WASHINGTON — Since clinching a spot in the NBA Playoffs, the Washington Wizards have played like a team undeserving of one.
The Wizards wrapped up their maddeningly frustrating 43-39 regular season Wednesday night with an embarrassing 101-92 loss in Orlando to a Magic team that appeared to be just as indifferent toward winning the game as the Wizards were. Though the Wiz were without starters John Wall and Otto Porter, a team with deep playoff aspirations should find a way to win a game against a 25-win afterthought that benched three starters in the second half.
Therein lies the problem: The Wizards don’t really have the right to assume they’re a team with deep playoff aspirations. The overused “you are what your record says you are” cliche aside, the Wizards have been sleepwalking their way through the final stretch, closing out the season losers of 14 of their last 21 games, and consistently playing down to opponents with losing records.
This notion that the Wizards are tired is a cop out. With Wall having already kicked off the rust from his 27-game absence after knee surgery, they’re totally healthy — something playoff teams in San Antonio, Golden State and Boston can’t say.
Speaking of Boston…the Wizards blowing a chance at a playoff rematch with the Celtics is the biggest crime of all. The Celtics enter the postseason without their best player (Kyrie Irving) or key contributors Marcus Smart and Daniel Theis, thus making them a better draw than top-seed Toronto or the red hot Philadelphia 76ers. Plus, it would have provided another chapter in what is developing into one of the top rivalries in the Eastern Conference.
But it’s hard to make the case that their playoff opponent even matters when your top players don’t play up to reasonable expectations. In Wall’s absence, Bradley Beal has proven he’s neither a lead dog nor clutch; Beal shot a woeful 0-for-10 on three-pointers and 5-for-25 overall from the field in the final 30 seconds of close games this season. Those aren’t solid starter numbers, let alone All-Star worthy.
Kelly Oubre Jr. is their best bench player but he’s been more like a long range bricklayer lately, going 2-for-7 from three-point range Wednesday night and struggling through a mind-numbingly terrible seven-game stretch (2-for-35) between March 25 through April 5. I get that shooters have to shoot their way out of a slump, but Oubre was among the Wizards guilty of trying to play “hero ball” during their season-high four-game losing skid last week.
The rash of individual play was especially frustrating because the Wizards did an outstanding job of sharing the ball during the initial 10-4 surge when Wall was out (and actually finished the season ranked fourth in assist ratio). But teams adjusted to what the new-look Wizards were doing and it’s pretty damning that coach Scott Brooks didn’t have some countermeasures to keep the team’s prospects of playing for home court advantage in the first round intact.
Now the Wizards have to travel to Toronto for a best-of-seven series with a 59-win Raptors team riding high from their best season in franchise history. This is a matchup the Wizards shouldn’t want; they’ve struggled to guard the perimeter lately and Toronto is a top 10 three-point shooting team driven by their star guards DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.
If the Wizards aren’t careful, the Raptors bigs might have a big series too. The Wiz finished the regular season ranked just 19th in opponents’ points in the paint and 21st in opponents’ 2nd chance points, so visions of Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas eating up offensive rebounds and kicking it out to DeRozan and Lowry should haunt Wizards fans’ dreams.
But the Wizards and their fans have this hope: They split the regular season series with the Raptors and proved they can go North of the Border and win a game. The Wizards’ talent level and playoff experience make them one of the most dangerous 8-seeds in recent playoff memory.
But this doesn’t look like a team that can just turn on a playoff caliber performance like a switch, and certainly not like the one that took the Celtics to a Game 7 last year. The Wizards will have to cast quite the spell to make this series with the Raptors that long.
