Wizards lose 15-point lead, fall to Clippers originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Washington Wizards lost to the L.A. Clippers 102-93 on Saturday afternoon. Here are five takeaways from what went down…
Streak continues
It wasn’t the 35-point comeback of yesteryear, but the Clippers have once again stolen a victory from the Washington Wizards. On Saturday, they erased a 15-point lead to beat the Wizards on their home court. Luke Kennard can again take a large share of the credit, or blame if you’re a Wizards fan.
Kennard had 20 points off the bench, including four threes. The end result was the Wizards’ ninth consecutive loss, their longest streak since 2012. They have lost 12 of their last 13 and haven’t won on the road against the Clippers since 2008.
The Wizards were playing without a host of key players including Bradley Beal, Rui Hachimura and Delon Wright. The Clippers, though, were missing Paul George and Ivica Zubac, leveling the playing field.
The Wizards are now 11-19 on the season, eight games under .500. They still have four games to go on this West Coast road trip. The good news is they don’t have to travel anywhere after this game. The bad news is they have to pick back up the very next night against a Lakers team that blew the Wizards out just a couple of weeks ago.
Porzingis in the paint
It turns out that having Kristaps Porzingis on the court makes a big difference in the Wizards’ paint defense. One game after the Wizards allowed a preposterous 98 paint points against the Nuggets, they enjoyed a 54-40 edge in the paint in this game. Porzingis looked spry after missing that game with lower back tightness, as he was very active altering shots around the rim.
Porzingis had 19 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Wizards guards also did a better job than last game of providing resistance on the perimeter, helping out their big men. But it also helped the Wizards that L.A. was missing Zubac, taking away rim protection on defense and rim pressure on the other end. So, going from playing against Nikola Jokic to a Clippers team without their starting center may have tipped the scales a bit, in addition to Porzingis’ presence.
Offense went cold
The Wizards did an excellent job of getting the ball up the floor quickly early in this game. They generated transition opportunities off of Clippers turnovers, defensive rebounds and even made shots, pulling the ball out of the net and kicking it ahead down the floor to catch L.A. on their heels.
But that downcourt momentum vanished in the second half and the Wizards’ offense suffered because of it. After scoring 57 points in the first half, they managed only 36 points in the second half. The Wizards scored 18 points in the third quarter and 18 points again in the fourth. Credit to the Clippers’ defense for making adjustments and locking it down, but the Wizards’ offense disappeared like a magic act.
Avdija played well
If you take the entirety of what he did into account, this was arguably one of Deni Avdija’s best games of the season. He scored 11 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, added five assists along with a block and a steal. And he did all of that while guarding Leonard extensively. Leonard had 31 points and nine rebounds but took a while to get going in part thanks to Avdija.
Consistency remains elusive for Avdija on both ends of the floor, but Saturday’s game offered a glimpse at his versatility. He is still only 21 years old, so it may take years for him to reach his prime. But if he can fill out the box score as he did on Saturday, he will be just fine in the short term.
Barton kept it rolling
Will Barton had a third consecutive good offensive game, pitching in with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists, shooting 5-for-12 overall and 4-for-5 from deep. He’s had a down year, but three straight games is a growing sample size as he continues to look like a different player coming off his two-game absence due to left foot soreness.
The biggest difference in Barton’s game is that he’s simply making shots he was missing previously. He’s been pretty much automatic on open looks from the outside. What will be key for him is maintaining that rhythm once the Wizards get some guys back from injury. Barton has had some issues finding consistency when he doesn’t have a lot of shot attempts to work with and those will inevitably go down, especially once Beal returns.
