John Wall has been performing at an MVP level over the past week or so and has played amongst the elite level of guards all season, leading the Washington Wizards to a 46-30 record and are currently in a stalemate for the third seed in the Eastern Conference with the Toronto Raptors. Though Wall has always been one of the most explosive finishers in the NBA since the day he was drafted, his increased aggressiveness when attacking the rack this season has played a factor in his career numbers of 23.3 points per game and 10.7 assists.
Now as we approach the final handful of games remaining in the regular season, every game matters for Wall and Wizards as they battle it out with the Raptors for that third spot. Aware of the situation, players such as Wall, Bradley Beal, Kelly Oubre and even Bojan Bogdanovic have upped the ante recently, continuously taking it to the hole with reckless abandon.
In last night’s 95-88 loss to the defensively sound Utah Jazz, Wall picked up his fifteenth technical foul and was upset with the lack of free throws the Wizards got, absolutely tearing into the referees. Following from Candace Buckner of the Washington Post:
“For one, I haven’t been saying nothing to the refs lately because I know what situation I’ve been in but the way they’ve been officiating today doesn’t make no sense,” Wall said. “To shoot 31 free throws to 16. We’re an aggressive team that attacks the basket, that don’t make no sense.”
Wall then pointed to his right forearm as evidence of a lack of calls for the Wizards.
“I had to get this bandaged up because I’m bleeding and the ref told me ‘that’s not a foul,’” Wall said. “It’s getting out of hand. If you want us to compete at a high level like we’ve been doing – we didn’t lose this game. The refs made us lose this game. We fought hard, we gave ourselves a chance but you don’t shoot no 31 free throws to 16 the way we attack the basket as a team. That’s how I feel about it. I tried to get some (technical fouls) rescinded before, it never works for my favor. Other players have and they got it. So, all I can do is just keep my mouth shut like I’ve been doing. I could see if I would’ve got a flagrant-1 but a technical off of that? That’s outrageous.”
John Wall wasn’t the only Wizard who’s had enough with officiating though as fellow backcourt mate Bradley Beal voiced his own frustrations:
“The biggest thing is just realizing that we’re not going to get any calls and we haven’t gotten calls,” Bradley Beal said, when asked about lessons the team can take from the physical, slow-paced game. “So we need to just play. The playoffs will be super physical and I think that’s definitely something we can take out of it. They’re going to be aggressive. Fouls will be called, fouls won’t be called and we got to control what we can control.”
Though the Wizards have every right to be frustrated as there certainly were some blown calls last night, most teams in the NBA feel as if they don’t get enough calls. But, with how Wall tirelessly attacks the rim, there’s no reason he can’t be amongst the league leaders in free throw attempts.
With the postseason approaching quickly, the Wizards should try and put aside all distractions no matter how frustrating and focus solely on making a deep playoff push, a feat this team is more than capable of.
