When: April 6, 2016; 7:00 PM EST
Where: Verizon Center; Washington, D.C.
TV: YES Network
Radio: CBS 880 AM
- With five games left in a lost season, the Brooklyn Nets are in our nation’s capital tonight to play the Washington Wizards, who have been one of the NBA’s most disappointing teams. Willie Reed (personal reasons) will be away from the Nets for the rest of the season so Brooklyn is now down four guys (Reed, Jarrett Jack, Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young) for the year.
- Injuries have, as usual, killed Washington this season and the Wizards (probably) won’t make the playoffs for the first time since 2013. Bradley Beal (leg and nose) missed around 25 games as did Nene (back, triceps, calf) while former Nets Kris Humphries (now on the Hawks) and Alan Anderson missed extended periods of time as well. Also, Gary Neal only played 40 games before suffering a leg injury that led the Wizards to waive him and sign another former Net in Marcus Thornton.
- While star point guard John Wall, upstart swingman Otto Porter center Marcin Gortat — along with key reserves Ramon Sessions and Jared Dudley, along others — have played most of the season, it has been hard for Randy Wittman’s team to develop continued chemistry. The big X-factor for that has been Beal, who has dealt with a ton of injuries in his young career and just hasn’t been healthy enough to fully realize his potential.
- The Wizards still haven’t been mathematically eliminated from postseason play, but with five games left and 3.5 games between them and the No. 8 seed Pistons — with the Bulls in between — a playoff berth is unlikely. That might spell doom for Wittman’s tenure with the team as he’s sure to be on the hot seat this offseason.
- Washington has limped to the finish line, losing three of its last four games, but the Nets — in comparison — have slid down the side of a large mountain as they approach the end of a campaign filled with losing. Rock bottom might have been last Sunday at Barclays as Brooklyn lost 106-87 to a New Orleans Pelicans team without nine (!!!) players, who were all out with season-ending injuries. No Anthony Davis, no Tyreke Evans, no Ryan Anderson, no Jrue Holiday and the list goes on. Yet, the Nets — who have shut down Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young — got run out of their own building in the second half. They’ve lost their last five games and are on the road for the next three.
- As of mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the Nets were 13.5-point underdogs to the Wizards. Brooklyn will be double-digit underdogs in each of the season’s remaining games and, most likely, won’t win any of them.
Probable lineups
BKN- Shane Larkin (PG), Wayne Ellington (SG), Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (SF), Bojan Bogdanovic (PF), Thomas Robinson (C)
WAS- John Wall (PG), Bradley Beal (SG), Otto Porter Jr. (SF), Markieff Morris (PF), Marcin Gortat (C)
Final thoughts
Godspeed to the combination of Shane Larkin, Donald Sloan, Wayne Ellington, Sergey Karasev, Markel Brown and Chris McCullough, who will all likely have to defend one or both of Wall and Beal tonight. Both are really good playmakers and have explosiveness that will be nearly impossible to stop for the Nets, who have allowed at least 105 points in their last six games.
Oh, and Washington also has Porter, who has had the breakout season the Wizards expected from the Georgetown alum in his rookie year, in addition to Morris and Gortat. All three are good scorers and provide the size that the Nets have resting in their high-salaried and resting usual starting frontcourt — Lopez and Young. It’s not going to be easy for the patchwork lineup Brooklyn will be trotting out on Wednesday.
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