Washington Wizards: Rapid Reactions to tonight’s loss against the Bulls
By Keith Cork
Third quarter notes
The Chicago Bulls have been notoriously bad in the third quarter this season, so even though the Wizards started this quarter down 15 points, all was not even close to lost. The Bulls only have 19 wins on the season for a reason, after all.
But Zach LaVine came out of the half with his shooting shoes on, hitting two threes from distance to extend the Bulls’ lead. Then Thaddeus Young followed it up with a three-ball of his own and Scott Brooks was forced to call a timeout.
Bradley Beal decided to put action to his “I don’t like losing” mentality and lead the charge to bring the Wizards back into this one, kicking off a series of four unanswered makes in a row with a few assists and putting his body on the line. It just makes me nervous because it’s increasingly looking like he’s doing that this season for nothing.
Ish Smith, who typically eats the Bulls for breakfast, lunch, and dinner decided to show up finally and was quietly having a nice game by the mid-point of this third quarter with 10 points, four assists, and two steals.
When the Wizards cut it back to a 13 point lead, Jim Boylen was forced to call his own timeout, and the Wizards looked to be turning the corner and getting back into this one. But Boylen took the timeout to put Coby White back in the game, so Wizards fans had a reason to be nervous, especially after the rookie hit his first step-back jumper.
But Davis Bertans began his Latvian shooting clinic, beginning two-for-two from beyond the arc, and the Wizards were suddenly within nine points.
Thaddeus Young continued his own ridiculous shooting, going five-for-five from beyond the arc thus far and shooting it better than Davis Bertans. Are you serious? It doesn’t help that basically every three-point shot happened without a Wizard within five steps.
Bradley Beal began to look noticeably winded with about a minute left in the third, and had logged the most minutes of any Washington Wizard by four minutes. I’d love to see a better minutes distribution, even if it costs us games. No reason to run down Bradley Beal.
Coby White pretty much took over the game to close out the quarter as if he were a seasoned vet, it was kind of impressive to watch. You wonder why this kid is still buried in Chicago’s rotations and offensive sets.