Sheldon Mac shows consistency, Washington Wizards lose fourth straight

Despite the Washington Wizards losing their fourth straight during the Summer League, Sheldon Mac showed signs of consistency.

The Washington Wizards almost pulled off their first win for Summer League play, but fell short of being clutch in the closing seconds.

The Wizards and company let their biggest lead of the past four games slip through their fingers. They lead the Miami Heat 57-43 at the half, yet ultimately fell short and lost 88-87.

For the most part, the Wizards effectively shook off the dust from their woes of the previous three games.

As a whole, the sloppy play and turnovers were cut to a minimum with only eight on the evening. Foul troubles also improved, as the Wizards committed just 22 compared to the atrocious 41 personal fouls from their previous meeting against the Heat.

Mac starting to heat up

For those who have not been following the Summer League thus far, let’s bring things up to speed.

Sheldon Mac has been the focus of the Wizards’ scoring duties, and has garnered the most attention leading into and during Summer League.

He had a pretty underwhelming first game against the Grizzlies, while the fairly unknown prospect Kevin Pangos stood out with his passing ability.

Over the course of the past three games, the Wizards struggled to even get a lead let alone win their first game. For the most part, Mac has been the most effective wing scoring-wise and has since shown improvement and consistency.

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His biggest drawback in his previous three performances were his eight total turnovers to just four assists. However, his second matchup against the Heat was his most well-rounded performance at this point, and his reliability to score efficiently is beginning to show.

In this closely contested matchup against the Heat, Mac shot 3-for-5 from the field and went 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. He finished with 13 points over 25 minutes of playing time and (wait for it) he committed zero turnovers.

Consistency is key for Sheldon Mac and he has been the standout player on the Washington Wizards Summer League squad throughout four games.

Kevin Pangos was benched previously against the Chicago Bulls but made a fair return against the Heat.

He shot 3-of-8 and went 1-for-4 as he continues to struggle from beyond the arc. He made decent contributions otherwise and plays well on the defensive end. Pangos finished with seven points over 24 minutes, coming up with a pair of steals, one assist and four rebounds.

His ability to dish the ball, operating as a facilitator and creating for his teammates, remains consistent.

It should be noted the Wizards came up short in the closing seconds as Kevin Pangos made a tough play look easy. It appeared to be a game-winning assist down in the paint, until Mac got stuffed at the rim — not quite the highlight reel he was hoping to end his solid night on.

Marcus Keane had a great game and led the team in scoring with 18 points while shooting 50 percent from the field.

Daniel Ochefu is also showing some consistency in his game and improving on defense. In 17 minutes of play he finished with six points, two blocks, one steal and five rebounds while he shot 3-for-4 from the field.

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The Washington Wizards will look to recover from this loss as they take on the 2-2 Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.