Prior to Friday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bradley Beal said, the Washington Wizards are the best team in the Eastern Conference.
Prior to Friday night’s matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bradley Beal told ESPN’s The Jump, that the Washington Wizards are the best team in the East.
"“I feel like we’re the best team. That’s just the way I feel,” Beal said Friday before the Wizards hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers (7 p.m. ET, ESPN). “I always stand by it because I mean, why would I sit here and say another team’s better than my team? I’m not going to sit here and do that. I’ve got confidence in myself and my teammates and what we can bring to our team and what we can accomplish.”"
Although, the Wizards didn’t play like the best team against their loss to the Suns, where they gave up a 22-point lead, nor their loss against the Lakers, Beal still has confidence in his team.
Both losses were due to the Wizards not playing any type of defense, and allowing those two teams to get wide open shots, and uncontested drives to the basket.
Nonetheless, if the Wizards can regroup, now that Markieff Morris has returned, then they have a legitimate shot at challenging the CAVS in the conference finals.
Otto Porter, Jr. has been absolutely phenomenal on both ends of the floor. He’s been shooting lights out, 51 percent from the three, and is also the Wizards’ best defender.
Kelly Oubre, Jr. stepped up and showed up while Morris was out. He’s shooting 45 percent from 3-point range, and is averaging 1.1 steals per game.
John Wall, who’s part of the MVP conversation, is averaging 21.6 points per game. The only concern is who should take that last shot during crunch time. Although, it shouldn’t have come down to that, against the Lakers and the Suns.
Communication on the floor is their biggest issue. Also, when the game is on the line, it normally should be Wall or Beal taking that last shot. However, with the way that Porter has been playing, if he’s open, he should take it.
The fact that Beal has such confidence in his team is a very good sign. Especially, when they started off 2-8 last season, and ended up being only one game away from the Eastern Conference Finals.
Wall knows that the last few games hasn’t been his best, so as the leader he knows what he has to do to get this team back on track.
Marcin Gortat has been very productive in the middle, averaging 11.9 points and pulling down 10.1 rebounds per game.
Morris, who provides the team with an added toughness, will start off on a minutes restriction of about 15-16 minutes per game, according to Coach Scott Brooks. Keef is a player who doesn’t give up, and fights from tipoff to the final buzzer.
Washington cannot continue to give away games by giving up double-digit leads. They’re aware of that, and hopefully that’s a thing of the past.
If the Wizards can play defense throughout the whole game, instead of when they see they’re about to lose in the finals minutes, then Beal is correct – the Wizards are the best team in the East.
However, if Washington doesn’t play defense consistently throughout the year, they’ll look back on this season as what could’ve been.