(Photo: Brian Sevald/NBAE via Getty Images)
Wizards 122
Pistons 112
January 19, 2018 | Little Caesars Arena | Detroit, MI
The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act for the Washington Wizards continues this season with an impressive win over the Detroit Pistons on national television. Right when everybody was panicking after a disgusting loss to the lottery bound Charlotte Hornets, the Wizards partially right the ship by showing a glimpse of their potential and how well they truly can be. Detroit was 10-0 at home when leading after the first quarter, but Washington changed that.
“You never want to get your coach that upset because we are all on the same team,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said about the team listening to Coach Brooks’ defensive effort message after the Charlotte game. “We should be lifting each other up, not bringing each other down. That was definitely a message we heard loud and clear. Hopefully, we are gonna take that for the rest of the season and use that as a chip.”
Another Disappointing Start
For much of the first quarter, the Pistons were in the midst of a 23-5 run that gave them a 15-point advantage late in the frame. Washington began the game 4 of 16 shooting from the field and were not defending anybody on defense. Detroit began the game shooting 12 of 18 from the field and looked like they might run the Wizards out of their new arena early.
Scott Brooks burned two timeouts in the first nine minutes and benched Marcin Gortat after just four minutes in favor of Ian Mahinmi. Brooks threatened changes after the Hornets loss and that seemed to be one of them although I would argue Markieff Morris was more of the issue as he started 1 of 8 from the field along with a lack of defensive effort. Morris would take his seat after the second timeout and that is when things started to improve. To their credit, both Gortat and Morris responded with much stronger showings in the second half as the message from Brooks seemed to be received well.
Bench Turns the Tide
With a minute left in the first quarter, Washington was down 29-14. Little did we know at the time that Washington was about to go on a 65-30 run that spanned nearly two quarters, but it would not have even been off the ground without the second unit. Kelly Oubre ended the first frame with a personal 5-0 run, Jodie Meeks had six points in the first three minutes of the second quarter, and walking bucket Mike Scott provided his usual instant offense.
During this time, Otto Porter was playing with the bench as Brooks put Scott at the five with both Gortat and Mahinmi sitting out the entirety of the second quarter. Porter had 11 points in the first half after not scoring in double figures in six of his last eight games. Brooks has talked about him needing to work harder to get his own and that was certainly the case on Friday night as Porter was back to his hustling self, looking healthier from a hip and back injury from two weeks ago. The max-contract wing was all over the floor and had a season-high tying four steals in the game.
“Second unit came in and gave us juice,” Brooks said. “Made some shots for us, but that was all created from their defensive energy and their effort and their commitment to get a stop and their hands were active and it gave us the chance to get back in the game and make it a second half game.”
Career Game for Kelly Oubre
The fan favorite should have started this game instead of Markieff Morris according to some who wanted to see tangible changes following the embarrassing loss to Charlotte just two nights prior. Oubre plays with a swagger of waviness that is applauded by many because there is rarely a question of hustle or effort on his part. In 31 minutes in Detroit, Oubre had a career-high 26 points on 9 of 14 shooting from the field including 5 of 9 from beyond the arc. The nine field goals and five three-pointers made tie his career-high in those categories, while he set a career-high with nine three-pointers attempted. You can bet that he will not be sitting out any Game 7 this season.
“Self-improvement is all I live for. I want to be the best that I can be by the time I die,” Oubre told NBCSW’s Kara Lawson to attribute his three-point shooting increase from 28.7 percent last season to now at 40.5 percent this season.
“I was just following my fundamentals, my basic principles that me and Drew [Hanlen] work on,” Oubre said to the media. “They were working tonight. I was trying to stay locked in the whole game and see where it leads me. So, I’d say, staying locked in is definitely the key to success.”
“He’s competing, Kelly competes,” Brooks stated simply. “I always challenge him because there are times that he makes mistakes, but I’m not going to just let him make a mistake and chop it up that he’s young. I keep challenging and keep trying to get him better. You get better day by day, by working, by showing effort, by watching film, by competing. You don’t get better by not doing that. So, he does that every night. Steps up and spaces the floor. His shot has been worked on and give him credit, he’s developed that.”
"It’s great,” Wall said. Kelly put a lot of work into his game, being able to be a knockdown shooter for us, that's his role, being able to knock down shots, be a lockdown defender, be able to run the floor for us. That is what he has been doing for us all year. Being able to knock down shots and shooting it with a lot of confidence."
"It just gives us another threat, another option,” Beal said. “He's been shooting it well all year. We feed off of that. Especially when we go to the lineup with John, me, him, Otto, Keef or another big in there. It spaces the floor out so it gives John and I lanes to drive and create. All he needs to do is get to open spot and knock it down. … I think it’s definitely one of our best lineups.”
The Real John Wall Shows Up After Halftime
In the first half, Wall was not playing to his All-Star capability. He was 0 of 5 from the field for zero points with five turnovers in 17 minutes. He was clearly frustrated with the lack of foul calls, which has seemingly plagued him more than usual recently and it was impacting him on the defensive end. Although he probably did not know it, former teammate and current ESPN NBA Countdown analyst Paul Pierce predicted at halftime, “expect him to have a big second half.”
“I was dictating when the refs wasn’t giving me the calls and I got to be a better player than that,” Wall explained to Pierce after the game about his intermission turnaround. “Second half, I said whether I get any calls or not, I’m just going to be aggressive and we got out to a big lead.”
After changing his shoes from a pair of black adidas Crazy BYWs to his white and hot pink Wall 1s, the four-time All-Star did indeed have a big second half. In 20 minutes, Wall had 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting, 7 assists, and most importantly zero turnovers. He burst out of the gates with 10 points in the first four minutes of the third quarter that set up a 22-6 run for Washington to take control of the game.
Wizards Success in Diversified Success
Although you usually want your best players taking the majority of the shots, the Wizards do not have a great record when Wall and Bradley Beal are taking a overwhelmingly large share of the team's shots. Against Detroit, they only took a combined 27, instead of one of them potentially taking 27 on their own, and it allowed the wealth to be shared. Going back to the Randy Wittman era, the Wizards were best when they had every player in the starting five was in double-figures.
That was the case tonight and some. Beal and Oubre shared the game-high scoring honors with 26 points each. Wall and Porter each had 16, Morris had 13, and Gortat had 10. When everyone is getting touches and scoring the ball, it is only human nature to feel better about yourself and putting worth a better effort on the defensive end.
“We were playing together,” Oubre said. “It doesn’t matter if I scored 26, 15 or, 8, as long as we got the win. That’s all I care about.”
Next Game: Washington will play against the lowly Dallas Mavericks on Monday after two days off with another chance to get revenge for their embarrasing November 7 loss at home to Dirk and company.