Pull the bar down, keep your hands and feet within the car at all times, and enjoy this ride of emotional confusion! The boys in Washington are on the right road to the playoffs and hovering around a .500 record as usual. But it’s obvious the fans are looking for some type of steady increase in victories for the Washington Wizards.
Looking through their eyes, it is somewhat disturbing knowing that the Wizards can pull out wins against two of the top three teams in a tough Western Conference on home turf and then fall short to a 12th-ranked team (the Cleveland Cavaliers) in the East on the same court like they did last night when Cleveland knocked off Washington 115-113. This doesn’t even take into account that small forward Luol Deng , the Cavs second leading scorer, didn’t even touch the floor because of flu-like symptoms and that point guard Kyrie Irving missed shootaround due to illness. This tells me that maybe, just maybe, the Wiz held back so they wouldn’t catch the bug for the weekend.
Nasal congestion? Sore throat? I’ll pass…
The game was tight all the way to the final buzzer, but it was a shootout from tip-off. Wizards’ small forwards Trevor Ariza and Martell Webster came out strong, hitting their shots when called for, combining for 15 points in the first. The bigs held their own as well, combining for 14 points with point guard John Wall in the mix of it all, managing and distributing the ball like the All-Star he has become. You could see in the first quarter of play when Cavs’ shooting guard C.J. Miles dropped an easy 12 points that the Wiz had the upper hand and, with the same consistent play, could have pulled out a win.
But as time progressed, it was apparent that defense wasn’t necessarily in the forefront of the either team’s game plan. Both teams continued to score without much distraction. Throughout the past couple games this season against the Cavs, it has seemed as if Wall has a personal vendetta towards Irving, scoring as much as possible when facing the rising star. Nothing has apparently changed as evident last night. This makes sense, seeing as how the Cleveland point guard recently made the cover of the new NBA Live video game and just has constant notoriety in general. Wall believes he deserves a mention during talks of top point guards in the league as well.
Moving into the third quarter, Cleveland started gradually pulling away with consistent scoring from guards Dion Waiters and Irving. Washington’s bigs held their own, making the right plays and not allowing the Cav’s bigs to become a factor in the outcome of this game.
One of the obvious shifts came when Wall continued to attack the bucket, not necessarily a negative since he ended with 20 points at the end of the quarter. Yet he only gained three more assists from then on beyond the end of the first. Irving — on the contrary — doubled the assist count that he had in the first quarter, finding his teammates consistently in the right positions. With Cleveland’s Dion Waiters shooting great throughout the game, the gap in total score began to widen. Ariza and Webster had cooled down at this point, not hitting as many shots and settling for the three. But Ariza still played a huge part on defense with three steals in key moments throughout the third and actually, the whole game. This absolutely sparked the Wiz and their fans.
Regardless of how “well” the Cavs scored, it was the lack of scoring from key players, the rebounding effort and the lack of bench support from the boys in Washington that lost the Wiz the battle. Cleveland’s bench scored 58 points at the end of regulation to the Washington’s measly 26, with Martell Webster having 18 (6-10 from the arc) of those 26 points. Although Wall ended with 32 points and 10 assists, there’s no reason for him to have scored that much as well as be a distributor when he has all these offensive weapons around him. Washington’s Bradley Beal (shooting guard), a name I haven’t even mentioned yet (which is demoralizing in and of itself), ended the game with nine points and five assists.
I actually have an issue with Beal’s assists count, since that’s not why he is on the court. His mission is to score and be the trigger man within this offense while Wall handles the distribution workload — an objective that any two guard would kill to have. But that feat is accomplished in an inconsistent fashion. Rebounding was more so a box-out nightmare, seeing as how the Wiz’s starting bigs out-boarded the Cav’s bigs by three rebounds. The supporting cast of Cleveland had 32 rebounds while the Washington’s supporting cast ended with 18 rebounds (power forward Trevor Booker with zero rebounds/points); a differential that would make any coach rip out hair at the follicles, knowing his team was out-hustled and overpowered.
Throwing hindsight out of the window, the final score of 115-113 is a score that can’t necessarily be argued with from the outside-in. The game came down to the last shot — a circus shot I might add — by NeNe (Hilario – power forward) of all people. This puts the boys in Washington under .500 yet again.
But when boarding a ‘Coaster of Inconsistency’, you never know when the hills or drops are coming. Just shut up, nut up and hold on!