Small-ball lineup makes the biggest impact

PORTLAND, ORE. — As the Washington Wizards defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, 125-124, in overtime Monday night, Markieff Morris drilled a career-best six threepointers out of 10 attempts. His pair of threes in the extra frame carried Washington to its first win of the season and stunned a Moda Center crowd, filled by 19,187 fans who too couldn’t believe that Morris, of all people, was shooting down the Blazers (2-1).

“We just did a great job of just feeding the hot hand,” Morris said after scoring a team-best 28 points on 9-for-15 shooting.

The night marked a return of fun for the Wizards. They rediscovered the joy in sharing the ball. Howinfectious good defense can be. And they did this by making one small lineup change.

A deficit at the center position might have created the opportunity, but the Wizards played their best of the young season because they stuck with a small-ball lineup consisting of Morris at the five along with wings Otto Porter Jr. and Kelly Oubre Jr. filling the front court.

Against the Blazers, the Wizards’ smallball unit assisted on 10 of its 16 made shots, made eight of 16 from the 3-point arc and tallied 47 points.