(Photo: Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)
Wizards 130
Magic 103
December 23, 2017 | Capital One Arena | Washington, D.C.
Fresh off of one of the Washington Wizards’ worst loss of the season, they had a chance to quickly put such an embarrassment out of their mind with the second leg of a back-to-back against the Orlando Magic. Last time that happened, after a loss against Utah, Bradley Beal dropped a career-high 51 points in a win against Portland. Washington did not get a similar individual performance to that, but a team one that stacked up pretty well.
With seven players in double figures, the Wizards scored their most points in regulation, 130, since November 11, 2005 against the Seattle Supersonics. Washington also had their fifth most three-pointers made, 16, in team history and were two shy of the franchise record of 18 in 2013.
The balanced scoring was a theme of Randy Wittman’s Wizards in years past and impressive despite playing against the woeful Orlando Magic who were without four opening night starters once Nikola Vucevic excited with a broken finger. Mike Scott led the way with 18 points on 7 of 8 shooting to push his ten-game stretch to 149 points on 63 of 88 shooting (71.6 percent). Otto Porter Jr., in his second game back plus feeling better, and Bradley Beal both chipped in with 17 points with a combined seven three-pointers. Markieff Morris and Kelly Oubre Jr. each had 16 points, while John Wall and Jodie Meeks each finished with 10 points. Wall “set the table” according to Scott Brooks with a game-high 13 assists, his most since 14 against Dallas over six weeks ago.
“Welcome to the world of coaching,” Brooks said about the dramatic change over 24 hours. “You just have to be consistent at what you do. Last night’s game was a horrible game -- there was nothing positive about it. There’s always a game around the corner and I thought we did a good job of taking advantage of it. The ball movement was probably some of our best ball movement. It’s weird; it almost seemed like we were fresh. We got in late, played back-to-back, but we seemed like we were fresh tonight. I thought we played hard. It’s really simple: if you play hard, you give yourself a chance to win. If you don’t, then you have no chance. Tonight, we played hard and we gave ourselves a chance to win. John [Wall] set the table. He gave guys a lot of open shots. He probably could have had 20 assists tonight because we missed a lot of easy ones off of his passes, but 13, we can live with that.”
The home team won many of the important statistical categories: second chance points 25-9, fast break points 19-10, rebounding 48-29, and assists 29-17.
“More energy than them. I didn't have any minute restriction, so I was able to play,” Wall retorted with some frustration about playing less than 8 minutes on Friday night in Brooklyn.
“We just started to focus,” Beal said. “We focused on energy. You know we came out more locked in from the start. Thankfully we were able to put that game last night behind us and move on to tonight. I think we did a good job of defending for 48 minutes. We gave up some tough shots today and I think on top of that we were moving the ball and sharing today which lead to a lot of open looks for us today to.”
Washington moved to 4-1 on the second leg of back-to-backs despite being just 1-4 on the front end as just another example of their inconsistent play 33 games into this season. The Wizards are 9-9 against sub-.500 teams this season after going 27-9 against such teams last season. “No matter who the competition is, you have to play at a high level. We say this every year, but same old, same old,” Wall said.
“We have our statement moments, [but] to be an elite contender, you can't have just statement moments once in a blue moon. That's our problem,” Wall elaborated. “People already know what our team is capable of ... but when we are a team that is up and down, up and down, that's not really a contender. Until we find a way to be consistent, I wouldn't call us really a contender.”
For now, the Wizards turn their attention to the Boston Celtics for a Christmas afternoon matchup that despite the new faces up north, will be a delight to watch as John Wall and Kyrie Irving go at it as well as the Morris twins.
“If you ever get to play on these holidays it is definitely an honor,” Wall reiterated a sentiment shared by Brooks and Beal. “Lot of people don't get the opportunity ever in their career to play on Christmas, or play on New Year’s or play on Thanksgiving and all those holidays. You have to take that with a lot of cherish. You get to play on a team that a lot of people projected will be fun. We go to come out and do well. When we get these opportunities all we can do is go out there and cherish it. Our families will be there to watch us and hopefully we will come out there with a win.”