Griffin, Drummond pound short-handed Washington
DETROIT — In this injury-ravaged season, the Washington Wizards have often needed to adjust on the fly. Even so, Monday night represented a first: The team played while missing the two point guards who started the year on the roster.
Yet it wasn’t a point guard deficiency that shipwrecked the Wizards in a 121-112 loss to the Detroit Pistons. The Wizards shot well enough and scored plenty to win an NBA game, but they couldn’t slow the frontloaded Pistons.
No surprise that defense once again doomed the Wizards. There should be disbelief, however, in how they were thoroughly outplayed by Detroit’s frontcourt. Point forward Blake Griffin, on his way to a sixth All-Star Game, scored 31 points on 12-for-23 shooting while also pulling down nine rebounds and sharing the ball for nine assists. Center Andre Drummond found no resistance and finished with a season-high 32 points and 17 rebounds.
“Going into the game we knew their fours and fives are pretty powerful,” coach Scott Brooks said. “Blake is as strong as anybody in the league and when he puts his head down and just buries you over, it’s hard to stay in front of him.”
Some of the players plugged into the bigman roles for the Wizards looked sharp on the offensive end, too, with Trevor Ariza making 10 of 14 shots for 23 points and big man Bobby Portis coming off the bench to stretch the floor and make six of 10 3-pointers in a 24-point effort. However, the Wizards could have used their presence on the other end. Forward Jeff Green, who started in the four spot, logged 28 minutes and grabbed just one rebound that came near the end of the game.
“I think they were just the more physical team tonight,” said Portis, who played his third game in a Wizards’ uniform. “They beat us on the glass.” TV: Radio:
Bradley Beal played 42 minutes and added 32 points and 10 assists as the Wizards shot 50 percent from the field. The only problem: Detroit shot even better (51.8 percent).
Washington started the night in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and still conceivably within striking distance of the eighthseeded Pistons (26-29).
For a team with playoff hopes, the Wizards also needed this third and final matchup with Detroit to secure the head-to-head tiebreaker. However, with the loss, Washington fell to 24-33 and a full three games behind the Pistons. The 33rd loss of the season clinched what had long been inevitable: The Wizards will fail to win 50 games for the 40th consecutive season.
Washington will play one more game before the All-Star break, but its depth might still be a problem.
Only five other teams in the league have logged more games lost because of injuries, according to instreetclothes.com. While the Wizards were in Detroit, John Wall was preparing for surgery this morning to repair his ruptured left Achilles tendon.
Tomas Satoransky had also returned to Washington — not because of any pain but for “personal reasons.” Satoransky and his wife, Anna, have been expecting, and their first child was due in mid-February. Though Brooks didn’t want to share Satoransky’s private matters, he indicated the absence as a rare joyful moment during a season filled with injuries.
“First time all season I can actually say I’m very happy that he’s missing the game for personal reasons,” Brooks said. “All the other times, it was tough situations.”
The holes at the lead position left Chasson Randle as the team’s only true point guard.