(Photo: Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)
As the NBA standings stood entering Wednesday's action, the Washington Wizards were 7-4 against teams that were above .500 as of December 13 and 7-9 against teams that against teams that were under .500. Obviously, that does not make sense and epitomizes the Wizards up and down season a third of the way through. Washington may be the definition of playing up or down to their opponent's level as Bradley Beal admitted "our approach to the game" changes depending on the opponent. After a 4-5 stretch without John Wall (sore left knee), the Wizards point guard returned and helped to deliver a 93-87 win over the struggling Memphis Grizzlies.
“I think it was cool," Wall self-evaluated after the game. "Other than my four missed free-throws, I think it was pretty cool. Other than that for my first game being back and the most important thing is we got the win so that was key.”
Wall has already missed 11 games during this season after missing just 12 games over the past four seasons combined. He was on a minutes restriction, but in his 27:37 of play, he definitely helped his team avoid blowing a 17-point second half lead. Wall did not have the best stat line of the year with just 13 points on 6 of 15 shooting, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block, but that block was a dagger.
“Just what I thought," head coach Scott Brooks said about Wall's performance. "He gave us a boost. He made some amazing plays, blocked shots like I've never seen a point guard do ever and he makes it look easy. He was good. He didn't have a lot of assists but we didn't make a lot of shots for him."
Midway through the second quarter, a double-digit lead nearly vanished as Memphis rattled off of a 9-0 run to cut their deficit to two. John Wall took it on himself to respond tit for tat with his own individual 9-0 run: driving layup, three-point jump shot, driving dunk, pull-up mid-range jump shot.
With 1:03 left in the game and Washington up 9 about 90 seconds after clinging to a 3 point lead, Wall put a dagger in the Grizzlies with a block on a Chandler Parsons block attempt. That block and his left hand slam in particular showcased that Wall was back to his usual self more than two weeks removed from his knee injections. He knows when he is ready to come back when he is able to put his health out of mind when on the court.
“Like I always say before in the past, when I come off of an injury, I do not think about it," Wall said. "If I am going to be out there thinking about it then that means I do not need to be out there playing because I am limiting what I can do thinking about that too much, and it is hurting my teammates, so I just go out there and play basketball and try not to think about it at all.”
Although the team has certainly struggled against losing teams with Wall in the lineup, the hope is that his return will eliminate what happened in Los Angeles and Brooklyn in the future as another player that can take on the burden of finishing games.
“We have leads but we do not do a great job of stepping on teams’ throats and just trying to get these teams out of the way," Wall explained his team's struggles against sub-.500 teams. "We have these leads and we kind of get away from moving the ball and stop taking good shots, and we let these teams back into the game.”
His back court mate, Bradley Beal, that Memphis interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff called "dynamic" before the game evaluated the team's state that the four-time All-Star can help improve.
"It's a little bit all over the place," Beal summarized. "But I think it's fair to say now that we got our guys back, we got John back. His presence is key for us moving forward. We just have to do better coming out and getting off to great starts. We know John will work back into his rhythm. As starters we got to be a lot better. We got to bring our 'A' game. We got to be mentally focused from the start. Get us off to better leads, cause sometimes we are playing catch-up or sometimes the game is too close. Then we are relying on our bench and putting pressure on those guys to pick us up every game and we can't do that."
"It spaces the floor more," Beal theorized. "They had to respect his driving capabilities and his scoring game. He was able to find guys in tight areas and dish the ball off whenever possible. It helps us out a lot. It helps me out a lot in terms of spacing and getting a break a little bit off the ball."
Kelly Oubre Jr. put Beal's thoughts in a more poetic verse,
“It was good. He’s our leader [and] he’s the head to our snake. For him coming back and getting his feet wet and getting back acclimated to our game and our style of play was big for us. Hopefully, we can keep this rolling.”