Missed out on this past week’s Washington Wizards coverage? We‘ve got you covered with the Wizards Weekly Recap.
For those that missed the last week’s road trip and couldn’t stay awake for the late-night tip-offs, look no further. Here’s what happened with the Wizards out west.
How they fared this past week:
Lost to the Denver Nuggets 117-104
Defeated the Phoenix Suns 140-132
Lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 125-103
Lost to the Los Angeles Clippers 150-125
Upcoming Washington Wizards match ups:
Tuesday, December 3 vs Orlando Magic
Thursday, December 5 vs Philadelphia 76ers
Friday, December 6 @ Miami Heat
Sunday, December 8 vs Los Angeles Clippers
Washington no match for the Western Conference Elite
The Wizards had a tough test during their recent road trip as they faced the Nuggets, Suns, Lakers, and Clippers. Washington went 1-3 with their only win against the struggling Suns.
Against the Denver Nuggets: The road trip started against Denver and the nuggets exposed the Wizards’ rebounding problems. Denver outrebounded the Wizards 67-44.
Superstar Nikola Jokic had 20 rebounds, nine of them in the first quarter. Washington, as a team, had just ten rebounds in the first quarter. Denver made Washington pay
Thomas Bryant led the Wizards in rebounds with eight while Davis Bertans had the second most with five. The Nuggets had 10 offensive rebounds which led to second-chance points, which in turn put the game out of reach.
Guard Garry Harris found a way to shut down Bradley Beal. He held Beal to 14 points on 6-15 from the field and 2-10 from deep. Beal was averaging 29.6 points entering the game. When Beal struggles, the team struggles.
Washington also struggled to stop players around the rim and gave up 70 points in the paint. Coach Scott Brooks had this to say after the game.
"“We gave them no resistance. There was no physicality….When you don’t give any resistance to a great team, they’re going to get 70 points in the paint.”"
Against the Los Angeles Lakers: Things were over before they even got started against the Lakers. The Lakers jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.
By the time the game was over, LA had six players finish in double-figures, as they took full advantage of the Wizards’ historically porous defense. Washington allowed the Lakers to go on separate scoring runs of 17-0 and 18-0. Overall the Lakers shot 51.7 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from deep.
The game got so out of hand that LeBron James starting shooting with his left hand because ‘why not?’
LeBron is really shooting elbow jumpers with his left hand 😅 pic.twitter.com/bP0F19aC6d
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 30, 2019
The defense struggled on all aspects. In the first half, the Lakers scored 36 of their 70 points in the paint. And then when Washington would force them to shoot from deep, they converted with ease. Even Rajon Rondo, who is a career 31.5 percent shooter from deep, went 3-4.
All night, Washington just could not catch a break. Even when the Wizards blocked Anthony Davis dunk attempts, they still went in.
I mean come on pic.twitter.com/l0uX0lPwZh
— Wiz of Awes (@WizOfAwes) November 30, 2019
Despite once again being outrebounded, Washington improved on the boards. LA only outrebounded them by two, 47-45, despite having a far superior frontcourt.
Against the Los Angeles Clippers:
For the Clippers, Lou Williams (22 points), Montrezl Harrell (23 points), Paul George (31 points) and Kawhi Leonard (34 points) carried the load. Similarly to the Lakers game, the Clippers abused the Wizards defense and pulled away in the second quarter. Washington was only down four going into the second quarter, but then surrendered 43 points. They trailed by 25 points at halftime. Paul George had 27 points in the first half alone.
LA’s defense was able to limit Washington enough for them to cruise to an easy victory. Washington shot 46.1 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from deep. Not terrible, but the Clippers shot 55.3 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from deep. In this game, one team was simply better than the other.
Once again, the Wizards defense and rebounding let them down. Harrell recorded a career-high 15 rebounds, with 12 of them coming on the defensive end.
The bright spot in the loss to the Clippers was rookie Rui Hachimura. Due to injuries to C.J. Miles and Mortiz Wagner, the Wizards were short-handed and Hachimura played a career-high 38 minutes. He responded with the best performance of his young career. Hachimura dropped a career-high 30 points to go along with nine rebounds, three assists, and a steal. He shot 13-23 from the field, 2-5 from deep, and 2-3 from the line. He’s just the third rookie this season to score at least 30 points in a game.
Overall Washington was in over their heads on the road trip, as rebounding and defense doomed the team in all three games. They’ll look to bounce back with a few home games this week.