Washington Wizards display fast pace in opener; 3 takeaways

1. Playing improved team defense

An essential area for the Washington Wizards to improve is their defensive play. If you watched Game 1 on Wednesday, it was clear that the Wiz not only struggled with guarding Luka Doncic, but they also faltered in making stops as the game went on.

Though the Wizards gave up 108 points to the Mavericks, their defensive struggles are more complex than just that number. A couple of the team’s young players committed fouls early on and played a bit impulsively at times, with several traveling violations charged to the Wizards.

Washington finished the game committing 32 fouls and turning over the ball 20 times, which accounted for 27 made Dallas free throws and 17 Mavericks points off turnovers. Additionally, the Wizards had 36 defensive rebounds as a team compared to 41 for Dallas.

At times, Washington seemed unclear about defensive assignments. For a few plays in the game, two or three Wizards would hone in on guarding one Mavericks player, leaving ample room for a backdoor cut by Doncic or an alley-oop by Kristaps Porzingis.

As NBC Sports Washington commentator Drew Gooden noted during the game, a few Washington players also did not keep their hands straight up to guard against Mavericks shots. Wizards starting center Thomas Bryant gave up two step-back 3-point shots to Doncic in the second quarter.

Bryant looked a bit tentative on the court overall. Though he finished with a double-double, scoring 14 points and gathering 11 rebounds, Bryant also committed three turnovers and had a minus-16 rating for the game.

Isaac Bonga brought energy and length to the Wizards on defense, contributing one steal, a block, and an offensive rebound. Bonga committed just one turnover and had a neutral zero rating at the end of the game. Most of the Wizards had either negative or barely positive plus-minus ratings.

For the rest of the 2019-20 season, Scott Brooks and his staff must encourage better defensive possessions for the Wizards and draw up strategies to create increased stops and opponent turnovers. Though the Mavericks matchup was just the first Wizards game this season, the team’s defense did not prevent Dallas from easily making points.

Keeping opponents off of the 3-point line and mitigating the number of team fouls must be strong areas of focus for the Wizards. The team’s defense must quickly improve to succeed against the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets, each a strong offensive team and comprising the next three games on the Wizards’ schedule.