Let there be no doubt: the Wiz curbstomped the measly team that plays in Charlotte NC. Here are my 5 takeaways from tonight’s tilt:

1. Kuzma had a game to remember. Man had 33 points on 13-24 shooting and 9 boards to go with it. He played a great game once again, and looked unstoppable out there. This has been a constant theme for Kuz so far. My one goal for him was to hit 25-10 on fairly efficient shooting and he certainly did that tonight and then some. Now it’s about consistency and continuing to put up big numbers while staying efficient. He’ll have a chance to run it back when when we take on Charlotte once again on Friday back in the 202.
2. It was a great game from the bench for once. The bench outscored Charlotte’s bench by 50 points. Comes as no surprise when you see that Gallo had 18 points, Wright had 18 points, Kispy had 12, and Shamet had 15. Gallo, Shamet, and Kispy were hitting all sorts of threes and CHA just had no answer for us. Now this sort of performance from the bench isn’t feasible or sustainable long term, but would really like to see Kispert and Shamet get more run. Shamet has always been a sneaky good sniper, and I feel like he’s very underrated. I definitely want them to call his number more. He reminds me a lot of Bertans in his first year here when he was making crazy shots off pin downs and curls, but the thing is Shamet can actually get to the cup, and has a drive game. He had that crazy poster dunk on Melo too which totally threw me for a loop, because he was about the last person on the roster I thought could do that. Excited to see what Shamet can do for us, because he clearly can fill up the score board quickly.
3. I don’t want to say our defense was stellar, because it wasn’t. The Hornets just missed their shots. Saying anything more than that would be reaching. The Hornets had a ton of wide open threes, and just couldn’t hit anything to save their lives. PJ was 0-5 for them and Lamelo was 3-9. They also only took 25 threes, which may have been a key factor of their demise. Don’t expect this to happen again in DC. I expect them to come out with a fury and a turbocharged offense after getting embarrassed at their home. I would not count on them missing twice, and think Clifford will chew them out thoroughly. Wiz will have to play better defense if they want to get their first In Season Tournament win this Friday.
4. Shoutout to Delon tonight. Man had 18 points and 4 steals. He was a total pest on defense and was totally pissing off the Hornets with his tendency to get timely steals. He did a great job getting to the line and finishing around the cup. Would love to see D.Wright keep it up and continue to put up big numbers off the bench. Not really for us more than so we can flip him at the trade deadline. That’s the name of the game baby: Get vets to pump their stats so we can dump their asses at the deadline for picks. It’s not personal just business.
5. It was a disappointing night for two of the Wizards starters. I’ll start off with Poole. He was 3-12 and finished with just 11 points. It’s going to be a long season for Poole. What I think is going to happen is this season is going to be fairly similar to his breakout season with the Warriors where he will average around 20 ppg and be un-efficient. He has to adjust to being the main guy targeted by defenses, and I think that will take time. I expect that leap to happen next year. This year is just for him to figure out how things are going to work. Kuz has had the experience of being the go to guy for a while now, so it’s no surprise that he’s doing far better than Poole as the primary option. Also remember that Kuz has 4 years on Poole, so he has more experience and know how as well. It’s going to be a long season for us, but hopefully we can see Poole truly grow by the end of the year. Here is Avdija regressing back to the mean after a good couple games. It wasn’t an awful game by Deni, but he only had 9 points and was 3-10 from the field. Not one of his good games by a long shot. He was missing shots that went down the first couple of games, especially around the cup. Let’s see how he bounces back in DC. I said I needed at least a 10 game sample size for Deni where he consistently put up around 15 points, and this was his first down game. Let’s see how he recovers, IF he recovers. This happened with the Turbo stuff last year as well, so I’m interested to see what his bounce back looks like on Friday.

Overall, a well deserved bounce back from the guys after getting embarrassed the last 3 games. Let’s see how everything transpires on our home court back in DC. The Hornets will be out for blood in DC after what happened tonight. Let’s see if the Wizards can defend home court. Should make for an exciting game, especially since it is an in-season tournament. I’ll see y’all then at 7 PM on Fri!