Washington Wizards: Takeaways From The Opener

In every sport and every season, it’s almost guaranteed that people will overreact to what occurs. For example, the Atlanta Hawks lost their opener to the Detroit Pistons, who are now 2-0 after defeating the Jazz Wednesday night. Does this mean the Hawks will have a down year? No. Does this indicate that the Pistons have a great chance of winning the Eastern Conference? Not exactly.

The first games of the year can be useful in some ways, though. The Washington Wizards are a team that has gone through major changes since last season. Not only did they make significant moves during the offseason, but their new offensive philosophy will give them a complete makeover as a team. Philosophies are something that can be evident in the first games.

The way coaches are looking to use certain lineups in the beginning stages can set the expectations for the rest of the season.

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The Wizards opened up Wednesday night against the Orlando Magic, where they continued to display their refurbished style of play that predicates itself using a smaller lineup and getting out in transition as much as possible.

Here are the positives and negatives taken away from last night’s game:

Positives

Guard Play:

John Wall and Bradley Beal continue to make their case of being the NBA’s best backcourt duo with their performance in game one. Wall had complete control of the game on both ends of the floor. He compiled a career-high five blocks.

Two came on chase downs on fast-break layups, and one came in a pivotal moment when Tobias Harris looked to put the Wizards away late in the game. Before training camp began, Wall made it public that he intends for his name to be included in the MVP conversation and his offensive performance let us know that he is for real.

Wall finished with 22 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and three steals to go along with his five blocks. The most important two points came as Marcin Gortat set a ball screen with 20 seconds remaining in the game and the Wizards down one. Wall came off the screen hard right at Nikola Vucevic and was able to convert on a floater that became the game-winning shot.

Before becoming apart of the MVP conversation, a player must be able to lift their team during crunch time. Hitting clutch shots is an area that Wall has been harshly criticized throughout his six-year career. Starting off his 2015-16 campaign with a game-winner may be the first of many to come throughout the 82-game season.

Beal also looked to be in mid-season form already as he led all scorers with 24 points to go with 6 rebounds. Throughout training camp, Beal stated that he would make more of an effort this season to get to the free-throw line and be more aggressive driving to the basket. As a result, he visited the charity stripe seven times, only converting on four.

Late in the game, Beal came to the forefront along with Wall to will their way to victory. One basket was this acrobatic finish:

Negatives

Lack of Size & Athleticism:

Playing faster means that most of the time, a team needs smaller and more athletic players on the court. For the Wizards sake, they chose Kris Humphries to play the stretch-4. While he’s proven to be able to hit the long-ball this preseason, he isn’t best choice based off athleticism. The Wizards struggling mightily last night defending the paint, as they were outscored 46-30.

Although the Wizards want Humphries to play more outside, he is still an underrated rebounder. That’s why it was mind-blowing to see the Magic grab so many offensive rebounds (17). They went on to out-duel the Wizards on the boards as a whole 56-49.

A frontcourt of Gortat and Humphries should rarely be out rebounded, so there is a reason of concern heading into game two in that facet.

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Turnovers:

It is expected that when the pace of a game is faster, you’re more likely to see a lot of turnovers as the course of a game goes on. But too many of the Wizards turnovers last night came in the half-court sets when they weren’t exactly forced.

Again, in the first game this is normally not alarming because the players are still getting their feet under them, but the Wizards need to prove to Wittman that they can play the uptempo game efficiently.

Wall finished with six turnovers of his own, nearly tripling his average from last season. Beal had four of his own as well. These two players have the ball in their hands for the majority of the game, which means there is more chance of them turning it over, but those numbers are simply too high if the Wizards want to become a legit contender in the East.

The Wizards still escaped with a win, which in the end, is all that matters. They will look to patch up these mistakes in their next contest Friday when they travel to take on the Milwaukee Bucks.

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