Washington ranks 26th in points allowed per road game (105.6 PPG), while Cleveland ranks fourth in points per home game with 106.2. Yet still its underlying problem remains: When the Wizards aren’t running, they aren’t scoring almost enough. And, for stretches-completely discounting the 1-for-9 shooting effort over the last seven minutes, when the Wizards played Kill The Clock, not basketball-they looked like the Golden State Warriors. He put up only 8 points during his 33 minutes on the court.
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In creating a patchwork scheme for his team, Wittman just might have shown the rest of the league Cleveland’s vulnerability. He added 10 assists, although he committed five turnovers. “I said from the beginning, they beat us from the beginning to the end”.
“I just think – I don’t know – maybe he’s thinking too much; he’s got to pull the trigger, be more aggressive”, Wittman said of Beal.
With the Wizards pushing the ball at every opportunity and a lethargic Cavs defense failing to get back or stop the ball, Cleveland went into the locker room at halftime down 54-43. It might give the team more chances at grabbing a few offensive boards, as the bigs scramble to box the little Wizards guys out.
Wall’s shooting percentage is a career worst, as is his 16.1 point average. Now a lot of that could be attributed to the Wizards’ small ball lineup.
LeBron James almost posted a triple-double with 24 points, 13 rebounds and a whopping nine turnovers. So many of his baskets came from lobs and backdoor cuts, but now it’s as though they are trying to make him a focal point of the offense. The Cavs have oodles of talent, lead the East with 13 wins and yet are banged up – it would be easy for them to reach for a crutch on nights when they don’t win.
The Wizards are now 7-9 on the season, which puts them in 12th place in the Eastern Conference. Wall exploded offensively, sure, but the team would likely have won regardless because this was one of those games where everyone seemed to be doing what they do best.
“How does it feel?”
“You have to face up to it”, Blatt said. “We felt like we let this one slip away”.
They also might want to start planning for what to do when teams go small against them, because it’s all but guaranteed that Washington won’t be the last team to try it.
“I read everything, I hear everything that people say, because I like it”, Wall said. “They were faster to the ball, with the ball”. “Fans” of other teams come to the Verizon Center to cheer on their team while shunning the home squad. “Their pace, their speed, their ability to get the ball up the floor really caused us problems tonight”.
“They were quicker”, James said.
Now, while Love did play significantly better that game, J.R. Smith, similar to Tuesday night, struggled offensively. He has flaws sure – he’s not a particularly good shooter and sometimes initiates the offense to late in the shot clock – but Wall is a superstar at 25. Plus, if Cleveland does have to acquiesce and play small for extended periods, it will be better equipped to do so when its intended starting backcourt of Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert returns.
What are your thoughts on the Cavs loss last night?
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“This is great for us”. But you can kind of deal with this, the way we competed. You’ve got to play and play hard all the time, and you’ve got to play well if you want to beat teams.
