The Washington Wizards return home to face the rejuvenated Phoenix Suns. It took less than a week for the Suns to fire their coach and bench their best player. Now they come to Washington having won 3 out of their last 4 including a 122-114 win over the Nets.
Washington’s start has been much satisfying at 4-2 including a 2-2 record on an early season West Coast swing. In seasons past, a split on a West Coast road trip would’ve been thought of as a success but not this season. Washington’s two losses came in very winnable games.
The loss to the Lakers was particularly disappointing. After Lavar Ball all but guaranteed a Lakers win, the Wizards stopped short of breaking out the black suits to reenact their funeral bit they used last season. Gortat took to Twitter and all but guaranteed that Wall would torch Lonzo Ball. But, maybe the Wizards were too confident that they would just walk into Staples and walk out with a 20 point win. It didn’t happen. Wall had a very pedestrian performance and the Wizards slow walked the entire night. But, they still had a chance to steal a win on a night where you could argue that they brought their “C” game. But, Beal missed one of two free throws and the Lakers got an Ingram tip in with .7 seconds left. The Wizards would lose 102-99 in overtime after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit a three pointer with 58 seconds left.
“Fourth quarter, we did too much standing around,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “We had more dribbles than passes and it wasn’t good basketball. Give them credit. They outplayed us down the stretch and they deserved the win tonight.”
For a team trying to get over the hump, this isn’t a game you can lose. Unlike the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Wizards can’t give games away especially against inferior competition and don’t get it twisted, the Lakers are inferior to this team. If Lavar hadn’t run his mouth, you could argue that maybe, just maybe, the Wizards were looking ahead to the defending champion, Golden State Warriors but that went out of the window when the self-proclaimed Big Baller interjected his carnival act into the game.
Despite the flat performance, the Wizards quickly moved on and exchanged blows with the Warriors. John Wall matched Stephen Curry in the first half but a festering beef between Bradley Beal and Draymond Green boiled over into a broo-haha resulting in both players being kicked out of the game. At first, it look liked the Wizards weren’t phased as they built up an 18 point lead in the third quarter but what do we always hear in the NBA? You have to be able to close out quarters. The Wizards failed to close out the third quarter as Curry hit two 3’s and two free throws in the final minute cutting the Wizards lead to 10.
The Wizards would go on and lose 120-117. Another lost opportunity this time against the best team in the NBA. To the Wizards credit, there was no hangover as they closed the road trip with a 110-83 beating of the Sacramento Kings.
Now, they face a surging Suns team coming into town on the end of a back to back. If Washington wants to be where they think they are, they close this game out early. With news coming out that Markieff Morris is ready to come back soon (he will serve a one game suspension for coming off the bench in the Beal-Green dust up) and the Wizards will be full strength. With the Cavaliers struggling and the Celtics playing well, despite losing Gordan Hayward, the Wizards must prove that they will be able to take that next step. It starts tonight, be beating an inferior team.
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