Washington Wizards: 3 Things To Improve Before 2017 NBA Playoffs

DEFENSE

A few stats:

In 55 games before the All Star Break, Washington was allowing opponents to score 105.3 points per game. In 12 games since the All Star Break, Washington is allowing 114.3 points.  

Opponents shooting stats are up across the board, and Scott Brooks has preached improvement on defense for over two weeks now.  Thursday’s practice, the first in two weeks, tasked the players with defending one on one, practicing a lot of sliding drills and defensive movement.

Coach Brooks has admitted that as the Washington Wizards’ offense improves, the team’s defense will drop, but it’s obvious with the current stretch of play that improving the defense remains the number one priority.

Washington is one of the best teams in the league at scoring in transition, and not playing solid defense lessens the amount of fastbreak opportunities.  

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The defensive play has been surprising, as off-season acquisition Ian Mahinmi has played more games post-break than before, and he’s shown great defensive capabilities as a rim defender.

The Wizards have allowed at least 35 points in a quarter in their last three games, a stretch that includes zero teams that have a winning percentage over .500.

In the last two games against Minnesota and Dallas, those teams have posted their highest scoring quarters of the season.

Now, it’s tough to tell if this is simply an unlucky stretch or if there’s something more damaging going on.  

For example, as noted on the most recent Zach Lowe Podcast, Washington is allowing 50% shooting on wide open three pointers after the break versus 42% on the season.

Limiting the number of “wide open” threes would certainly be a start.  Hopefully luck explains how Mavericks rookie Nicolas Brussino scores 11 points with 3 three pointers on Monday, but scored five points in his previous seven games combined.