Paul Pierce launched his sweat-soaked accessories into crowd with just more than a minute remaining in the game. Off came his red headband. He stripped his equally soiled wristband. Depending on personal interpretation of the word, “lucky” fans received them.
Pierce was nodding, smiling and satisfied. The Wizards had just locked up the Los Angeles Clippers, one of the stalwarts of the loaded Western Conference. From the start, the Wizards whacked and harassed the Clippers the way Doc Rivers, now coaching the other team in L.A., used to instruct his Boston Celtics teams with Pierce to do. The Wizards banged aside the Clippers and never trailed in the 104-96 win that stomped a nine-game Los Angeles winning streak to a halt.
“I thought we gave them a taste of that East Coast basketball tonight,” Pierce said.
Questions about the legitimacy of the Wizards followed them around early. Looks through their schedule showed more kittens than lions. That was not the case Friday night. The Clippers have title ambitions legitimized by a flush roster. Opening stumbles had been corrected. Running high screens with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin appeared lethal enough offense each night even if the Clippers chose never to run a different play.
From the start Friday, the Wizards jammed a branch into the Clippers’ offensive gears. Out top, John Wall harassed Paul with peak aggression. Marcin Gortat banged away at DeAndre Jordan. Kris Humphries flexed against Griffin.
“That’s what we wanted to establish,” Pierce said. “We wanted to hit them. When we looked at their offense, when we watched the film, we said the Clippers are used to just running their offense. Nobody putting any pressure on them. Nobody putting a body on them. They one of the league leaders in scoring points. And we say, we’ve got to get up on them, be more physical and knock them down when they get into the paint. Make nothing easy.”
Paul committed a surprising six turnovers. In his first 21 games this season, he had just 36. Twice, Wall poked the ball from Paul, which then bounced off him out of bounds. He blocked Paul’s layup from behind. When Paul ran him over, drawing a foul call on Wall which he argued, Paul sauntered to the line while exchanging words with Wall. The game was heated, though the Clippers appeared unaware of that for most of the night.
“You know, it’s funny,” Rivers said. “I told our guys, ’You know, I’ve been here for 48 hours and I thought Washington, they’re very excited about this game.’ And, they all just look at me and I said, ’No, I’m trying to tell you the Wizards are very excited about playing you tonight.’
“I felt like every once in a while, you go through the season, the team senses this is a big game for them and the other doesn’t and I felt that tonight.”
Bradley Beal scored a season-high 29 points. Wall added another double-double, 10 points and 11 assists, his 14th of the season and fourth consecutive. Gortat scored 18 points on 10 shots. The Wizards are off to a franchise-best start at home, 11-2, and are 3-0 this week. It’s almost enough to stall talk about the Redskins’ quarterback situation for a few minutes.
Griffin did not fare well against the brutish opposition. If it wasn’t Humphries banging him, it was Nene off the bench. Late in the game when the Wizards stuck with a small lineup despite Griffin and Jordan playing for the Clippers, it was Pierce colliding with Griffin.
“Well, we just gave him different looks,” Gortat said. “Again, we were physical. He’s physical, too. But, at the end of the day he doesn’t like to be hit, so we tried to hit him.”
A little more than a quarter of the way into the season, the Wizards are laying out trends. They are 13-0 when holding opponents to less than 100 points. They are 14-2 when they shoot 45 percent of better from the field. They lead the league in assists per game. Friday night resulted in 28 assists on 39 made field goals. Wall appears to be shifting to the next level. Pierce has been the expected dose of swagger and effectiveness the Wizards thought they were getting. Roles have been clarified and depth apparent.
The Wizards are tied for the Southeast Division lead with the surging Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks have won nine consecutive games to move to 16-6 to match the Wizards. That’s good for a split of the Eastern Conference’s second-best record. Toronto is 17-6.
Which circles back to the question of how good the Wizards are. They are 4-1 against the Western Conference. Playing in the tender Eastern Conference will always spread a dubious light on them.
“I don’t care what people say about us,” Nene said. “We shut up peoples’ mouths the last two years. We just need to believe each other, play the way we play and share the ball and play like a unit. And, we’ll be fine.”
That worked Friday night.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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