(Photo: Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)
Bucks 104
Wizards 95
January 15, 2018 | Capital One Arena | Washington, D.C.
The Washington Wizards have not gone on a long winning streak this season and that continued on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day as they let the Milwaukee Bucks walk all over them in the final six minutes. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the road team were able to use their length to their advantage to clamp down on the Wizards late in the game, which resulted in another Bucks run to win the game for the second time this season.
Turnovers, turnovers, and more turnovers
The Wizards had a season-worst 24 turnovers against the lanky Bucks, which directly led to 25 points for the road team. In the previous matchup, they had just (relatively) 14 turnovers that led to only 10 points for Milwaukee. Bradley Beal was one shy of tying his career-worst of eight miscues with seven in the game, six of which came in the first half. Washington had 17 turnovers in the first half, which meant they could not capitalize on a hot 52.9 percent shooting from the field.
“It has been [ticking up] the last few games, no question,” Scott Brooks said about the recent uptick in turnovers during the homestand. “We have to stop it from happening because it's costing us a great opportunity. Twenty-four turnovers is basically one whole entire quarter not playing offense. It's hard to win that way. But we have to correct it, look at the film and see what's going on. There's no question that they load up and they play their zone on the weak side, and we make sure we attack and move quick. But 24 turnovers, that's a high number to win.”
“Sometimes, just over dribbling, sometimes not being in the right spots, [and] sometimes just forcing it too much,” John Wall said. “That’s all you can really say.”
“I think that’s their defensive strategy, to be in the paint, to come to the paint with four guys, overload one side,” Tomas Satoransky said about Milwaukee helping off of the weak side. “We didn’t do a pretty good job of swinging the ball to one side and tried to beat them with the penetration. They forced us to have a lot of turnovers. We don’t usually have so many turnovers, I think we’ve done a pretty good. The first half, especially, was bad from our side.”
John Wall Hot Early, Cold Late
In the first half, Wall had 22 points and he began the game 6 of 9 from the field for 16 first quarter points. He did a nice job of getting to the free throw line with 10 attempts before intermission, but then he only got back three times in the second half. Finishing 7 of 22 from the field, Wall ended the game shooting just 1 of 13 from the field.
“First half, I got to the free-throw line a little bit, well, a lot,” Wall explained. “Ten free throws in the first half. Second half, I only got there three times. I had a couple of shots I missed that were easy. They just did a great job of loading up even more on me, so I was just trying to find the guys that are penetrating and kick to my shooters. I feel like we had a couple of good looks, Otto [Porter] had one in transition, Brad [Beal] had a couple of threes, Marc [Marcin Gortat] had a couple of ones around that rim that we just missed at. They fell short.”
Another poor finish down the stretch
With three minutes to go in the last matchup, Washington was up 99-96, but a 14-4 Milwaukee run to end the game dealt the Wizards a loss. On Monday, Washington went over five minutes without a point late in the fourth quarter that allowed the Bucks to rattle off an 11-0 run. The home team was 0 of 7 from the field between Markieff Morris’ layup with 6:18 left and an Otto Porter jumper with 32 seconds left. After a 5 of 6 shooting start for Bradley Beal, he was 3 of his last 11 including missing all four of his shot attempts in the fourth quarter. A reason for the second half struggles as a whole was that the worst rebounding team in the NBA had 31 boards, including 10 offensive rebounds for 13 second chance points, a +13 for the road team after halftime.
Jodie Meeks Remains Out of Rotation
For the fifth time in six halves, Scott Brooks has opted against playing the veteran shooting guard after he played a whopping 17 minutes, including a decent amount alongside with Wall and Beal, against the Jazz. Tomas Satoransky, who is clearly best suited at backup point guard, played spot minutes alongside Wall against Milwaukee as the backup shooting guard in stead of Meeks. Things could certainly change, but at the moment, Meeks may not play anymore meaningful minutes with Washington this season.
Positive Pixel: Kelly Oubre Jr.
Last season, the exuberant wing scored 501 points in 79 games. He already reached that mark through 43 games by scoring 17 points against the Orlando Magic on Saturday. On Monday, he scored 19 points and 5 of 9 shooting, including 3 of 5 from deep to go along with 5 rebounds in 35 minutes of play, which was more than Otto Porter’s 31 minutes although the latter may have been on a slight minutes watch. Oubre has scored in double figures 30 times through 44 games, which is as many as he had in his first two seasons combined. He still has his occasional lapses on both sides of the ball, but he is certainly going to be a young piece of the core that continues to develop.
Next Game: Washington now begins their longest road trip of the season, 5 games in 14 days, with the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday who they lost to in overtime 129-124 earlier this season.