Wizards making magic despite playing without all-star point guard 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 past 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, let alone our bigs for layups. We need that.”
Ironically, the Raptors are well versed in facing the Wizards without Wall, who has 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 and been shredded by Beal.
Last month, Beal scored 25 of his 27 points in the second half of what was a 122-199 Wizards victory and he averages almost 31 points a game against Toronto this season.
The Raptors may find it doubly difficult to deal with him because starting small forward OG Aunoby is listed as “doubtful” with a sprained right ankle suffered in Wednesday’s win in Orlando.
The rookie Anunoby is Toronto’s best perimeter defender and is often asked to guard the most dynamic scorer on the opposing team. He has also played in all of Toronto’s 60 games, starting 48.
While coach Dwane Casey isn’t ready to publicly announce a replacement starter if Anunoby can’t play, Norm Powell will have to figure into the equation, either in Anunoby’s role or with the backup group.
Powell is coming off an unimpressive game on Wednesday; he played nearly 11 minutes in Anunoby’s absence without a single field goal attempt or a rebound.