Heat 115
Wizards 109
January 4, 2019 | AmericanAirlines Arena | Miami, FL
If the Washington Wizards want any shot of sneaking into the Eastern Conference playoffs, they will have to start winning on the road. Nearly halfway through the season, they have a mere four wins away from Capital One Arena. One was in Miami earlier in the season so maybe there was a glimmer of hope for Washington, but the undermanned squad could not make shots when they needed to. At least the effort was there, right? The Wizards are now 15-24, 4.5 games back of the No. 8 seed, and 4-17 on the road.
Two-time All-Star Bradley Beal
When it is all said and done there are not going to be many positives from the Wizards season, but Beal making his second straight All-Star game at the age of 25 will be a bright spot. Even though he does not have the pull from fans to be in consideration for a starting spot, it is highly likely he will be one of six guards to represent the East next month in Charlotte along with Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry, Kemba Walker, Ben Simmons, and Victor Oladipo. With John Wall missing the rest of the season following heel surgery on January 8, Beal will have high usage and continue to put up big numbers. For the second year in a row, the Eastern Conference coaches will select him as a reserve. On Friday, the guard had 33 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists in 40 minutes action. In a season that is slowly spiraling out of control, take pleasure in the budding star.
https://twitter.com/HoopDistrictDC/status/1081406928641843200
Otto Porter returns to form, partly
The forward remained on a minutes restriction of 20 but Brooks pushed him a little further to a shade over 21 minutes in his second game back from a three-week hiatus. The bright spot was 7-of-9 shooting from inside the arc for 14 points, but Porter missed all five of his three-point attempts. Entering the game, Porter is shooting just 36.7 percent from deep after shooting 43.4 and 44.1 percent from beyond the arc in the previous two seasons, respectively. If he knocks down one or two of those shots as his averages would suggest, Washington probably escapes with a victory. The max wing also grabbed six rebounds and had three steals, but was overly aggressive at the end of the game when down three. With a chance to hit a game-tying three to force overtime if they could get a stop, Porter put Bam Adebayo on the line making things a two-possession game and practically over.
Continued poor three-point shooting
Porter missing all five of his three-pointers is one thing, but the team as a whole continues to struggle from beyond the arc. Against Miami, Washington was a miserable 27.8 percent from three, 10-of-36. The third worst three-point shooting team in the NBA has regressed miserably from the third best last season. One of the issues is the wrong players taking the shots, namely John Wall who had the second most attempts on the team, and then practically every player of note also shooting worse than they did last season. Besides bad luck, which the Wizards have had a lot of given the string of injuries, the only other explanation might be being too analytics happy and launching them up from deep at a rapid pace. Whenever Brooks is asked about the poor three-point shooting, he usually laughs it off as bad luck. He may need to start considering reeling the green light back.
Next Game: The brutal road trip continues with a visit to Oklahoma City as Washington will face Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and the rest of the Thunder on Sunday.
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