Later this evening the Washington Wizards continue their road trip as they face the surprising Indiana Pacers. This game will surely be an exciting one to watch as they both look to improve their standing in the loaded Eastern Conference.
Neither team is where they expected to be at this point in the season, for better or for worse, and have both had stars emerge from unexpected places.
For the Wizards, they expected to be far better than they are and have watched Kyle Kuzma finally blossom into the star that the Los Angeles Lakers thought he could be for them.
For the Pacers, they have blown their expectations way out of the water even while facing various injuries early in the season. Tyrese Haliburton has arrived, becoming a high efficiency star who rarely makes mistakes.
Both teams will be relying on their stars to try and lead them to the victory, but there are a few keys to tonight’s game that may help the Washington Wizards get their season going with a much-needed road win.
The Washington Wizards need to move the ball more often.
Something that has plagued the Washington Wizards for a while is their lack of ball movement. This causes the offense to become stagnant and often leads to tough shots with only a second or two left on the shot clock.
This was incredibly prominent in their last matchup against the Chicago Bulls, especially during the first quarter. Eventually this is one of the key factors that lost them that game. They will need to focus on this area in order to win tonight.
They will also need to vastly improve their ability to box out and rebound.
Another issue that bit the Wizards in their previous matchup was their performance on the backboard. They failed to box out and rebound the entire game, even giving the Bulls a second chance at a possession with the game on the line after a fantastic defensive stop by Deni Avdija.
Going against players like Myles Turner and Jalen Smith will make it more difficult to secure rebounds. If they don’t make an effort though, the game will get out of hand quickly and will surely end in defeat.
The Wizards will need to find their teammates when they are open.
This kind of treads into the ball movement category, but it has been prominent enough to deserve its own feature. The Washington Wizards are one of the worst teams in the league when it comes to finding the open teammate in the corner.
There are multiple possessions every quarter where a decent shooter finds themselves open in the corner or on the win but another player like Will Barton, Kyle Kuzma, or even Kristaps Porzingis end up taking a heavily contested post up shot from about ten feet away.
This has affected Deni Avdija for example as he has seen his shooting numbers drop drastically, partially due to lack of attempts. Finding him in the corner may help him find his rhythm and really help this team start winning games.
If the Washington Wizards are able to focus in on these key areas, they should give themselves a far better chance against a red-hot conference foe. This game will definitely be a good opportunity to judge how the next few weeks without Bradley Beal will turnout for the Wizards.