Wednesday Wizards Report
The Wizards held on to upset the Heat last night. Are more wins in the future for the Wizards? [Rob Carr/Getty Images]
Well I guess you can just go ahead and engrave the Wizards name on the Larry O’Brien trophy for this year after last night’s win against the defending champion Heat.
No but seriously, how awesome did that feel to beat the Heat with their “Big Three” all playing and even with LeBron recording a triple double? It was a little bit of redemption for us Wizards fans for some of the insane no-call travels in the 2006 Playoffs. If you don’t remember here’s LeBron prancing to a game winner and dribbling like a middle schooler in rout to another game winner.
But enough with the LeBron hate. Last night’s game was awesome. We beat the Heat and we have won two of our last three games. What really impressed me about last night’s game was the tempo we played with. The Wiz were racing up and down the court and scoring in transition, something that has been missing with our tempo-pusher John Wall sidelined. And that bit of news is quite encouraging.
If the Wiz can score 16 fast break points against an immensely more talented Heat team without our star lead guard, then some optimism must be taken from this win. Last night you could sort of get the feeling that the Wiz players are starting to get more comfortable playing with each other and more comfortable with the roles that they are playing. Take Bradley Beal for example. Beal was having a pretty decent game against the Heat recording 10 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists. But Wittman only played him 17 minutes which included zero minutes in the final period. Yet at the end of the game he was cheering on his team on the sidelines and was excited to chalk up a victory, not sitting there like a sad puppy dog. I still don’t agree with Wittman’s rotations but if the players are starting to buy into it and the end results are some wins, then I guess we can learn to Beal With It.
Now the Wizards are far from getting back into the playoff picture, but you have to learn to walk before you can run, and a win against the Heat should start to boost this team with some confidence. The Wiz have some winnable games in the near future starting with the Hawks on Friday. Our last meeting with the Hawks two weeks ago ended in a one point loss in OT. Then we face an improved Warriors team followed by games against the Hornets, Rockets, and Lakers. After that, the Wizards have another showdown with the Heat. Now I don’t expect us to win all six of these games but I could see us winning at least three of them. These next six games are going to show the world that a little bit of confidence can go a long way, and what better way to gain confidence than a win against the defending champs.
And with gaining confidence and hopefully a John Wall return in the near future, wins could start coming with a lot more regularity.
4 Comments
Well, it’s been clear to me all season that this team was not as bad as its winless record. I saw our very young team lose a game every freaking way you could lose it. Overtime a few times, last second shots made on them.. etc, etc.
We should have at the least 5 wins right now. Once we get Wall back I expect us to play about .500 ball. Nene and Seraphin down low make a great duo and I love what Webster brings to the team in terms of energy, effort and efficiency. Okafor is a great low post defender, then Booker is doing what he usually does, but I have to admit I’m a little disappointed that he and Singleton haven’t developed more on the offensive end.
Beal is struggling some right now but I do expect him to get better in the future.
I love what Crawford is giving this team in both sides of the court.
I can’t wait till Wall comes back. Once he does, I think we are going to make some noise.
I have been pretty pessimistic all season, but I understand it is hard to win games without your two best players (Wall & Nene).
The team just plays better with Nene on the floor, and this is in small sample sizes where he is playing under 20 mins a game. My hope is that he is really getting healthier, and they are just waiting for Wall to come back to unleash him.
I agree with you that they might be able to play near .500 ball starting around January. Too late to compete for the playoffs, but at least the games will be worth watching again.
I guess the word is cautious-optimism.
Well I am the ultimate optimist when it comes to my sports teams. While i think the playoffs are probably not in our future this season there is still some hope for it. The team is going to have to start playing .500 ball now though and about .650 ball when Wall returns. All it takes this early in the season is to get a little streak together and have some other teams go on a little slide. Right now we are 8 games out of the playoffs with 67 games left to be played. When D-wade was a rookie they lost something like their first ten games and they ended up 42-40 and like a 4th or 5th seed. So its not totally out of the realm of possibility.
Apparently not…
Gotta trade for DeMarcus Cousins before the trade deadline to team him
With John Wall again. Draft Shabazz Muhammed and make he, Wall and Beal the best trio of wing players playing together in the nba