The Wizards were in Oklahoma’s capital on Friday night to face off against the OKC Thunder. Washington had no answers for SGA and his ability within the painted area as he put together yet another 30-point night in OKC’s 127-110 win.
The Wizards were without Beal yet again last night as Beal was placed back on the injury report with a hamstring problem, an occurrence that has haunted Washington and their fans throughout the season.
This absence of Beal meant Corey Kispert made another appearance in the starting five. Kispert was very quiet in the 27 minutes he played, scoring only 7 points and 7 rebounds. He was also cold from the field, shooting 2-8 with one of his made shots being a 3-pointer.
The other guy out of Gonzaga, Rui Hachimura, was also unusually quiet with only 2 made shots on 9 attempts for 5 points.
Washington as a team was very poor when it came to shooting the ball, shooting sub-30% from deep and under 50% from the field. Porzingis added to the list of players who shot under 50%, which already included Kispert and Hachimura, as Porzingis would go 3-11 for 14 points. He did, however, haul in 10 rebounds, the most a single player did last night on either team.
The Wizards just couldn’t keep up with the pace that the young Thunder team was playing with. And that mixed with 20 turnovers that led to 32 points for OKC was a bad recipe that led to a disastrous game. A player who made it very difficult for the Wizards in transition was Josh Giddey, who scored 20 points and dished out 9 assists throughout the game.
Coach Unseld Jr. went deep in his bench with every active player playing except for Taj Gibson. Despite this, the only player who had an impact on the game off the bench was Will Barton. Barton scored 14 points on a decently efficient 5-8 shooting, along with 4 rebounds and 3 assists. The big benefit of Barton, though, was that he was hitting shots when nothing seemed to be falling for the Wizards.
And speaking of falling, Kuzma and Gafford were the only starters who seemed to find some sort of rhythm in the loss. Kuz would amass a team-high 23 points and 7 assists while shooting 50%, and Gafford was 1 rebound away from a double-double, with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Gafford also tallied a couple of ferocious slams in the paint.
The Wizards fell to 17-23 and down to 11th in the Eastern Conference. Beal isn’t scheduled to be back for Monday’s game against Zion and the Pelicans. Tip-off for that game is set for 7 pm EST in Capital One Arena.
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