Explaining the Washington Wizards’ recent woes, coach Scott Brooks rattled off generalizations before landing on a key issue: spirit. It hadn’t been around since the All-Star break, really, and was missing for much of the recent road trip out West.
It remained absent in the first half Tuesday against the almost-out-of-the-playoffs Charlotte Hornets. Washington trailed by 12 at the half after allowing 63 points on 60.5 shooting by the Hornets. The defense was, again, a disaster. Brooks yelled at the team during the half. They outscored Charlotte by 18 in the third and won by seven, 118-111.
Three points from the night:
A notable win. Tuesday night produced win No. 47. That’s the most since 1979, that year that keeps coming up, for the organization. Washington needs to win three of its final four to reach 50 wins. John Wall was here for the a slice of the downtrodden times. Now, he’s part of the best regular-season team since the end of the disco era. “I’ve been here from the beginning when it was the worst and we won like 19 games,” Wall said. “The way this organization has evolved and a lot of guys have worked out and got better and worked on their craft, having a new coaching staff and guys buying into it … the way we started the season. It’s a big accomplishment for us. Our ultimate goal is to still hit 50. We want to finish strong. We want to prepare ourselves for the playoffs. We feel like we have a special team if guys stay healthy.”
Jason Smith train keeps rolling. Markieff Morris joked with Jason Smith to take his mask off because he is actually Ryan Anderson underneath. As preposterous as that seems, Smith’s performance Tuesday night against the Hornets was Anderson-like. Smith was 5-for-9 from behind the 3-point line on his way to 17 points. Smith has made 35 3-pointers this season, which is one more than the 34 he had made in the prior eight years of his career combined. Smith is deferential when talking about his role on the team. He and coach Scott Brooks agree they know what will happen when Smith goes on the court: He’ll try extremely hard. That’s his baseline. That effort has also irritated opponents in the past. “We thought he was a dirty player,” Bradley Beal quickly said when asked what he made of Smith when he was on other teams. For the Wizards, he’s embodied their pivot this season. From 2-8 to 47 wins and counting for the team. Smith went from head-scratching signing to a stretch-four option, and even a stretch-five option to fit around Wall and Beal at a fraction of the cost of Anderson. No one saw that coming.
Four to go. The Wizards’ win pulled them even in record with the Toronto Raptors, who lost in Indiana on Tuesday to the Lance Stephenson-inspired Pacers. Toronto has the tiebreaker between the two. Remaining for the Raptors: at Detroit, vs. Miami, at New York and at Cleveland. Remaining for the Wizards: at New York, vs. Miami, at Detroit, at Miami. Those schedules are basically a wash. One wrinkle could be what Cleveland decides to do in the final game. Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue is not against resting key players. If the seeds are locked in by April 12, two days before the playoffs begin, then Cleveland will have an interesting decision about how to approach that final game. Washington is 3.5 games behind Cleveland and Boston for the top spot in the Eastern Conference with four to play. So, it looks like the Wizards will be the third or fourth seed which could play a number of opponents still. Milwaukee, Atlanta, Chicago and Indiana are still in play. One note about the playoffs schedule: It sounds like Washington will start April 15 or 16. The playoffs begin April 14.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.