There is an old phrase that goes, “everything is so much better when you’re winning.” You can ask the Washington Wizards how that feels. The Wizards have won eight of their last ten games, five of those eight wins were at the Verizon Wireless Center. Washington has a huge task ahead of them. They were facing a red-hot Los Angeles Clippers team, which is the fourth-best team in the Western Conference. None of that mattered as the Wizards played all 48 minutes and defeated the Clippers 117-110. Now, the Wizards can go on their three-game Midwest road trip with all the confidence in the world after this come from behind victory.
Breaking Down the Wizards:
When you have John Wall and Bradley Beal as your backcourt duo you’re bound to have a lot of offense. That’s exactly what the Wizards had when they hosted the Clippers. Beal was unstoppable from the behind the arc. He shot 6-for-10 from downtown and had 41 points on the night. This is the Beal we have been waiting to see to justify the $128 million he got resigned for. Wall added 18 points, but it should be noted that he created opportunities for his teammates as he had 11 assists. The offense came from all of their starters. Markieff Morris shot almost 60% from the field and had 23 points and 12 of them came in the fourth quarter.
So many times this season, the Wizards would have stretches where their offense and defense would come to a halt. However, the exact opposite happened versus the Clippers. They held Blake Griffin scoreless in the fourth and shot nearly 80% from the field. With so much offense, this team was down seven and won the game by seven. Everything is going in the right direction and it seems as though the crowd helped lead this team to victory.
“I thought our crowd was great today and it helped,” said head coach Scott Brooks, he then added, “They definitely made a difference.”
Brooks wasn’t the only person who noticed the crowd was in their corner tonight. As it’s known that the Verizon Center can be empty at times.
“Our crowd was huge today, that’s like our 6th man and we were feeding off them all game.” said Bradley Beal.
It’s not hard for a crowd to support the hometown team when the effort is being shown. The Wizards have not a loss at home since December 6th when they played the Orlando Magic despite scoring 116 points.
Critical Road Trip Lies Ahead:
Now, the Wizards will fly over to Indianapolis to take on the Pacers tomorrow on back-to-back games. The Pacers are a .500 team who have been inconsistent at best. They too are finding their identity but are coming off a win against the Detroit Pistons. It’s important that the Wizards continue doing what they’ve been doing and sweep this road trip. That’ll finally give them a winning record. After Indiana, the Wizards will face another team that is on the decline; The Chicago Bulls. The Bulls have dropped seven of their last ten games and are trying to get back to relevancy. Lastly, they will end this road trip in Milwaukee versus the Bucks.
The Wizards beat them once already this season and the Bucks have been on a losing streak until they gave the Bulls two back-to-back double-digit losses. With that being said, the Wizards are in prime position to win out prior to Christmas Eve.
It’s worth noting that they may have to do this without Kelly Oubre. Oubre suffered a concussion in the last game and it was unknown if he will make the trip with the Wizards as he’s going through the concussion protocol. Wizards will play Pacers at 7 pm, Monday night.
"A journalist who doesn't value deeply an audience's loyalty should be in another line of work." --- Peter Jennings