(Photo: Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)
Heat 91
Wizards 88
November 17, 2017, Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
The Washington Wizards returned home looking for the third best start in team history through 15 games by getting to the 10-5 mark as well as their first sweep of a home-and-home set since 2013. The Miami Heat had other things in mind as they embarrassed their Southeast division rival before escaping the Nation’s Capital with a victory. The Wizards held their opponent under 100 points for the fifth straight game, but this time fall 91-88, as their record when doing so dropped to 49-9 (.845) over the last three seasons.
Slow Start Becomes Historically Bad Start
During the first 22 minutes of the first half, Washington was in a shell of themselves offensively. They were down 50-25 and were looking like a joke of a team as they could not buy a bucket nor show any semblance of defensive resistance. The road team had 19 fast break points in the first half thanks to nine turnovers from John Wall and company. Miami only shot 10 of 35 from beyond the arc and several of their misses were wide open, uncontested looks that the Heat usually knock down. If they had, the Wizards would have trailed even more.
The home team missed their first 16 shots from three-point land despite being a 36.9 percent shooting team from deep resulting in an expected making of six of those 16 misses. In conclusion, the first half was borderline puke worthy from Washington and frankly, I am surprised that there was not a mass exodus at intermission. The Wizards 29 points in the first half was the team's fewest since March 23, 2015 against Golden State.
“We didn’t make shots, we got down on ourselves,” Scott Brooks said about the first half. “When we got down on ourselves, we put our heads down instead of running back and making up for it on the other end. The stats basically tell you that. They had 19 fast break points in the first half. We made shots in the second half and they only had two fast break points. It comes down to…You can’t let the game, offensively...You can’t let the game change how you play, and it did. We were missing shots. We got down. We missed, I think, 13 threes, all pretty good looks. Doesn’t matter if you miss, you still have to go back and make them miss. I thought in the second half we did that. Came up short, but great effort. It’s a lesson that we have to learn, and internalize it, and stay with it, and believe in it, and we will.”
“We are tired of putting ourselves in those kinds of situations,” Jason Smith said on behalf of all of #dcfamily. “We know it is about us competing out there in the first half. We cannot dig ourselves a hole and expect to climb out of it especially on our home floor. Something we have to get better at. We’ll look at a lot of film that is for sure, and move forward from it.”
The NBA Is A Game Of Runs, Washington Made Theirs
In the third quarter, the Wizards outscored their guests 28-16. In a ten-minute stretch, Washington went on a 20-7 run to turn a 25-point deficit into one of just a dozen. Shots began to fall, the defense started to lock in and with over six minutes left in the game it was just a four-point game after an extended 43-22 run. The home team finished the game 10 of 19 from beyond the arc as the floodgates opened on the other end of the court’s basket. The halftime mood in the locker room may have helped turn the tide.
“We just competed defensively, that was the key,” Wall explained about the turnaround. “Stopping them in transition – they had too many fast break points in the first half, 19 is too many for any team, some teams don’t even get 19 for a game. They had that in the first half so that killed us. They really didn’t score that much, they had 50 points, but we just couldn’t make any shots and didn’t play any defense.”
“We knew what we had to do,” Otto Porter Jr. said about the team’s intermission communication. “We just knew we were not playing hard enough. They were playing harder. We knew that coming in, they were going to be fired up because they lost at home so that second half we amped up our defense, we got a little bit more physical, and things started to happen for us.”
“One thing I kept telling our guys was that it was going to be a fun game,” Brooks said about the second half. “I believe our guys were going to come out and compete, and they did. It was going to be a great opportunity for us to make it a last few minute game, and it was. We had a good look at the end, but our effort was good. Our effort got us back in the game. We just have to play with that when our shots not falling. We were 10-of-22 in the second half in the three’s, but it was because of our defense. I’ve seen our team now, when we compete defensively, we… offense falls for us.”
Jason Smith Gets His Time To Shine, Kind Of
Out of 14 games coming in, the tenth-year veteran did not play in eight of them as he has found himself looking from the outside in on Brook's ten-man rotation. On Friday, Smith played nearly 10 second half minutes at the expense of Mike Scott and Ian Mahinmi who did not see at playing time after halftime. The $64 million man has underwhelmed early in the 2017-18 season despite being healthy. After three straight games of did not participate – coach’s decision, Smith got his chance to prove his worth.
Smith finished with five points on two of four shooting and a rebound with three personal fouls and a turnover. On one side, Smith provided energy and hustle that cannot be well quantified by a simple box score, but he was also full of any bench player’s normal flaws by playing defense by fouling. Moreover, Smith was not his usual spot up shooter self as he opted to drive multiple times because he feared getting his shot blocked by the lengthy 8-foot wingspan Hassan Whiteside. He may be better than Mahinmi, certainly from a contract standpoint, but Smith is not the second coming of Larry Bird as he is shooting 1 of 11 from deep this season.
“Energy,” Smith summarized about what he hopes to provide. “Just come out and have some energy. Have some fun. This is basketball. You come out there and you play with your teammates every day in practice, just go out there and do the same thing out there under the big lights. When you have those kind of games, typically the energy is a little bit low. So I just try and bring a spark off the bench and try and do that very well and what happens is what happens, but we want to have more wins instead of losses.”
“He gave us good juice,” Brooks explained about Smith’s jolt. “He gave us energy, he gave us effort, he gave us the ability to move on the offensive end because he goes from point A to point B in pretty good speed and he sets good screen. I actually thought he had a couple of threes that were, if we could pass it to him maybe on time he would’ve gotten the shot and I think he passed up one or two himself. He gives us a spark. I’ve got to do a better job for creating minutes for him”
“Whenever he comes, he always brings great energy,” Porter said. “He is flying around. He uses his athleticism on defense, and offensively, he just moves around, gets tip outs. He just brings energy.”
Bradley Beal Nearly Plays Hero, But Falls Short
Arguably the best shooting guard in the Eastern Conference was godly in the second half with 22 points on 7 of 15 shooting including 5 of 10 from deep to go along with seven rebounds and four assists in 21 of 24 possible minutes. The real deal made shot after shot to keep his team within arm’s length of Miami, but he will potentially only be remembered for the one he missed at the end.
With 6.5 seconds to play, Washington had the ball down two looking to force overtime or win the game. Beal received the inbounds pass and immediately had some space to potentially launch a game-winning three. Almost as if he was surprised by how free he was, there was an awkward pause before Beal then dribbled inside the arc. With a slight hesitation step-back move, Beal freed up for the shot, but the ball fell short and clanged off the front rim as the fading nature of the shot cost the Wizards a chance at overtime.
“I felt like it was a good look,” Beal shared. “I’m still debating in my head if I should have shot the three or if I should have went to my step-back or whatever. I’m still confident in that shot and that’s a shot I make every day, so I’m a little pissed off at myself, but I’ll have another opportunity to be in that situation again and it will be a different result.”
“I see (Josh) Richardson closing up pretty hard, so my first instinct was to just shoot a three,” Beal elaborated. “Somewhat in my head, I’m still thinking if I should have shot it or not or if I had time to shoot it. I had time to shoot it, but if my feet were set to be able to do. I seen him closing out, so I just wanted to get by him and try to get downhill and act like I was going towards the hoop and just shoot a quick pull up. He gave me a little bump and I should have shot my step-back. I probably faded a little too much, but I make that shot every day, so I’m a little mad at myself, but you know, I just gotta move on from it.”
“I think he could have shot a three, but he didn’t feel comfortable with it. He still got a clean look, just missed it,” Wall pondered.
“It was a great shot,” Brooks began about Beal’s shot with seconds left. “He had a wide open three; he could have taken that one. One dribble pull-up is hard to stop, because he pulls up on a dime, he has great lift on his jump shot. Couldn’t ask for a better look. Unfortunate it didn’t go down, it would have been a fun overtime game. I’m proud of our guys the way we competed. I just wish we would have had a better first half, but it wasn’t. We didn’t give up, we didn’t give in, we kept competing and gave our self a chance to tie the game in a last second shot.”
John Wall Remains Hindered
One of the more honorable things about Wall is his blunt and frank nature with the media regardless if the game was a victory or a defeat as well as whether he looked like a Hall of Famer or college scrub. Tonight, was nothing different as Wall simply responded “me” when asked what was wrong with the team in the first half. At times, Washington’s point guard has been the subject of poor defensive effort and the rest of the team follows suit, but tonight the four time All Star was at a different disadvantage.
Wall, who received two IV injections before last Saturday’s game against Atlanta, had a swollen left knee as a result of excess fluid spreading to his lower extremity. The puffiness around Wall’s knee made it hard for him to move as swiftly as he usually does and prevented the Wizards from pushing the pace of the game in transition or in general throughout the game. The cold temperature at seemingly the Washington Capital’s Capital One Arena did not allow Wall to get his knee as loose as it was in Miami two days ago. Wall, who already missed their first matchup with the Raptors, could sit out on Sunday if he or the coaching staff feels it is necessary.
Next Game: Washington’s seven of nine games at home stretch is over and they now will play 10 of the next 12 games on the road beginning with the team’s first back-to-back on the road against Toronto and Milwaukee on Sunday and Monday.