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The Washington Wizards lost to the LA Clippers game in dramatic fashion. The Wizards took a 13-0 lead yet still managed to give up 30 points in the 1st quarter and trailed by more than double digits at halftime. Controversial ending or not, the Wizards did not play well defensively nor did they hit their free throws which indicates a lack of focus and mental toughness.

The Wizards better not take the Nets lightly who have won 3 of their past 5 games. It will also mark the debut of former 76ers Jahil Okafor and Nick Stauskus


Let's get hyped! https://streamable.com/cyfrv

Key players

Otto Porter -



One of the bright spots of the Wizards loss was Otto Porter. His 27 point total was more than his last 3 games combined. Let's see if he can become more consistent.

Bradley Beal -



Beal has played well over the last 3 games. However, his first half performance against the Clippers left a lot to be desired even though he came on strong at the end. Beal scored 51 points last week against Portland, but Victor Oladipo won Eastern Conference Player of the week which means that Beal has some competition for the Eastern Conference All Star team.

Tomas Satoransky



Satoransky has played well over the past few games. You have to wonder if Brooks should attempt to start him if Wall cannot go. Perhaps fatigue of not being subbed out for a 15 minute stretch in the 2nd half lead to two free throw misses at the end of the game against the Clippers.

That was a choke job, not fatigue. Tomas Satoransky played well but he short-armed those two FTs.

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Someone send this to the Wizards coaching staff.

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/foulshooting.html

Its a scary thought when you can honestly say Ian Mahinmi is our best freethrow shooter. That's just sad. Can he shoot all our techs from now on.

If they were coming off of a win, I'd predict this as a loss. But they lost last game. Usually, the team bounces back from bad losses. They've only lost 2 games in a row 4 times this season, and 3 of those 4 times, their 2nd loss was against a really good team that currently has an above-.600 record (Golden State, Cleveland and Toronto).

Basically, every time they've faced an average or poor team following a loss, they've won. The only exception was losing to Portland at home, and the Wizards were up 17 in the 4th quarter that game.

It's so frustrating. We know the team is good because they win almost every time they're focused. But you can only count on them to be focused after a bad loss. It's really a pathetic consistency of effort.

The Wizards are 1-5 in games decided by 3 points or less.

Wall is a game time decision but we start a home stand tomorrow against the Grizzlies. Would they play him b2b immediately after knee problems? If not then does it make more sense to just play tomorrow, that way he won't miss any games and the team can gel back instead of him being in tonight and back out tomorrow? I honestly wish he could play b2b. Wall is always great in NY/BK and had one of his best games ever home against the Grizzlies. He also was Wallstar in the 2nd half against the Hornets so I think he will be extremely confident and ready to dominate with Beal straight out of the gate

nate33 wrote:The Wizards are 1-5 in games decided by 3 points or less.

They are terrible in clutch situations, but there has to be an element of luck to that record, right?

J-Ves wrote:

nate33 wrote:The Wizards are 1-5 in games decided by 3 points or less.

They are terrible in clutch situations, but there has to be an element of luck to that record, right?

Maybe if you define "an element" to be a little bit. As you said, we're terrible in the clutch:
http://www.nbaminer.com/clutch-time-stats/
Which Wizard has shown they should be taking big shots? Sometimes Wall has come through, but not as much this year.

J-Ves wrote:

nate33 wrote:The Wizards are 1-5 in games decided by 3 points or less.

They are terrible in clutch situations, but there has to be an element of luck to that record, right?

IIRC, the Wizards were actually quite good in close games last year. I wouldn't say the Wizards are innately un-clutch. They've just been un-clutch so far this season. These things have a tendency to even out over time.

Hope Wizards win, but rooting for Okafor too. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I think it was a good trade for Nets, and he will end up a successful NBA player. He did well his rookie year considering he was only 19-20 years old. After that he was in a no win situation behind Embiid. In any case, he will do well against Gortat tonight who has shown previously he can't defend Okafor.

I can't believe the Nets have 10 wins with that roster. They have 4 terrible contracts through next year and 2 of those go to 2020. They don't have their own pick in the draft (they have Raptors pick). Would be difficult to be a fan for the next 3-4 years at least.

one of the worst anthem performances I have ever heard lol. SOUNDS LIKE TUESDAY NIGHT WIZARDS-NETS

can we just fast forward to the part where the bench comes in and dominates

Gortat might get 20 rebounds tonight against Tyler Zeler.

NatP4 wrote:can we just fast forward to the part where the bench comes in and dominates

You mean dominates the other team's bench.

I don't like our defense so far. Lots of open looks from 3 and poor transition defense. On offense, we're settling for long 2's.

Will Bradley Beal please hit a jumper?

Beal in a zone-the can't make a shot zone.