Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. I write about what’s happening in the NBA daily, even when COVID has ravaged the league.
The Wizards are a little hot lately.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Gary A. Vasquez/USA Today.)
For most of the season, we had pretty much mentioned that the Washington Wizards were rubbish. Most people called for Bradley Beal to ask for a trade. Russell Westbrook‘s play wasn’t up to par. COVID also hit the team. It just seemed like a hopeless situation.
Then they scored an upset win against Boston. Okay. Whatever. That happens in the league. Any given night, ya know.
They beat up on Houston when John Wall returned to his old stomping grounds. Okay. That’s motivation.
Then they beat Denver in a close game. Davis Bertans scored 35 points. Things that make you go hmmm.
They go on the road and beat the Blazers. Their defense was actually really good, especially in the second and fourth periods when they held Portland to 12 and 19 points, respectively.
Finally, the Wiz jumped all over the Lakers. Then they beat them in overtime. Washington has now won 5 straight. They have the same number of losses as 10th seed Miami.
You can tell that their defense is better. In fact, their defensive rating in that 5-game win streak is 106.4 points allowed per 100 possessions, which would be good for second in the league behind the Lakers had they done this all season.
Westbrook had ailments earlier in the season. You tend to live with his wild play but as of late, he had been that scary triple-double machine we all had come to know. He’s has three of those in that win streak and has averaged 20-12-12 in that span. Yes, he hasn’t made a three-pointer in the last 6 GAMES but he’s putting up fewer of those. Westbrook is 0 for 9 from deep during the winning streak.
Beal has carried this team seemingly forever. And he’s still putting up numbers. You just hope that he doesn’t tire out at the end of the season.
It sucks that Thomas Bryant is out for the year. But we’ve seen Bertans shoot incredibly well like he did last season. Rui Hachimura and Deni Avdija are gaining some confidence. And what the heck, Garrison Mathews? He’s really hustling and earning that spot in that Wizards rotation. Gotta love the scrappy ones.
Earlier, we were already all saying that the Rockets won the trade. Wall has looked great and, honestly, he still does. But the fortunes have reversed. Westbrook got healthy and the Wizards are catching fire. Meanwhile, James Harden got dealt, Christian Wood got hurt, and the Rockets are struggling to get a win.
Don’t know if the Wizards can keep this going later on today. They have a date with the mighty Clippers and it’s a bit unfair that this could be a schedule loss. But let’s see how they do in this one. What happens the game AFTER (at Denver on Thursday) is what interests me about them.
But for now, gotta watch out for the suddenly hot Wizards.
Bullet Passes
DeMarcus Cousins is going to be released by Houston. This situation is a bit weird.
Boogie was one of the guys that was all about Houston during the Harden ordeal. He even went out of his way to say that he went there to play with his old college teammate, John Wall. There were times where we saw the ol’ Kings and Pelicans version of Boogie.
Now the Rockets are saying “they want to go younger” and give Christian Wood more PT when he comes back. Weren’t they already doing that throughout this season? Maybe the situation changed because the Rockets haven’t won much since he went down.
Either way, Boogie will be waived and he is free to sign with a contender.
Didn’t I say Phoenix is getting scarier?
The Jazz smashed the Hornets in the fourth quarter with a 26-2 run. Utah made 28 threes, which is a franchise record and one shy of the record set by the Bucks earlier this season.
Utah has now won 21 of 23.
The Heat continue to find their groove as they end their road trip with three straight wins. They finally get to go home to Miami for four straight as they have won 7 of their last 10.
Back to the Wizards/Lakers game. It was just unusual in the final seconds on how they defended. How they were able to let Westbrook go nearly unimpeded to the rim and LeBron fouling him as he made the basket was just so unusual.
The game-tying threes didn’t feel as egregious; players are going to miss shots. But the poor defense beforehand sticks with me.
NBA Scoreboard
Feb. 22, 2021
Watch This Play
Not much on Monday but Damion Jones had a powerslam in garbage time.
Damion Jones’un Önünde Durmayın! 😤@dameology | #WeAreTheValley pic.twitter.com/CXAYSb4k1x
— NBA Türkiye (@NBATurkiye) February 23, 2021
THE SUNS ARE GETTING SCARY.
Everyone, please take care of yourselves during this pandemic. And that goes for everyone involved with the NBA as well.
You can find Rey-Rey on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
You can also check out Rey-Rey’s podcast, Rey-Rey Is Fundamental, for more basketball content and, really, whatever else.