John Wall scores 22 points in second half of Wizards win

Sixteen points in the first quarter. Let that settle in. The Wizards scored 16 points in the first quarter Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks, who were operating without two starters.

“Nasty,” John Wall said.

He wasn’t only talking about the first quarter. Wall was referring to the first half. The one the Wizards scored 40 points in when they shot a rim-denting 34 percent from the field. A 37-point fourth quarter cleansed the misery, for the most part, and produced a 104-100 win. Three points from a night that will not go in the beauty of basketball archives:

Wall vs. Schroder. This has been entertaining. Schroder is scrappy and still on his rookie-scale contract, though Atlanta settled on him as the point guard it preferred when Jeff Teague was traded to the Indiana Pacers in July of 2016. Wall feels he can bully Schroder, a belief reflected in his multiple post-up attempts of the smaller Atlanta point guard on Wednesday. The Wizards also discovered that length on the ball bothers Schroder, deploying Kelly Oubre once again to harass the opposing ball-handler and even putting Otto Porter on him late. Schroder finished with 10 turnovers. Wall had a rough journey Wednesday night, too. At halftime, he was scoreless and 0-for-8 from the field. By the end of the night, he had scored 22 points. “Just keep shooting,” Wall said. “That was the key. I was 0-for-8. I had some good looks. I had some shots that rimmed in and out. My job for this team is to be aggressive offensively and defensively and be a scorer. Luckily, some shots started to fall for me.”

Oubre on a small run. Wizards coach Scott Brooks counted Wednesday as the fourth consecutive game in which Kelly Oubre was engaged in the role that Brooks has begged him to fill throughout the season. Oubre was a thorough harasser on defense, particularly when guarding the Hawks’ point guards. Brooks has spent the season drilling into Oubre that the second-year player’s offense is secondary to his defense. Oubre has a clear niche on the team, at this point. That’s to play defense, run the floor when the opportunity is there and if he makes an open shot on occasion, all the better. “Another good game defensively,” Brooks said. “I like the piggyback game after game…He can keep doing it. With Kelly, it’s just focusing in and being really good at that role. The game rewards him by doing that.”

Mahinmi continues to claim minutes. Ian Mahinmi’s usage continues to creep upward. Mahinmi played 20:11 on Wednesday night. Marcin Gortat played 27:39. Plus-minus can be a misleading and somewhat empty stat, but the difference among the centers against the Hawks was stark. Gortat was a -19. Mahinmi was plus-22. Gortat had to handle Dwight Howard more often than Mahinmi, so that is a caveat to consider with that measurement. One thing Mahinmi does well is move laterally, which helps him plug pick-and-rolls. Here is how Brooks explained the center should be defending, depending on the coverage and situation: “If we’re in a switch coverage, it’s your responsibility as a big don’t allow the smaller player to shoot a three. Get him inside the 3-point line and we live with that possession whether he takes a long two or a contested shot over a big, which is a low-percentage shot, even with the great point guards in the league. Then, if our coverage is getting up into the ball, it’s like a marriage. It’s not a 50-50 thing. It’s 100 percent effort on each guy’s end. If it’s our starting team with John and Marcin, if we say, get into the ball, John has to get into the ball, Marcin has to get up onto the ball to prevent that point guard to manipulate the screen and use his ability to attack, then we’re chasing the basketball. Both guys have to do it. Then, we have some other coverages. I don’t know if you want to get into it. If you do, I charge …my clinic fees are about $100 an hour.”