Wizards eliminated from playoff contention with fifth straight loss

They had a good chance Friday in their fifth game of the league’s restart with the Pelicans’ Zion Williamson sitting out the second half of a back-to-back. Still, the Wizards fell to New Orleans, 118-107, to log their fifth straight loss in Kissimmee, Fla. The game officially eliminated Washington from playoff contention, meaning its final three games of the season, a gantlet through Oklahoma City, Milwaukee and Boston, will be played without stakes.

The Wizards cannot improve their shot at the No. 1 pick in the Aug. 25 draft lottery because the NBA adjusted the rule so that odds are based on team records through March 11, the day the league shut down. The Wizards are locked into ninth-best odds at the top pick.

They haven’t celebrated a win since March 10.

“I feel bad for all of us,” Coach Scott Brooks said. “We put a lot of time and effort into it, our guys are committed to getting better, but getting better includes winning. That’s the most important element. You cannot lose — the fact that we play 48 minutes to come away with at least one point ahead of our opponents, and we’re not doing that — we’re not happy. But I’m still pleased with a lot of things that we’re getting accomplished down here. We’re very lucky to be in this situation. … We have three more games. We’re going to keep fighting together and keep building the future, what we need to work on.”

Brooks said that the Wizards’ last game showed his young roster is still learning how to win, and nothing was a better illustration of what he meant than Friday’s contest.

A strong start and slim halftime lead gave way to a disappointing third quarter in which the Pelicans came out aggressive and got hot thanks to a bump from backup center Nicolo Melli. The Wizards fell apart on defense, and their shooting performance — and bench play — followed.

“We beat ourselves tonight, I’m not going to lie,” Brown said. “Just coming out of the third quarter we were stagnant in our offense. We didn’t bring the same intensity that we had the first half.”

Hachimura led the team with a quiet 23 points, making 10 of 16 from the field, and grabbed five rebounds. Bryant, proving capable again of controlling the game for stretches, had 22 points while shooting 50 percent from the field to go with eight rebounds. Brown scored 20 and had a team-high 10 boards.

The issue in the third quarter was that Hachimura, Bryant and Brown couldn’t stay on court throughout.

Washington’s second unit looked as ineffective as it has at any point since the restart, allowing Melli and Josh Hart, a Sidwell Friends graduate, to get hot in the third. Jrue Holiday led New Orleans with 28 points and Brandon Ingram had 17, but with both bench units on the floor, the Pelicans were more organized and the Wizards’ starters couldn’t lift the team out of trouble.

Hachimura found the rhythm in the first half that has eluded him for the past week, making 7 of 8 shot attempts for 15 points in 18 minutes. He and Bryant, who has been the Wizards’ most consistent player of late, complemented each other well.

“We were making shots. . . . When you make threes, it opens up the offense for more guys to get cleaner looks because they’re not packing the paint,” Brooks said. “Teams are packing the paint until we start making some threes, and tonight we started off making some.”

Bryant was solid on the defensive end and picked apart the Pelicans’ flimsy defense early, finding plenty of open space to hit a pair of big threes before halftime. Washington’s long range game was also the best it has looked since the league restarted — it hit seven from beyond the arc early, and that gave them a 56-54 advantage at halftime.

“It’s difficult because everybody wants to win, coaches included. We want to win every time you step out on that floor,” Bryant said. “But sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture, how things are going to work out. And sometimes wins don’t fall right then and there. You’ve just got to keep working for them.”

Source:WP