(Photo: Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images)
Raptors 100
Wizards 91
November 19, 2017, Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
The Washington Wizards looked like a shell of themselves on Sunday against the Toronto Raptors. They had a chance to steal a victory, but the closeness of the final score does not indicate how outplayed the Wizards were. If the Raptors had not shot 10 of 39 (25.6 percent) from beyond the arc, then the game would have been a rout. Despite the 100-91 loss, Washington must quickly regroup if they home to end their two-game losing streak. Here are the five takeaways from the game.
John Wall’s Absence Was Felt
By this point, the story is well known. Wall received IV fluids before the Atlanta game over a week ago when battling a cold, but it somehow resulted in a sore left knee a few days later. After struggling against Miami on Friday, he hinted that he may be unavailable against Toronto and that was the case as Scott Brooks wisely gave his four-time All Star the day off.
Unfortunately for the Wizards, that meant stagnant offense at times for both the first and second unit. I would have been very intrigued to see Tomas Satoransky start to maintain the growing chemistry with the bench. Tim Frazier finished with 6 points on 2 of 4 shooting, 8 assists, 8 rebounds, and 4 turnovers, which is pretty good, but he did not draw extra defenders the way Wall does. Satoransky had 4 points also on 2 of 4 shooting to go along with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers in his 12 minutes of work, but the bench certainly had their rough patches as they combined for just 28 points.
Wall’s healthy is certainly the utmost concern, but should he miss more games, Brooks needs to get creative to make sure the offense does not go flat as it did at times in Canada.
Washington Needs To Value The Ball
Brooks' team had 14 turnovers that the Raptors converted into 12 points and the home team also had 11 offensive rebounds that they turned into 13 second chance points. Giving up 90 field goal attempts is not a recipe for success and is the result of the Wizards not making the most out of every possession. Marcin Gortat admitted after the game that there were about three instances where he should not have given up offensive rebounds. Toronto had 8 offensive rebounds in the first half alone that they turned into 11 points, which was a big reason why they were able to hang a 60 spot on Washington in the first half.
Poor Free Throw Shooting Is A Recurring Concern
Coming into the game, Washington was shooting 79.4 percent from the free throw line, which is seventh best in the NBA, but too many times do they leave points at the charity stripe. Wall, Beal, and Porter have all made a concerted effort to draw more fouls, but it does not help if you cannot knock the freebies down. In 10 of the Wizards 15 games, they have missed at least six free throws. Sunday against Toronto was the 11th as they were a miserable 12 of 21 (57.1 percent) from the free throw line. A team should never shoot better from beyond the arc (57.9 percent) than the charity stripe. Even if they only knock down four of those nine misses, things are much more competitive down the stretch.
Bradley Beal Starts Strong, Finishes Flat
For the second straight game in The Six, Beal was without his usual backcourt mate in Wall. Two weeks ago, Beal took it upon himself to put a 38 spot on the Raptors and he seemed prime to do the same a second time around. In the first half, Beal had 22 points on 9 of 15 shooting including 4 of 7 from deep. Unfortunately for Washington, Beal was held scoreless in the fourth quarter by missing his last four shots and never made a trip to the free throw line. Especially when Wall is not in the game and there are more possessions to go around, Brooks need to make a better effort to run more simple plays for Beal such as coming off of a Marcin Gortat screen for an open jumper.
Kelly Oubre Jr. Needed To Be Better
At times, Oubre looks like he is an NBA level starter on both sides of the floor. He can be a lock down defender at times and then also provide an efficient scoring threat to fuel the bench. Things started promising for the 21-year old wing on Sunday as he made his two of his first three shots, both three-pointers. Besides that, things were not good for Oubre as he had a handful of poor defensive plays where is man would blow by him for an easy bucket. Late in the game, he left three-point shooting specialist C.J. Miles and ended up giving up a four-point play. Oubre missed his final four shots and went a miserable 4 of 8 from the free throw line to go with two turnovers.
Next Game: Washington has their first of 15 back-to-back and will complete in against the Milwaukee Bucks at 8 p.m. on Monday. Depending on if John Wall plays, we could be in for a matchup between former Kentucky teammates as Eric Bledsoe has begun to fit in nicely with his new NBA team.