Wizards’ comeback falls short against Hornets originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Washington Wizards lost to the Charlotte Hornets 117-116 on Friday night. Here are five takeaways from what went down…
Pushed around in the paint
The Wizards have had some problems on the road this season and, while that has largely been because of their 3-point shooting, on Friday their issues against the Hornets came around the basket.
Charlotte outrebounded the Wizards 16-to-5 in the first quarter, including 13 offensive boards, and outscored them in the paint 38-24 in the first half. While Washington reversed those trends in the second half, the damage was done.
The Hornets built a 22-point lead at their peak and had just enough to hold on for the victory. Washington cut the deficit to one, but could not regain the lead. The Wizards have now lost five straight games on the road and five of their last six overall.
Washington is now 3-8 in away games compared to 8-4 when they play at home. The good news is their next game is at Capital One Arena, as they host the Lakers on Sunday. But after that, the Wizards will play 12 of their next 16 on the road.
Porzingis and Gafford
With the Hornets finding so much success in the lane, and with both Miles Plumlee (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Nick Richards (12 points, nine rebounds) giving them trouble, head coach Wes Unseld Jr. turned to an unusual pairing down low. He had both Kristaps Porzingis and Daniel Gafford out there together for the first time this season. It seemed to work, as the Wizards made an extended run in the fourth quarter.
Porzingis had 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Gafford had 10 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks in his best game of the season so far. Both Gafford’s rebounds and blocks were season-highs, with his rebounds matching a career-high. Unseld Jr. had indicated he was thinking of pairing Porzingis and Gafford against the Timberwolves when they went up against Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, but never went with it. This time, he did.
Kispert is heating up
Corey Kispert appears to be regaining his shooting stroke after a brief slump a few games ago. The volume remains relative to his low number of attempts, but Kispert has been increasingly efficient. On Friday against the Hornets, he had 14 points on 4-for-7 shooting from three. He came in and quickly knocked down two triples in the first quarter.
Kispert has now made at least one three in eight straight games. After starting the season 0-for-8 from long range, he’s now 26-for-51 (50.9%) in the 13 games since. The next step for him will be to keep that efficiency while taking more shots. It would be great for the Wizards if Kispert developed into the type of bench scorer who could drop 15 or 20 points with some degree of regularity.
Beal was good until the end
Offense was not the problem for the Wizards and Bradley Beal led the way with 33 points. He shot 12-for-24 while adding seven assists, six rebounds and a steal. Beal caught fire in the second quarter to score 14 straight points for the Wizards and had 18 points by halftime. This was Beal’s 11th straight game with 20 points. For some context, his longest 20-point streak last season was nine games, yet another indication he’s playing better than he was a year ago.
Beal, though, made a couple of mistakes at the end that had to be frustrating. He lost the ball for two turnovers in the final 1:30 of the fourth quarter, as the Wizards couldn’t close the deal on their comeback. It was a shame given Beal was instrumental in getting them back in the game, but it has also been an issue for him this year. He leads the NBA in turnovers in clutch situations with nine.
Hachimura still out
This was the seventh consecutive game Rui Hachimura has missed due to a bone bruise in his right ankle and according to a report from the Washington Post, he is now considered “week-to-week.”
That’s a change from what Unseld Jr. had previously been saying, that it was day-to-day. It sounds like the MRI helped the Wizards realize the injury was worse than it was initially diagnosed. Hachimura last played two weeks ago, against Miami when he sustained the injury.
