WASHINGTON — The Washington Wizards accomplished something Sunday night that they had not done in 2 1/2 months: They won two games in a row. Two days after they defeated the Detroit Pistons on the road, the Wizards beat the Golden State Warriors 123-115 at Capital One Arena.
Washington had not won consecutive games since Jan. 9-12, when it topped Orlando, Oklahoma City and Orlando again.
Advertisement
Here are my opinionated observations from the Wizards’ victory over the Warriors.
1. Porziņģis sets a tone
An NBA team typically takes its cues from its best player, and with Bradley Beal out for the season and Kyle Kuzma sidelined by knee tendinitis, the responsibility now falls on Kristaps Porziņģis.
Porziņģis did a lot of good things, including scoring 23 points and dishing out six assists, but counterintuitively the best single thing he did was commit a technical foul.
Let’s set the scene: The Wizards were leading 59-43 late in the second quarter when Andrew Wiggins drove to the hoop and an official whistled Porziņģis for a foul. When Porziņģis realized the call, he momentarily lost his temper and wound up his right arm as if he were about to hurl the ball in frustration. Though he stopped his throwing motion and never released the ball, the demonstrative act earned him a technical foul.
The Warriors’ Jordan Poole made the technical free throw, and though giving away one point is a silly thing to do, I think Porziņģis’ technical set a valuable tone for the Wizards.
Sunday’s game was the Wizards’ 74th of the season, and with their hopes of qualifying for the East’s Play-In Tournament mostly gone, this is the time of year when they could be giving a subpar effort. It would’ve been one thing if Porziņģis had complained over not getting a shooting foul called in his favor on the offensive end — players want their points, after all — but it was far more selfless of him to be upset over a defensive foul call.
Whether Porziņģis knew it at the time or not, it set a positive example for his teammates, particularly younger players such as Deni Avdija, Daniel Gafford, Rui Hachimura and Corey Kispert. In effect, Porziņģis signaled that Game 74 mattered.
“Right now, it’s hard for us to make the Play-In,” Porziņģis answered when The Athletic asked after the game about his technical. “So it’s easy to just give in and say, ‘OK, season’s over and on to the next one.’
Advertisement
“But I just love competing and I love the game, so I’m into it always. I get into it emotionally, and I think it sends a message to everybody else, too, that we’re not going to just go up and down and play the game out and that’s it. I think there might be some value to that (technical) even though (it’s) maybe not the best look for me to do that. I realized right away (it wasn’t the best look), but I think the emotion in that moment got the better of me.”
On Friday in Detroit, Porziņģis kept playing after he rolled his right ankle, and his insistence on staying in that game impressed his coach, Wes Unseld Jr.
“Those are moments that often get overlooked,” Unseld said. “We recognize those things as a coach, as a staff. A lot of times they get overlooked by fans or outsiders. But it’s messaging, not only to us but to the group, to young players that all of it matters.”
Something similar happened again midway through the second quarter Sunday. Andrew Wiggins fouled Porziņģis, toppling the 7-foot-3 Latvian to the floor and onto his back. For a moment, Porziņģis clutched at his lower right leg. He said he aggravated the ankle.
But he kept playing, totaling 31 minutes.
“I didn’t want to come out,” Porziņģis said. “I’m here and I’m healthy, and I want to keep going. An ankle is not something that’s gonna do any long-term bad for me. Once I’m in, I just want to keep playing and enjoy the game and have fun and compete.”
2. It’s a good win, but …
The temptation after Sunday’s victory is to compare it to the Wizards’ lopsided loss in San Francisco 13 days earlier and call it a sign of progress.
I think it would be a mistake to place that much emphasis on the win Sunday. The Warriors played without injured superstar Steph Curry, who torched the Wizards on March 13 by scoring 47 points on 16-of-25 shooting.
Advertisement
Is a win a positive? Yes. Of course, it’s a sign of some growth.
But it’s important to place a victory into its proper context. Golden State has gone 1-4 in its five games since Curry suffered his foot injury, including losses to a pair of lottery-bound teams, the San Antonio Spurs and the Orlando Magic.
3. The lottery implications
The wins over Detroit and Golden State threaten to be a sugar high: good vibes followed by a crash.
On Friday, the Wizards entered their game against the Pistons with a 30-42 record, the ninth-worst mark in the NBA. At that moment, the Wizards held a 20.3 percent chance of winning a top-four pick in the upcoming draft lottery, according to Tankathon.
Now they’re 32-42 and hold the league’s 11th-worst record. Washington’s chances of winning a top-four pick are now 9.4 percent.
To be sure, the Wizards are doing the honorable thing by playing their best healthy players and attempting to win. I think younger players develop best when they’re placed alongside capable veterans such as Porziņģis and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
But is it the smart thing to continue to win? The numbers say no.
4. Kispert’s record
Kispert scored a career-high 25 points and went 6-for-9 from beyond the arc Sunday. In the process, he broke Beal’s franchise record for 3-pointers made in a season as a rookie.
Kispert now has 96 treys this season and has shot 35.2 percent from 3.
Beal made 91 treys as a rookie in 2012-13, hitting 38.6 percent of his attempts.
After the game, Beal handed Kispert the game ball and congratulated him.
“You deserve it, and don’t you dare stop shooting it,” Kispert recalled Beal saying.
“Brad’s a huge reason why I got that record,” Kispert told reporters. “Not only does he pass it really, really well, he also attracts so much attention. So I would be an idiot to not credit a lot of that to him. And with how engaged he’s been after he’s gotten hurt has only helped me, and it’s helped other players, too, become better.”
In Kispert’s case, the real sign of growth isn’t his total number of 3s.
In the 19 games he played in October and November, he made only 22.5 percent of his 3s.
In his 14 games this month, he’s made 42.4 percent of his 3s.
“That’s kind of my calling card,” Kispert said. “It’s the reason why I’m here. You need an elite skill to be an NBA player, and mine is shooting it. So it sucked to not shoot it well to start, and kind of getting back in my rhythm and finding the bottom of the net more often now makes me feel really good, and I’m able to do stuff on top of that, too, to keep the defense honest as well.”
Advertisement
5. Avdija’s aggressiveness
Avdija followed his 21-point career-high performance in Detroit with another solid effort, scoring 14 points, collecting seven rebounds and dishing out four assists.
Those stats are all welcome signs, but it’s how he’s putting up those numbers that shows growth. Avdija is becoming increasingly decisive on the court with his decision-making.
“It won’t necessarily mean he’ll average 21 (points) and 10 (rebounds), but to generate similar looks — not only for himself, but for his teammates — to play downhill, to be decisive in all his actions, that’s something he can control,” Unseld said. “I think that’s a great sign for him and for us.”
(Top photo of Kristaps Porziņģis: Brad Mills / USA Today)
