Suggestion: Track Crunch-time Plays (1) and Decisions (2) by Wall & Beal

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The Wizards are PROBABLY about to lose to the Utah Jazz. As I type this they are down 104-107 with 7.6 seconds remaining.

THE ONLY WAY TO IMPROVE BEHAVIOR IS TO ACCURATELY UNDERSTAND THE BEHAVIOR



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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Okay they had a season-high 23 turnovers. They were swept by the Jazz. The game is over now. Kara Lawson is saying the turnovers killed them but I disagree with her.

I think the refs killed them initially....

There were some terrible horrificly bad calls this game which I think gave Utah a playing advantage...

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

When a team that clutches and grabs does not get called for fouls but Washington gets called for a lots of fouls at home then the officials are really determining the place so he Nish Ali I think Washington was frustrated with the officiating and that's what really took them out of the game

Washington fought back and got a head however.

Crunch time is where they lost the game.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

There is an NBA definition of what crunch time is.

John Wall and Bradley Beal missed some shots but where they necessarily bad shots?

I keep hearing it's a make or miss league but I think that's b******* in my opinion.

I think about how Nick Saban coached the other night. He made some decisions which helped Alabama win it all. The great Kevin Broom and had this discussion years ago. It was about the influence of coaching on the outcome of NBA games.

His point of view was that it's the talent. The longer I watch the more I think it's the Coaching with of Talent.

I have been watching the wizard since before most of the Wizards were born. Well I've been watching the bullets Wizards since at least 20 years before most of these guys were even born

What I'm thinking right now is options and choices are leading to questionable decisions in crunch time.

The coaches might already know this but I'm going to be a moron and put it on Front Street if they do not.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

As a fan I am not upset that they lost

The effort was there tonight

They shot wonderfully in stretches

They made a lot of bad decisions. Markieff Morris did not have a great game. Kelly oubre made some young guy mistakes. Bradley Beal appear to play real tight down the stretch. John Wall scored a lot of points but he took a lot of shots that we're hoping a prayer at the end


Love this team and I will keep watching as long as God lets me breathe


My suggestion is that they track each and every shot taken when the game is in the last five minutes and when the score is within five points. They should track whether plays were called or not. If no plays were called that's okay

In that case I think they should track decisions

There are good shots and there are better shots

The way we learn is to understand that perhaps we could have made a better decision

There are 82 games in a regular season of the NBA

I know John Wall and Bradley Beal are excellent players and fine young men

They can improve as basketball players with or without good coaching

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[NatP4]

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[nate33]

It's looking more and more like this is not going to be our year. Wall and Beal are in their own heads now. They need to see a sports psychologist or something. There is no other way to state it. They have been absolute, unmitigated choking dogs. Their stats are horrific.

In 4th quarters this season, Beal is shooting 34% overall, and just 32% from 3-point range. In crunch time, with 5 or few minutes to go and a point differential of 5 or less, Beal is shooting 29% overall, 22% from 3-point range, and 70% from the FT line.

In 4th quarters, Wall is shooting 34% overall and just 24% from 3-point range. In crunch time, he is shooting 27% overall and 27% from 3-point range. And since coming back from injury, Wall is shooting 63% from the FT line.

You can't win like this. If things don't change, this team is sure to lose their first round playoff series, and might get swept.

[nate33]

The Wizards have the 2nd highest ORtg in the league in 1st quarters. They rank 14th in Ortg in 2nd and 3rd quarters. They rank 26th in ORtg in the 4th quarter.

[closg00]

Brooks needs to mix it-up down-the-stretch and figure-out how to fracking close-out. The team also needs other closers not named Beal and Wall. I would love to swap Meeks for Marcus Keene right now, we need a player like that and an athlete in the front court.

[Ruzious]

I could see Utah did some scouting. Notice how they intentionally fouled Wall several times around midcourt whenever he was running full-steam with the ball. And they were ready for Wall's cross court passes to Beal - intercepting those several times. John's gotta be more careful and see that they see. Wall jumped in the air and didn't have anyone to throw to - an amateurish bozo nono. They were clearly set up to limit Wall's effectiveness. That was probably the worst 35 and 10 game I've ever seen from a player.

With Beal, I didn't really have a problem with his decision-making. He flat out missed shots that he shouldn't have. Towards the end, he missed 2 layups and an open 3, and of course he fudged up the last play. Beal generally makes good decisions, but he misses clutch shots that leave me scratching my head.

[payitforward]

No, no, no!

Once again, I have to stress the simple & obvious & undeniable fact that we would have won last night -- going away! -- had we played right in NON-crunch time.

& in fact we outscored Utah in the 4th quarter -- that's not when we lost the game. We did NOT fail in crunch time.

Hell, we turned 78 FGAs into 92 points last night. That's tremendous. Even w/ the crappy FT shooting our TS% last night will win almost every game. As long as you don't also give your opponent 14 extra shots!

Another way to put it: if you put yourself in situations repeatedly where you have to win in so-called "crunch time", then you don't win very often.

We lost this game in an altogether different way. We lost it the easy way: through lazy play earlier in the game.

[nate33]

With Beal, I didn't really have a problem with his decision-making. He flat out missed shots that he shouldn't have. Towards the end, he missed 2 layups and an open 3, and of course he fudged up the last play. Beal generally makes good decisions, but he misses clutch shots that leave me scratching my head.

Yup.

Beal's problem is that he misses shots, particularly in the 4th quarter. Beal, over the first 3 quarters of an NBA game is an elite All-Star and the 2nd best SG in this league behind James Harden. That guy averages 26 points per 36 minutes with an eFG% of .544 and a TS% north of 60%.

Unfortunately, the Bradley Beal that shows up for 4th quarters is easily the worst shooting guard in the league. We'd honestly be better off playing Satoranksy in his place. Sato passes, rebounds and defends as well as Beal, and shoots better (than 4th quarter Beal).

[Ruzious]

No, no, no!

Once again, I have to stress the simple & obvious & undeniable fact that we would have won last night -- going away! -- had we played right in NON-crunch time.

& in fact we outscored Utah in the 4th quarter -- that's not when we lost the game. We did NOT fail in crunch time.

Hell, we turned 78 FGAs into 92 points last night. That's tremendous. Even w/ the crappy FT shooting our TS% last night will win almost every game. As long as you don't also give your opponent 14 extra shots!

Another way to put it: if you put yourself in situations repeatedly where you have to win in so-called "crunch time", then you don't win very often.

We lost this game in an altogether different way. We lost it the easy way: through lazy play earlier in the game.

You're arguing with yourself. Nobody's arguing against that. But when the game is close at the end, there is such a thing as being clutch. Even the baseball metrics nerds admitted that without actually admitting it - they just made up a term to describe it without using the word clutch - "highly leveraged situations". That's too cool for school geek-speak for clutch.

[DCZards]

I could see Utah did some scouting. Notice how they intentionally fouled Wall several times around midcourt whenever he was running full-steam with the ball. And they were ready for Wall's cross court passes to Beal - intercepting those several times. John's gotta be more careful and see that they see. Wall jumped in the air and didn't have anyone to throw to - an amateurish bozo nono. They were clearly set up to limit Wall's effectiveness. That was probably the worst 35 and 10 game I've ever seen from a player.

With Beal, I didn't really have a problem with his decision-making. He flat out missed shots that he shouldn't have. Towards the end, he missed 2 layups and an open 3, and of course he fudged up the last play. Beal generally makes good decisions, but he misses clutch shots that leave me scratching my head.

Yes, Utah did some smart game planning last night. In addition to those things you point out, they also sped up the way they typically play, taking 92 shots as compared to their average of around 70 shots per game. While the Zards shot a higher 2pt and 3pt % than the Jazz, they only took 78 shots.

I also didn't have a problem with the decision-making. Beal attacked the basket for layups twice in the last minute or so which is exactly what I wanted to see him do...his shots just didn't fall. It happens. I was more disappointed in BB not being able to knock down that open 3.

On that last play, Utah had the long, tall Udoh jump out on Beal, making it impossible for him to get his shot off. Good move by the Jazz.

At the end of the day, the Zards lost because of those 23 turnovers. That's almost impossible to overcome.

[DCZards]

Unfortunately, the Bradley Beal that shows up for 4th quarters is easily the worst shooting guard in the league. We'd honestly be better off playing Satoranksy in his place. Sato passes, rebounds and defends as well as Beal, and shoots better (than 4th quarter Beal).

It's easy to say that Sato does those things better now when he's typically the 3rd or 4th option when he's on the court and has never actually filled Beal's role. It could very well be a much different story if opponents treated Sato like the Zards #1 scoring threat like I'm sure they do with Beal.

I thought Sato should have been in the game in the third and fourth quarters when Brooks for some crazy reason was going with Meeks instead. Meeks scored zero points in 16 plus minutes last night

[FAH1223]

The Jazz have a much better HC than we do.

Imagine Quinn Snyder here?

[FAH1223]

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[payitforward]

No, no, no!

Once again, I have to stress the simple & obvious & undeniable fact that we would have won last night -- going away! -- had we played right in NON-crunch time.

& in fact we outscored Utah in the 4th quarter -- that's not when we lost the game. We did NOT fail in crunch time.

Hell, we turned 78 FGAs into 92 points last night. That's tremendous. Even w/ the crappy FT shooting our TS% last night will win almost every game. As long as you don't also give your opponent 14 extra shots!

Another way to put it: if you put yourself in situations repeatedly where you have to win in so-called "crunch time", then you don't win very often.

We lost this game in an altogether different way. We lost it the easy way: through lazy play earlier in the game.

You're arguing with yourself. Nobody's arguing against that. But when the game is close at the end, there is such a thing as being clutch. Even the baseball metrics nerds admitted that without actually admitting it - they just made up a term to describe it without using the word clutch - "highly leveraged situations". That's too cool for school geek-speak for clutch.

I like to argue with myself, Ruz, but only in highly leveraged situations.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I could see Utah did some scouting. Notice how they intentionally fouled Wall several times around midcourt whenever he was running full-steam with the ball. And they were ready for Wall's cross court passes to Beal - intercepting those several times. John's gotta be more careful and see that they see. Wall jumped in the air and didn't have anyone to throw to - an amateurish bozo nono. They were clearly set up to limit Wall's effectiveness. That was probably the worst 35 and 10 game I've ever seen from a player.

With Beal, I didn't really have a problem with his decision-making. He flat out missed shots that he shouldn't have. Towards the end, he missed 2 layups and an open 3, and of course he fudged up the last play. Beal generally makes good decisions, but he misses clutch shots that leave me scratching my head.

They scouted them well. Utah also did a lot of cherry picking. Their hard fouls by Udoh and Jerebko also shook up the Wizards, who NEVER get physical in return (in part because of roster construction. Their bench has scorers like Mike Scott. NOT scrappy players save maybe Ian).

Beal also jumped up in the air at a crucial time.

Worse was after Beal clearly didn't have legs and got denied at the rim he came back down court the very next time and lunged aimlessly on another miss.

THE REFS WERE NOT going to give them that, regardless.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Brooks needs to mix it-up down-the-stretch and figure-out how to fracking close-out. The team also needs other closers not named Beal and Wall. I would love to swap Meeks for Marcus Keene right now, we need a player like that and an athlete in the front court.

I remember loving Keene's game last year at Marquette. (They've got another guy this year, too)

Brooks didn't help by not resting Wall all half. Beal and Wall simply have to be better. A few forced shots but mostly just tired legged misses. Or, over-thinking misses.