Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images
Tip Off: 4:00 PM (PST)
Projected Starters
Washington Golden State
PG – John Wall Monta Ellis
SG – Jordan Crawford Dominic McGuire
SF – Chris Singleton Dorell Wright
PF – Trevor Booker David Lee
C – Javale McGee Andris Biedrins
Scope the opposition: Get your Wizards fix at Truth About It.
Preview: After losing yesterday in Toronto, the Golden State Warriors will wrap up their six-game road trip today in Washington when they take on the Wizards. The Wiz were successful in taking down the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night at home and will be looking for their first back-to-back wins since Valentine’s Day.
If there is one theme that truly stands out about the Washington Wizards, it’s that they lack the proper focus to pay attention to details.
On offense, they have the second to last offensive rating in the NBA at 95.7. They convert 43.1 percent of their field goal attempts (23rd in the league) because of their inability to consistently create high percentage looks in the half court.
Mind you, with the athletes they have on the roster and John Wall pushing the ball, they are electric on the fast break, scoring 18.2 transition points per game (second in the association).
But when things slow down and defenses force them to execute, things tend to get complicated.
On the season, Washington scores 42.8 points per game in the paint (sixth in the NBA) but their shots at the rim tend to have some comedic value. Indeed, the players are reckless with the ball and tend to try and drive whether there are driving lanes available or not.
The end result is that their offense at times has the feel of a team at the YMCA with five players that just met five minutes ago. All of them have some type of talent, but rarely do they look cohesive unless it’s out on the break.
Hence, the Wizards only produce 18 assists per game (28th in the league) and turn the ball over 15.7 times per contest (24th in the association).
They will run their sets and get the ball to scorers, but the ball probably won’t be touching the hands of another player unless it’s a drive and dish or drive and kick play because players are so insistent on trying to get into the lane for scores.
On defense, Washington sports a 105.4 defensive rating (26th in the association) and yield 45.5 percent field goal shooting from the floor (26th in the NBA).
The Wizards surrender 41.9 points in the paint per game (24th in the league) as well as 25.8 free throw attempts per game (27th in the association) because their pick-and-roll and also their pick-and-pop defense is simply atrocious. The player popping outside for the jumper often gets an open look due to slow reactions by the Wizards players in their rotations. The roll man on the other hand does get picked up by the help defender in the paint, but rarely does anyone rotate back to help the helper. Consequently, teams that run a lot of pick-and-roll oriented sets tend to expose the Washington defense; much like the Clippers did four weeks ago when they piled up 32 assists in a rout.
It’s also worth noting that Washington’s ball security issues leads to teams scoring the second most fast break points in the league against them with 15.6 per game.
The Warriors should get a multitude of open looks against the Wizards and will have to make sure to find the likes of Brandon Rush and Klay Thompson out of the pick-and-roll to convert shots. Also, the Dubs fast break game should be in full effect in D.C. provided that Golden State continues to force the Wiz into making bad decisions with the ball.
In addition, the Dubs’ zone may make things ugly in the second quarter if the Wizards get determined to keep firing away from deep, given that they are only converting 31.8 percent of their 3-point attempts.
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