The Washington Wizards are struggling as a whole to win their first game during this year’s NBA Summer League, but Sheldon McClellan played well.
Hopefully the Washington Wizards don’t catch the contagious inefficiencies plaguing this year’s NBA Summer League squad.
At times, the Summer Wizards have looked just plain awful. In each of their three games, the team has struggled as a whole in different areas.
Their closest game came against the Grizzlies, where the team struggled to keep the turnovers to a minimum, reaching 19 total.
The second Summer League game against the Heat was an absolute slop fest. Daniel Ochefu led the effort with a total of nine personal fouls. The Wizards went on to commit 39 total throughout the game.
Tuesday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls was hardly any better. They trailed by double-digits for a majority of the evening and struggled to keep the game even slightly close until late in fourth quarter.
Of the nine players that attempted five shots or more, six made 33 percent of their attempts or less.
But wait, it gets much worse. Of the nine players who attempted at least one shot from beyond the arc, five of those players did not see a single one fall through the net.
Sheldon McClellan rises while others fall
The sole high point of the evening was Sheldon McClellan, and partly Daniel Ochefu.
McClellan was able to string together two solid offensive performances in a row after a disappointing outing in the first Summer League game against the Grizzlies.
Against Chicago, he scored 20 points on the night and was incredibly efficient while leading the team in scoring. He certainly earned a tip of the hat, sporting a cool 72.7 shooting percentage from the field.
However, his issue with turning the ball over is becoming a serious problem and is concerning after another night with a 1:3 assist to turnover ratio. He has a total of eight turnovers over the span of three games, giving him a 1:2 assist to turnover ratio.
Despite his ability to score and his recent consistency, this is a large hole in his game. He has at least one more game in the Las Vegas event to hopefully and temporarily remove this large question mark from his overall performance.
Overview of the rest of the squad
The good and the bad has been covered, now for the ugly.
Danuel House had just about as terrible of a game as one could have. He scored just one point as he shot 0-for-7 from the field. He also missed both of his attempts from beyond the arc.
Chris McCullough scored only four points as he shot a poor 2-for-6 from the field. He also tied with McClellan with the most personal fouls of three, and had zero assists or steals to contribute.
The only silver lining that hasn’t been touched on was Daniel Ochefu recovered from his foul frenzy the night prior. He committed only one foul as was just one point short of reaching another double-double. He finished with nine points, 10 rebounds, one steal and two assists.
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The Washington Wizards will look to end the Las Vegas Summer League event on a positive note entering bracket play, as they go against the Miami Heat for the second time.