Exasperation settling in for Wizards as all-star break woes continue

Exasperation has settled into the Washington Wizards’ camp. At least in the coach’s office.

Randy Wittman was befuddled last Friday when his club came out of a lengthy, and for some, luxurious, all-star break with the ferocity of a kitten. The opponent was the pseudo-rival Cleveland Cavaliers, who were only a half game behind Washington in the standings. Two hours after tip-off, Cleveland had emphatically leapfrogged the Wizards with a 127-89 paddling.

Wittman said then that the Wizards had lost their edge. Gone was a defense-first nastiness they felt was present earlier in the season. Center Marcin Gortat said individual defenders weren’t doing enough, relying too much on help defense. Veteran Paul Pierce said he didn’t know what Gortat was talking about, and that help defense is how basketball is played.

Sunday was another frigid day on the floor that only froze the Wizards’ ailments into place. In Detroit, they gave up 59 points during an embarrassing second half. A bad close to the first half preceded a disengaged third quarter. The Wizards allowed a season-high 35 points in the third quarter to a team that is 21st in the league in scoring and had scored 47 points in the first half.

This woeful 10-game stretch during which the Wizards are 2-8 has squashed them to 10 games over .500 for the first time since Dec. 12, when they were 16-6. Since a Jan. 28 loss in Phoenix to the Suns, the pile of negative numbers has grown. The Wizards have shot 30.7 percent from behind the 3-point line. Opponents have shot 34.2 percent, but that spiked to 41.2 percent the past three games when Washington has been outscored by 78 points from behind the 3-point line. Now down to the No. 5 seed, they are 1.5 games in front of the No. 6 spot, occupied by the Milwaukee Bucks.

“We’re not playing very good is the message and it’s just not going to fix it on its own,” Wittman quietly said Monday. “We’ve got to be more in tune to problem areas and going about making it different. Can’t go out and hope things are going to change. Have to go out and change them. Can’t let adversity deflate us like it has. You’re going to have adversity in the game.”

Washington brought in a small improvement during its unambitious work before last Thursday’s trade deadline. The trade to bring point guard Ramon Sessions in a straight-up trade for Andre Miller had to do with kismet as much as anything. The Sacramento Kings surprised many in the league when they fired coach Mike Malone in mid-December. They began looking for a replacement and temperamental George Karl raised his hand publicly and privately.

The Kings hired Karl, who is attached to Miller with an almost paternal passion because of their time together with the Denver Nuggets. So, out went Miller, in came Sessions. The Wizards did nothing else as the rest of the league moved young point guards, big men and picks from city to city.

Not helping is the absence of shooting guard Bradley Beal, who has missed five consecutive games because of toe and leg injuries and played just 11 minutes on Feb. 5, the last time he was on the floor. He returned to basketball activities Saturday, and on Monday, he did more light work. The Wizards are managing him with caution since exams revealed a stress reaction in his lower right fibula.

Beal, 21, is a crucial part of the Wizards’ future. He’s also an enormous missing aspect in the present who is all but officially out Tuesday.

“I think we lost that hunger,” Beal said. “That chip on our shoulder, so to speak. We had a great record at one point, then I think we just got complacent instead of just continuing to be aggressive and be that nasty team we were at the beginning of the year and we definitely fell off.

“We lack on defense. We’re not aggressive on either end of the floor. We’re getting too [relaxed], like everything is just guaranteed to us. Like, OK, we’re in the playoffs, we’re going to be fine, we’re going to cruise through. We have to figure this out. We have to turn it around quickly.”

Good news is not around the corner. The league’s best team arrived at Verizon Center on Monday, prepping to accentuate the Wizards’ issues Tuesday night. Dazzling and audacious, the Golden State Warriors lead the league in 3-point shooting percentage, 3-pointers made per game, assisted field-goal percentage and more. They have lost 10 games this season. The Wizards have lost six games in February.

Point guard Stephen Curry and wing Klay Thompson, the “Splash Brothers,” are No. 1 and No. 2 in 3-pointers made per game. Curry gets his shots off with a swift flick. The 6-foot-7 Thompson can often use his size to shoot a clean three. Though, the Wizards may only have to deal with half of the prolific scoring brotherhood. Curry missed Golden State’s 104-98 loss Sunday at Indiana with an ankle injury. He’s questionable to play Tuesday night.

The Warriors’ loss to the Pacers was surprising. It was also a reminder to Golden State coach Steve Kerr, who has led the Warriors to a 43-10 record in his first season, of the often nuanced difference between winning and losing in the NBA.

“The NBA is funny,” Kerr said. “Every single team has talent. Often times it’s just whichever team has the edge, the one that’s a little more competitive, that’s a little quicker to the ball, that’s little more in tune with the gameplan; that’s the team that has the advantage. That’s what you have to do when you are struggling.”

The Wizards were separated by several hallways and concrete walls in Verizon Center when Kerr spoke. Though, they’d do well to heed his message when facing his team Tuesday night.