Washington Wizards: Thunder hand Wizards fifth straight loss

The Washington Wizards lost in blowout fashion to the Oklahoma City Thunder Friday night, 134-111. This pushed the losing streak up to five.

Another disappointing performance by the Washington Wizards. The Oklahoma City Thunder ruined Dwight Howard’s debut and the team’s homecoming.

The Wizards played pretty well in the first quarter, but that was about it. Howard had 13 in the quarter with finished with 20 points on the night. The big man’s play was the only positive takeaway from the game.

After the Thunder let the hype of Howard’s return die down, they began orchestrating Washington’s demise. They responded quickly to the hot start from the Wizards and ended the first quarter on a 28-13 run to take a 5 point lead heading into the second quarter.

The situation only got worse as Oklahoma City pushed their lead up to 29 heading into half time. They outscored the Wizards 44-20 in the second quarter, which is outright embarrassing for the Wizards!

I’m sure at this point every Wizards fan turned the game off with frustration. Being on prime-time T.V. and getting blownout is never a good look.

Russell Westbrook led the team with 23 points and 12 assists. Jerami Grant was the second leading scorer with 22 points and went 9-11 from the field. Paul George added 17 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds as well. OKC had well balanced scoring and played great team-ball.

Bradley Beal had a great shooting night. But unfortunately for him, it wasn’t anywhere close to helping the team get a victory. He led the team with 27 points going 10-16 from the floor.

John Wall had 19 points and 9 assists, but that was out shined by his 7 turnovers. All-Start caliber point guards can’t have that many TO’s in one game. It’s unacceptable.

On top of this, a stat that might be just as concerning is that Howard only had 3 rebounds. Yes, he looked great offensively, but the team needs his rebounding skill-set more than his scoring. To make matters worse, the Austin Rivers led the team with 5 TRB.

The defensive woes continue as Washington had 18 turnovers in which the Thunder converted 26 points off these mistakes. The thunder also added 13 steals, which means the Wizards were playing sloppy basketball all night long. It also doesn’t help that the Thunder shot 46.9% from beyond the arc.

Washington’s next three games are against the New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, and Orlando Magic. At first glance the teams should easily go on a 3 game winning streak, but if their defensive habits don’t change that won’t be the outcome.

The Wizards are still trying to figure things out and how to best communicate with one another. This was clear when Beal grabbed the clipboard from Scott Brooks in one of their timeouts to discuss the play with his teammates.

Frustration looms around the entire team and rightfully so. Unless they get back on track in these next few games, Scott Brooks and this entire team is going to be on the hot seat.

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