The Washington Wizards played another solid game at home, and have now for the first time this season won in consecutive games! Even better, they have won four of their last seven. They now have seven wins for the season, and things are looking much better than just a fortnight ago.
Above everything, the Wizards have tightened up their defense in these last several games. Just recently, they were allowing opponents more than 126 points per contest. In these last 7 games they have allowed: 89, 119,
122, 124, 126, 117, 112, so on average just around 115 per game. That’s a big improvement.
For the second game in a row, the Wizards had a strong 4th quarter. Tonight they entered the final stanza trailing by 4, but managed to hold the Grizzlies to just 24 points in the final 12 minutes.
Tre Johnson had a great game, being +18 in just 26 minutes, including 14 points (2-for-5 from deep) and 4 assists (and just 2 fouls and 1 turnover). CJ McCollum on the other hand had 4 turnovers and 1-from-6 from deep.
But the star of the night was Alex Sarr, with an absolute block party: 6 blocks to go along with 20 points.
Oh, yeah, and he did it in 26 minutes!
Wow.
Bagley also had a strong night, with an efficient 14 points in 6-of-8 from the field.
For the Grizzlies, Ja Morant had a nice statistical line: 21 points including 3-from-5 from deep and 8-of-16 from the field and 7 assists (and 3 turnovers), but somehow he also sported the worst plus-minus at -22. Go figure.
The Wizards continue their homestand on Monday against the Phoenix Suns.
The Wizards next face the Bulls in Chicago tomorrow on a back-to-back.
