To say the Washington Wizards had trouble finding the basket at the Verizon Center Sunday was an understatement. Missed shots, stuffed blocks and a lack of aggressiveness in the paint truly slowed their offensive movement against their opponent, the Miami Heat. The first quarter was pretty much an even match-up with the home team scoring 24 and Miami 25. But things turned ugly quickly and in the end, Washington lost the game 97-75 after scoring the least amount of points in a game than it had all season.
The second quarter proved to be the dagger as Washington was outscored 25-7, making only two field goals the entire quarter. The Wizards were 2 of 22 in shots attempted and obviously, missing that many shots put them right out of the game.
Miami adjusted perfectly by not giving the Wizards any easy bucket opportunities in the paint. By forcing Washington to shoot outside of the perimeter, the Heat continued to rock the already shaky confidence of the Wizards, forcing them to play on the outside.
Miami showed extraordinary defensive prowess with 11 blocks. A major portion of those blocks came from the 7’1’’ center Hassan Whiteside who used that long wingspan of his to block shot after shot. Whiteside had four blocks alone on Wizards’ center Marcin Gortat, managing to shut down Washington’s game in the paint and slowing down the big men.
“Hassan Whiteside was incredible,” Gortat said in a postgame interview when asked about Whiteside’s defensive performance. “I personally have not seen a better shot-blocker in my nine years in the league. He was challenging a lot of shots and changing the whole game.”
Gortat went out of the game briefly when he rolled his ankle but returned to continue playing. He ended with 12 points and 13 rebounds. This was his fourth straight double-double this season.
In contrast with the Heat’s excellent defensive play, the Wizards could not seem to slow them down offensively either. There appeared to be several communication breakdowns for the Wizards, which led to easy scoring opportunities for Miami.
Miami guard Goran Dragic was able to take his time and really control the tempo, dominating Washington in transition.
Wizards All-Star point guard John Wall led his team with 14 points, five assists and four rebounds in contrast to Miami’s top-scorer of the night, Chris Bosh, who finished the night with 23 points.
Previously the season low for Washington was 78 points, scored in a game against the Boston Celtics earlier in the year.
With Washington’s depleted roster and struggling so much on the three-point line (they only hit four three-pointers during this game out of 29 attempts), the team has a long uphill battle. Opponents are going to be getting even more competitive as the season gets closer to the playoffs.