Bench falls apart in overtime loss for the Washington Wizards

After a valiant effort to come back, including a huge clutch three-pointer from Delon Wright, the Washington Wizards failed to finish the job in overtime. They eventually fell behind 116-109 with only a few seconds left. This was a huge game that many fans of both teams, and fans of the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls. This game was to decide who gained a full game advantage on the nine seed, including taking half a game off of the Hawks lead on the eight seed. Anybody following these teams over the past week is undoubtedly tired of reading about standings and where each team is landing. This just goes to show how important these games are between these teams.

The bench for the Washington Wizards really disappointed in this one.

While the starters, the big three in particular, played well, the bench did not. Five players came in off the bench for the Wizards and only three scored at all. Those three combined for 23 points, but Corey Kispert, a player who has started in over half of his games played this year, scored over half of that total. This is a large part of why the Wiz lost this game. Despite the bench shooting 58.3% in this game, if they can’t find opportunities to score without the starting unit, the other team will light the team up when they sit. Gary Trent Jr alone had three more points than the entire Wizards bench combined. Not only that, but every player who touched the floor for the Raptors scored at least once. Combine the horrid bench play and the 24-14 turnover differential going against them, the Wizards can only blame themselves for this loss. The Washington Wizards need to be better going forward as they only sit a game and a half above the 11 seed. Not the most comfortable cushion for a team looking to make the playoffs.