Wizards Lose Third Straight Game

Regardless of how balanced your team is, at some point during the game they will go through an offensive drought. The drought can last anywhere from a few minutes, to an entire half. For the Wizards, their offensive drought occurred at the most crucial stage of the game. Entering the 4th quarter, Washington had an 89-85 lead on Sacramento. Over the final 12 minutes of the game, Washington would score only 16 more points and would go on to give up 35 points to Sacramento.

It wasn’t just the offensive end of the court where Washington struggled. Against Sacramento, they gave up 68 points in the paint. Sacramento scored 119 points for the game. If my math is correct, then that means Sacramento scored 57% of their points in the paint. If Washington wants to get back on track, they need to clean up their interior defense.

With Wednesday night’s loss to the Sacramento Kings, the Washington Wizards fall to 15-14 on the season and now occupy the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. A far and steady drop from where the team was in the standings to begin the season.

Star of the Game

Bradley Beal led the way for the Wizards with 30 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Beal found his rhythm on offense in the second quarter, scoring 8 points on 4 for 5 shooting from the field. He continued his efficient offense in the third quarter, but cooled off a little bit in the fourth quarter.

Biggest Concern

There are a fair amount of concerns I have about the team right now. But the biggest concern I have is the production the Wizards are getting from Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans. In 7 games this month, Dinwiddie has only scored in double figures twice. He scored 12 points in both of those games. For a great offensive player like Dinwiddie, 12 points is nothing. He can get 12 points in a quarter. I’m not quite sure what’s holding Dinwiddie back. Maybe he’s still not comfortable with where he is physically after rehabbing from his ACL surgery. Or maybe he’s dealing with a new injury right now.

With Davis Bertans, he just needs to play better. Washington gave him a big contract in the summer of 2020, and he has slowly declined since. To the point where he is now averaging 6.3 points per game on 33.3 percent shooting from the field and 29.8 percent shooting from the three point line. For a guy who was signed to a big contract because of his shooting ability, these numbers are just not acceptable.

Washington needs Dinwiddie and Bertans to play up to their capabilities if the team is going to get their season moving back in the right direction. Having two of your key guys struggling is only going to make a turn around that much tougher.