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Once in a while I’ll have this thought of like “Raps should win this over 48 mins”, yesterday was a true test of that.
Wiz shot the goddamn lights out in the beginning, I knew that woiuldn’t last the entire game so it was up to the Raps to dig in and find their own buckets.
Luckily the guys stepped up and the Wiz choked the fuck out of layups, and maybe they do have an unspoken agreement about tanking but I’ve heard players on podcasts say “players dont want to tank, players want to play and win”. They were getting to their spots but choking, I can’t help but think a comeback, momentum, home arena, all that stuff shook their team
Yeah, I’ve seen this suggested especially on r/nba, but does anyone really believe that Kyle Kuzma is running down the court to try and get a challenge (that he was right about), and stepping out of bounds on an inbounds play because he wants the Wizards to get a great draft pick? Even though it means everyone will be talking about what a dumb player he is and how he lost them the game, rather than people talking about how he had 34 points and won the Wizards a tough road game on the second night of a back-to-back?
Organizationally? Sure, I can believe that Unseld knows what the organization is trying to do and he’ll do his part in that. But he also knows that you can’t lose every game, he doesn’t want to lose the lockerroom, and this would have been a good one for morale to win. Yeah, he didn’t sub Gafford in during the fourth; that’s questionable (but limiting Gafford’s minutes to under 30 is a pattern for Washington this year). But he did sub Poole and Jones back in during the scoring drought, which would be odd decisions for a coach that was trying to lose.
Yesterday’s game while fun in the end, really wasn’t a great game. I feel the Wizards lost that game much more than the Raptors won it. That being said there was some good stuff in the game.
- Pascal is looking like his usual self
- Scottie can still dominate and having someone reliable in the clutch is awesome
- OG is a major part of this team and is absolutely necessary to the team’s success
- Flynn is starting to look like a serviceable backup PG. His defense is much improved, he’s showing confidence in his shot and he’s making smart plays out there. The fact that he was on the court to close out the game speaks volumes not only of his improvements, but Darko’s confidence in him
- Precious continues to be an enigma. If he can find consistency and stay engaged for an entire game he will become a core piece for any competitive team, but until he can maintain 100% focus throughout games consistently he will never be more than a rotational player.
- Boucher continues to do what he does best and it’s great seeing Darko try to maximize his situations so he sees as much success as possible.
- Schroeder’s first off game with the team, but he still found ways to be useful to the team and helped secure the win. Honestly feel safe saying he’s the best FA signing the franchise has ever had.
All that being said the team needs to do a better job coming out the gates strong. That is a loss against pretty much every team in the league besides the Wizards. While the comeback was strong, there were still plenty of unforced errors and bad mistakes the Wizards simply failed to capitalize on. As expected when the shooting is bad, it’s bad. Hopefully between the deadline and the off season the team can secure another shooter or 2, even if they are just rotational players. There is so much playmaking on this team and our 2 best players are fantastic at getting into the paint and kicking the ball out to the open man. The team has been able to dominate the paint in games this season, if the team can start knocking down the 3ball consistently the Raptors will be a competitive playoff team, but still a couple steps down from a true contender.
I’m sure they’ll eventually figure things out, but the fact that we have a better record than the Clippers right now is wild to me.