Wizards have been making magic without all-star Wall
TORONTO — The Washington Wizards have become a fascinating study in the theory that somehow less can be more.
Robbed of the player most considered their best and most indispensable piece, the Wizards have rolled off 10 wins in their last 14 games with a series of impressive, well-played victories against some of the best teams in the National Basketball Association.
Is it possible, then, that they could be a better team without John Wall than they were with him?
That’s nonsense in the longer term — it is not possible that team can improve over, say, 40 games without an all-star point guard — but for now Bradley Beal, Wall’s stand-in Tomas Satoransky, Otto Porter Jr., and Kelly Oubre have done more that stay afloat in the East.
Heading into Friday’s home game against the Toronto Raptors, the Wizards have gone 10-4 since Wall had minor knee surgery and inserted themselves right in the middle of the conference’s playoff race.
When play began Thursday night, Washington was in fourth place in the East, only a game behind Cleveland in third and a game and half ahead of fifth place Indiana. They’ve beaten Toronto, Cleveland, Oklahoma City and Indiana in that stretch, led by the improved play of Beal, who has become the focal point of the offence once dominated by Wall.
Beal is averaging more than 21 points a game in Wall’s absence and shooting about 47 per cent from the field. Most important, he and Satoransky are engineering offence that’s been sharing the ball wonderfully, with eight straight games of at least 25 assists.
Yes, they have flourished in the relative short time Wall has been out but there will certainly be some regression to the mean and the Wizards will need a five-time all-star point guard.
“There’s no question that we can add some of the things that we’ve done,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks told reporters before the Wizards lost to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. “But we also want to make sure he brings what he brings. The guy is the fastest guy in the league going basket-to-basket. He generates four or five easy buckets for himself, and he generates six or seven easy three-point shots for our perimeter shooters.”
The Raptors are well versed in facing the Wizards without Wall, who missed all three games between the teams this season. It should give them an advantage in preparation, but Toronto has also lost two of those three games.