(Photo: Washington Wizards)
Jazz 116
Wizards 69
December 4, 2017 | Vivint Smart House Arena | Salt Lake City, UT
No, you are not reading that incorrectly. Washington had a not so nice scoring performance and ended with their second worst loss in franchise history as they simply could not do anything right. The offense was flat, the defense was non-existent, and the energy was left in D.C. “It's embarrassing … we got our ass kicked today,” Bradley Beal pointed out the obvious. “They punched us, punched us again and punched us again,” Scott Brooks observed. “Surprisingly, we didn’t fight back. One of the first times since I’ve been here that we didn’t play with fight.”
Where Is All-Star Bradley Beal?
Beal finished with 11 points on 4 of 15 shooting, one rebound, and one assist in 28 minutes of play, which is not his usual Big Panda numbers. In the five games before that, Beal was shooting a miserable 36 percent from the field. That is horrific for such a good shooter that has expanded his offensive game over the summer. Clearly without John Wall, opponents are locking in on Beal and he has not yet figured out how to crack this new defensive look.
Utah Out Mans Washington
The Jazz out rebounded the Wizards 52-31 and outscored them in the paint 50-24. That is your ball game right there as Washington missed a ridiculous number of layups as they matched their season-low scoring in the paint and when jump shots are not falling, they did not attack and settled for jump shots.
Bench Still Has Its Flaws
The bench's plus/minus, granted it is not a great statistic, in 118 minutes was -165. They shot a miserable 8 of 38 (21 percent) from the field including going 0 of 11 from deep. Even against no-name players like Royce O'Neale and Ekpe Udoh, they were getting worked, which is a complete-180 compared to the previous three games where they combined for 157 points.
Stop With The No Point Guard Lineup
Sure, Beal has improved his ball handling, but he should not be playing extensive minutes without Tim Frazier or Tomas Satoransky on the floor. There were about four minutes where Beal was essentially the point guard and you could tell the offense was stale. Against a good defensive team, it makes no sense to have one sub-par ball handler on the court. This is becoming a trend with Brooks as he did the same thing against Avery Bradley, which made no sense against one of the best defenders in the NBA.
Bad Game For The Record Books
Second worst loss (-47) in team history after losing by 52 on January 10, 1971 at Milwaukee against Kareem Abdul-Jaabar.
Fifth worst shooting performance, 28.7 percent, in team history.
Tied for 11th worst scoring game, 69, in team history.
Tied for second fewest FGM in team history, 23, after just 22 at the New York Knicks on April 13, 2012.
For the second time this year (at Miami), the Wizards have had just nine assists in a game. That has only happened 12 other times per Basketball Reference in team history and not since February 16, 2011 at Orlando.
For the first time since January 9, 2011, when he was still with Phoenix, Marcin Gortat finished with zero points.
Next Game: Potentially a good thing, the Wizards quickly get out of Utah as they face the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night on the second leg of the team’s third back-to-back of the season.