All posts in basketball

13Feb

Wizards unable to maintain fast start, lose to Pacers in overtime

Obi Toppin scored 31 points and 10 grabbed rebounds, both season highs, to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 134-130 overtime win against the Washington Wizards.

The Pacers trailed by 19 points during the third quarter but mounted a comeback by outscoring the Wizards 36-23 during the fourth quarter. Bennedict Mathurin scored 28 points — including 11 in the fourth quarter — and Tyrese Haliburton added 20 points to complete the Pacers’ rally.

Jordan Poole led the way for Washington with 42 points, and nearly won the game for the home team, but his buzzer-beating attempt at the end of regulation missed the mark. Corey Kispert chipped in with 21 points, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Wizards’ 11-game home losing streak.

Indiana seized control of the game on a Toppin three-pointer with 1:26 left in overtime that increased their lead to nine points, which was too much for the Wizards to overcome. The Pacers head into the All-Star break in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with a 30-23 record. The Wizards, meanwhile, having lost four games in a row and are now a league-worst 9-45 on the season.

In injury news, Pacers center Myles Turner missed his third straight game with a cervical strain, while Wizards rookie Alex Sarr returned from an eight-game absence due to a left ankle sprain to score nine points on 3-of-13 shooting, with six rebounds, four assists and two blocks.

Although Sarr returned to action, Washington finished the game without two of his teammates, after Malcolm Brogdon (left ankle sprain) and Justin Champagnie (post-traumatic headache) exited the game due to injury.

Veterans Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart, who were acquired at the trade deadline from Milwaukee and Memphis, respectfully, have yet to make their debut for Washington.

06Dec

Luka Doncic and friends make light work of Wizards

The Dallas Mavericks are championship contenders in “win now” mode. The Washington Wizards, to put it kindly, are not. In related news, Luka Doncic posted a triple-double and Kyrie Irving added 25 as Dallas soundly defeated the Wizards, 137-101.

Washington, which is in the early stages of a lengthy rebuild, entered the contest with 15 consecutive losses and limited firepower, thanks to injuries to forwards Kyle Kuzma and Corey Kispert. After completing a winless November, the Wizards remain content to take their lumps now while dedicating extended minutes to the kids on the roster in hopes of brighter days ahead. While that’s a smart strategy long term, it makes for some ugly struggles in the interim.

Seven Dallas players finished with double digits in points, including Doncic (21 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds) as the Mavericks toyed with the Wizards for most of the night. The Mavericks, who have now won six straight games, shot 53 percent from the field and 52 percent from three-point range, while also dominating the boards (58 to 39) and blocked shots (12 to 3).

Forward Marvin Bagley III and guard Malcolm Brogdon each scored 16 points for Washington, which drops to an NBA-worst 2-18 record after the loss. For the second year in a row, the Wizards have a 16-game losing skid. Washington now needs to defeat the 2023 NBA champions Denver Nuggets in order to avoid setting the franchise’s new record for futility, with a 17th consecutive loss.

21Jan

Victor Wembanyama and Bilal Coulibaly reunite as pros

Anyone who stumbles upon tickets to a Washington Wizards game should be forewarned — the team is in the infancy stage of a sorely needed rebuild. Gone are the days of John Wall and Bradley Beal. Now, any hope of sustained success for one of the NBA’s most frustrating franchises rests at the feet of a new dynamic duo, Michael Winger and Will Dawkins.

Moving on from a well-established backcourt pairing to a front office tag team makes for a difficult transition and certainly necessitates a step back in the short term, but the franchise hasn’t won consistently in more than 40 years. There’s no shame in utilizing a long-term vision while attempting to build the Wizards into a legitimate contender, even if there will be obvious growing pains along the way.

Maybe, if the new regime is fortunate enough, Washington will eventually land a player as impactful as Victor Wembanyama, who instantly changed the outlook of the San Antonio Spurs. Until then, the Wizards need to stockpile young assets, like 19-year-old rookie Bilal Coulibaly, and hope some of them pan out.

Wembanyama was excited to visit the nation’s capital, where he could reunite with Coulibaly, his close friend and former Metropolitans 92 teammate. Starting as 13-year-olds, Wembanyama and Coulibaly played together on various French pro teams before both were ultimately selected in the top seven picks of the 2023 NBA Draft. That explains why this matchup was circled on both players’ calendars when the schedule was released.

Less than three weeks after his 20th birthday, Wembanyama had nine of his game-high 24 points and two of his six blocked shots in the fourth quarter as the Spurs rallied from 12 down for a 131-127 win. Coulibaly finished the game with an efficient 14 points on six of nine shooting in 23 minutes.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich continues to exercise extreme caution with his franchise cornerstone, sitting him out regularly to limit wear and tear. The approach seems to be working, as the 7-foot-4 Frenchman leads the Spurs in scoring (19.8 points per game), rebounding (10.1) and blocked shots (a league-leading 3.1). If Coulibaly eventually posts half of those stats, it would be a welcome boost to Washington’s future outlook.

08Feb

As trade deadline nears, Wizards feeling the heat

After a promising start to the season, the Washington Wizards are in a free fall. Long gone are the feel-good days of the season, which saw Wes Unseld Jr.’s squad win 10 of the first 13 games on the schedule.

Since then, the Wizards have struggled to do much of anything right, thanks to in-fighting, an absence of defense and an overall lack of talent. Compounding matters is the fact that Washington’s best player, shooting guard Bradley Beal, is currently dealing with a wrist injury and his supporting cast isn’t exactly built to overcome anything resembling adversity.

In related news, the Wizards hosted the Miami Heat in their final game before the NBA trade deadline … and promptly got blown out.

Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry and friends started fast and put this one to bed early, scoring 39 points in the first quarter while cruising to a stress-free 121-100 victory. The loss was Washington’s eighth in nine games and dropped the team’s record to 6-12 during 2022.

Rookie Corey Kispert scored 20 points in 25 minutes of action, while nearly everyone else who took to the court for the home team had a night to forget. That fact was driven home during the fourth quarter, as Miami coach Erik Spoelstra rested his starters while Heat fans loudly and proudly took over Capital One Arena.

Now Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard is faced with the unenviable task of trying to figure out where to go from here. Does he trade Beal or sign him to a massive-contract extension? Does he try to swing big and add an established veteran or two, or blow it all up and embrace a rebuild?

It’s safe to say Sheppard has plenty to think about over the next few days.

03Jul

Patience With Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld Is Running Low

For the first time in more than a quarter century, a professional sports franchise in one of the big four leagues located in Washington, D.C. brought home a championship.

While a team needs an abundance of luck to accomplish such a remarkable feat, there’s more to it than that. Closing your eyes, crossing your fingers, and praying that some sort of divine intervention bails you out at the 11th hour doesn’t really constitute much of a plan. Unless, of course, if you’re the general manager of the Washington Wizards.

Fortunately for Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld, most D.C. sports fans are still swimming victory laps in fountains and therefore missed his latest attempt to set the D.C. basketball franchise back another few years.

But before diving into this year’s NBA Draft, let’s pause for a minute and go back to the days immediately following Washington’s postseason elimination at the hands of the Toronto Raptors. During his end-of-season exit interview, point guard and face of the franchise John Wall decided to lay all of his cards on the table and spell out exactly what he felt needed to change in order for his team to compete with the league’s best teams.

“I think it’s pretty obvious,” Wall said. “I don’t need to point it out. I think the way the league is going, you need athletic bigs, you need scoring off the bench, you need all of those types of things. We don’t really have an athletic big. I mean, Ian [Mahinmi] is older. March [Marcin Gortat] is older. They’re not athletic guys, but they do the little things that permit their game to help as much as possible.”

While Wall, and anyone else who has watched the Wizards play basketball the last few seasons, might think it’s obvious that Washington remains at a disadvantage until they catch up to today’s game, the one person in a position to fix this flawed franchise’s foundation has given fans little reason to believe he’s capable of accomplishing that mission.

Rather than stepping back and viewing the situation with a critical eye, Grunfeld seems much more content to blame injuries, bad luck, or the boogeyman for the Wizards’ continued shortcomings.

“If you look at the overall picture of where we are, I think we’re in pretty healthy shape as far as our core is concerned,” Grunfeld said during the introductory press conference for first-round draft pick Troy Brown Jr. “Of course, we need some improvement from everybody but we have a solid, veteran team of young players that have been through it already. These are experienced young players that still have room for growth, but they’ve accomplished some things.

“They’ve been to the second round,” he continued. “They’ve been through wars. Last year, losing to Toronto—Otto [Porter Jr.] didn’t play in Game 6 and he played hurt the previous couple games, trying to do whatever he could and we had leads in the fourth quarter in three out of our four losses. A shot doesn’t go in and that’s basketball. But overall, the way it ended was disappointing for all of us because we expected more. And I think our players are going to use that as motivation and work hard this summer and come back again and give it another shot and see what we can do.”

To read the full column, head over to the City Paper’s website.

06Mar

Beal and friends hold off Heat for overtime victory

Led by All Star shooting guard Brad Beal, the Washington Wizards jumped out to a huge first quarter lead over the Miami Heat at Capital One Arena, March 6. Unfortunately for the home team, by the time the opening quarter ended, Miami had already cut the deficit to just five points. At halftime, the Wizards led by nine. But once again, the Wiz were unable to close out the Heat. Thanks to 30 points from Beal, who made six of seven shots from three-point range, and 19 points and seven assists from point guard Tomas Satoransky, the Wizards were able to hold off and eventually spick up a 117-113 overtime victory.

With point guard John Wall still sidelined as he recovers from knee surgery, these are the types of gritty performances Washington needs more of if they’re going to make any noise come playoff time. To see more of my photos from this game, head over to The Sports Capitol.

16Jan

Wizards have no answers for Antetokounmpo

After winning six of their previous eight games, the Washington Wizards hoped to continue their hot streak as they hosted the Milwaukee Bucks for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee matchup at Capital One Arena, January 15. Shortly after tipoff though, it was readily apparent that forward Giannis Antetokounmpo had other plans. The Greek Freak dominated the day with 27 points and 20 rebounds, leading the Bucks to a relatively easy 104-95 win over the Wizards. All Star point guard John Wall had 27 points and nine assists, but Washington’s 24 turnovers were simply too much to overcome. To see more of my photos from this game, head over to The Sports Capitol.

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