After the Washington suffered an embarrassing loss to the Hawks, Coach Brooks said, the Wizards are a “selfish team” right now.
If there’s such a thing as a good loss, what happened in Cleveland against the Cavaliers was one. The Washington Wizards played together as a team, and competed from start to finish (at least up until the final six minutes).
Nonetheless, the Wizards provided a glimpse of the type of team they will be on the playoff stage.
Then a funny thing happened on the way to Capital One Arena.
Washington hosted the Atlanta Hawks on Friday. They were looking to put away the lottery-bound team. Instead, the Wizards provided a glimpse of the type of team that they may also be in the postseason.
The Wizards were without John Wall (rest), Ian Mahinmi (concussion protocol) and Markieff Morris (Markieff Morris) – not a typo.
The Wizards were unable to close out the game against LeBron James. But not to close it out against Hawks, if I could borrow a phrase, is “unacceptable.
Bradley Beal had a game-high 32 points in 40 minutes of play. The fact that he had to play such extended minutes against Atlanta is not a good sign.
The Wizards would fall to the Hawks, 103-97. They have now lost their last four games.
The ball didn’t move around for the Wizards tonight. The entire team collectively only had 18 assists. In comparison to Wall’s 14 assists against Cleveland.
Tonight, Marcin Gortat led the team in assists with four.
For the Hawks, Taurean Prince and Tyler Dorsey had excellent games.
Prince with 23 points and Dorsey off the bench had 22 points.
Wizards head Coach Scott Brooks had a lot to say about his team tonight. This is the most candid he has ever been.
The next page contains his press conference after the game.