The Washington Wizards played awful and got blasted at home by the Orlando Magic. The final was 125-94, and the game really wasn’t as close as the 31-point margin might suggest. No, I’m not exaggerating.
It wasn’t all bad. The Wizards scrapped a bit in the first quarter, the Magic laid bricks, and Washington finished the first 12 minutes up three.
And then, they got outscored in the second quarter, 43-21. Which the Wizards followed up with 19 points in the third quarter and just 19 in the fourth. They couldn’t even win garbage time, getting outscored by nine over the final 5:59 of game time.
How bad was it? Washington allowed 125 points and a 116 offensive rating, and the Magic cannot shoot. Orlando was the NBA’s worst three-point shooting team last season, they rank 23rd so far this season, and they shot just 12-36 from three against Washington despite getting an abundance of good looks throughout the game.
As Magic analyst and former NBA player Jeff Turner said during the second half, “The Magic can get an open three any trip down the floor, if they want it.”
The Magic were not mesmerized into taking all those open looks. As assistant coach Joe Prunty told the sideline reporter at halftime, the team generated 48 first-half paint touches, which resulted in 61 points. The trend continued in the second half.
How bad was it? I’ve been watching and analyzing NBA games for many years now. I’ve been running single-game PPA (my all-around production metric — more info below) for at least the past 8-10 seasons. I don’t keep a database of these individual game score sheets, so I can’t confirm 100% that what I’m about to say is the first or only time this has ever happened. But I don’t remember it ever happening before.
What am I talking about? The Wizards had no one with an above average PPA for the night. Not one. I’m sure it’s happened before in NBA history. It’s probably happened in Wizards history. I just don’t recall seeing it.
Even when a team gets their teeth kicked in — like the Wizards did against the Magic — someone has a decent game. That didn’t happen for Washington. The guy who came closest was Marvin Bagley III. For a stretch in the second quarter, Washington found offensive success by missing shots and having Bagley go get the rebound and score. That’s no way to run an offense.
Musings and Observations
- Washington wants to play fast, which…fine…whatever. Play fast, if you want. It’s just…there’s no correlation between fast pace and efficient offense. Transition possessions tend to be high efficiency, but racing up court to fling up the first jumper you can get is poor process. Attacking an opponent one-on-one with zero passes or coordinated actions — poor process.
- The Wizards’ perimeter defense is a problem. So is their interior defense, despite the presence of Alex Sarr, who’s actually a pretty good defender. I see two main things making their defense so bad: 1) Perimeter defenders are not consistently executing force rules, and 2) They’re over-helping, which leads to mad scrambles and wide-open looks.
- This is feeling a bit broken record, but I’ll say it again — Kyshawn George has to learn how to defend (well, also play offense) without fouling so much. He committed five more fouls (in 24 minutes) tonight, giving him 30 fouls through the team’s first six games. That’s the most in the NBA, surpassing Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. (26 fouls through 6 games).
Stats coming momentarily.
