Shorthanded Wizards struggle from the start, can’t recover in loss to Pelicans
By Ava Wallace,
The Washington Wizards’ chances to produce a high-quality win were low even before they tipped off at New Orleans’s Smoothie King Center on Wednesday. The team, already hobbled with six players in the league’s coronavirus protocols, arrived in their third city in four days to play the second half of a back-to-back with an even lighter roster than usual — starting point guard Russell Westbrook sat out for rest.
That the Pelicans have been struggling themselves made no difference. Washington was lifeless until the fourth quarter and fell, 124-106, to drop to 3-11.
It was Pelicans’ first win in 11 days.
Bradley Beal was again the Wizards’ lone viable offensive weapon, and even he got off to a poor start. One day after Coach Scott Brooks diagnosed Washington’s issues as simply missing too many shots, the Wizards opened by shooting 1 for 11 and were in such dire straits early in the second quarter that they ran the offense through center Robin Lopez for a time.
Beal more than made up for a sluggish first quarter by scoring 24 in the third quarter alone, finishing with 47 points on 17-for-37 shooting. Lopez added 14.
“We know we’re a lot better than what our record is showing, and we can’t feed into that,” Beal said. “We can’t think that’s the type of team we are — granted, reality is reality. But we also believe that we’re better than that, we’re shorthanded, we haven’t played in two weeks. We’re still getting back. It’s no excuse, 100 percent . . . but we can’t feed into being 3-11.”
Despite Beal’s effort, he couldn’t make up for a roster missing six key contributors — Deni Avdija, Davis Bertans, Troy Brown Jr., Rui Hachimura, Ish Smith and Moe Wagner. Brooks is not sure when they will get out of league protocols and rejoin the team, but all six players are now back on court and working out.
Jordan Bell, signed last week to a 10-day contract, started to give the Wizards more size against Zion Williamson and Steven Adams. But the 6-foot-8 forward could only do so much — Bell had a team-high 11 rebounds in 30 minutes.
Williamson had 32 points, shooting 12 for 16 from the field. Brandon Ingram also had 32 on 12-for-19 shooting.
The game felt over in the first quarter. Washington looked tired, disorganized and seemed to face hulking bodies everywhere it turned on offense. The Wizards shot 30 percent from the field in the first quarter while New Orleans (6-10) shot 60 percent — including 50 percent from beyond the arc — and trailed 35-18. Beal’s heroics brought them within eight points with just under six minutes to play, but the margin never got closer than that.
With an offense on life support and a defense in even worse shape, the Wizards are left waiting for the six players in the protocols to rejoin the team and hoping they provide a spark before a brutal February begins. Washington has two home games left this month — Friday vs. Atlanta and Sunday vs. Brooklyn.
“We’re going to be healthy, we’re going to be whole soon . . . and then we’re going to be the team that we know we can be, and that’s the only thing we can do right now, is keep fighting,” Brooks said. “Keep working. Incremental gains every day.”
The league added two games to the Wizards’ already packed February before the game Wednesday, the beginnings of an attempt to make up for six games that were postponed because of the team’s coronavirus outbreak. The Wizards will play the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday in a game that was previously scheduled for the second half of the season and make up a game they missed against the Charlotte Hornets on Feb. 7.
Washington now has 15 games in the short month with four scheduled back-to-backs, a workload Brooks welcomed.
“I want to play. The more games that we can play with our guys coming back, I want games,” Brooks said on a videoconference before tip-off. “We need games. We need to get in a rhythm. We need to get back in the NBA rhythm of playing, traveling, road games, home games, doesn’t matter. We need to get going.”
