one thing that keeps the interest intact is the competition between John Wall and Dennis Schroder. The tale of this rivalry began in 2015 in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Wall and Schroder had a brief feud that season prior to that series. Wall mentioned that during Game 5’s loss, Schroder told Kent Bazemore to target his fractured wrist, which was not 100 percent as Wall was injured in Game 1 and missed the next three games prior to that contest.
Fast forward to Saturday night, past more drama during last year’s first round of the playoffs. Schroder was awful. He airballed a midrange jumper, shot a miserable 2-of-16, including 0-for-8 in the first half and was 0-for-3 on three point attempts in his 31 minutes of play.
“John [Wall] did a great [job],” Scott Brooks said. “He's quick. He's tough. It's a challenge to stay in front of him and John was doing a good job, and our bigs were showing bodies. He didn't get any clean looks. The ones that he shot were all contested so that's what we got to do. We've got to live with contested shots. Some players can hit them but tonight we did a good job on him. You know, he's the engine to that team. When he plays well they get out in transition, they score, and they do a good job of moving the ball for threes."
“He missed a couple shots, but I think we did a great job of trying to keep him away from the basket,” Wall said. “He tried to get a couple of scoop layups that he’s very good at, but our bigs did a great job of staying back and keeping their hands up and kinda blocking their shots.”
“Just be active with him,” Bradley Beal said. “We know he is aggressive getting to the basket. He leads the league in attacks to the basket so as much as possible we want to load up the paint, make him see bodies, and when he does that, he is more passive. He took a lot of shots tonight but he was not hitting, so we just continued to play his percentages and continued to force him to make jumpers vs. John (Wall).”
Chief Keef Stepping Up
Saturday night was Markieff Morris’s fifth game back and he had his best game with a season-high 18 points. It seems like he’s getting back into his rhythm. In just 20 minutes of play, Morris, still dealing with hernia, knee, and ankle injuries, shot 8 of 10 from the field, grabbed four rebounds, and blocked two shots. Beyond the box score, his defense certainly was noticeable as he would not give up ground to either guards like Schroder or bigs like Dewayne Dedmon.
“It's good,” Brooks emphasized. “He's a critical part of our team. He did so many things well for us last year and I thought we did a pretty good job of playing without him early on but it's nice to have him back. It's nice to get him back in some rhythm. The last couple of games have been really good. Hopefully, that continues to improve with his minutes going up. I tried, I wanted to get him about 24 minutes tonight. I ended up getting him 20 just because of the game but you couldn't ask for a better game from him. Eighteen points in 20 minutes.”
“It was great because he is able to switch on the defensive end and guard guards, and it makes it easier on us and us guards have to box out, but his versatility is everything we need and his size is just perfect and on the offensive end he is getting his flow back,” Beal summarized. “In the first couple of games he was getting his wind back and he is a lot more comfortable. We are going to continue to assert him into the game and he is always going to be aggressive as we need him to be. Keef (Markieff Morris) is definitely a valuable piece.”
Defense And Kobe’s Challenge
Before the season started, Kobe Bryant issued a challenge to John Wall. Like Barney Stinson from “How I Met Your Mother”, Wall basically tweeted back “Challenge accepted.” Wall had already internally challenged himself to do so, but the Mamba made it official.
Wall finished with a steal and two blocks and he ended up playing in this game despite being ill and still scored 13 points while adding five assists and five rebounds.
“I was very sick, came in with a ski mask on today,” Wall described. “One of my migraines came back and I had a cold on top of it. I didn’t get to warm up before the game. I had to get two IVs, so I could have some type of energy.”
As for the Wizards defense as a whole, they’re finally hitting their stride with 14 total steals and 10 blocks. This in turn made things frustrating for the Hawks offense as they turned the ball over 24 times. The Wizards were able to take advantage of this with 39 points off of those miscues. Anytime you hold an opponent to under 100 points, and the Wizards did just that holding the Hawks to 94, you have a good chance to win the game. Washington is now 47-8 over the last three years when they held an opponent to under 100 points.
“Yes,” Beal responded when asked if Wizards have turned the corner defensively. “I think we have pretty much have gotten it figured out. That has been something that is preached to us the last couple days is holding teams under 100. Our record of last year. We are capable of doing it and a couple games that we have had this year in which we did it, so we understand what it is about, we understand where we are at right now, we cannot look back. We have to continue to stay consistent with it.”
Next Game: Washington will finish off this four-game home stand with their second and final matchup with the Sacramento Kings on Monday. If the Wizards can improve to 8-5, a 3-1 finish during this stretch at home will not be the worse thing at home although the Dallas game will be pointed to as one that got away come playoff seeding time.