After starting the season 3-8, the Washington Wizards were among one of the hottest teams in the league since New Years. Their season was highlighted by a 17 game home winning streak, John Wall making his first All-NBA team and being one game away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Although the Wizards were one game away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals they were severely outplayed by the Boston Celtics in game seven. One of the biggest reasons behind that was the play of the Celtics’ bench unit. In game seven, Boston outscored Washington 48-5 and was led by Kelly Olynyk’s 26 points off the bench.
For Wall, the benches woes were evident to him throughout the season, playoffs and he spoke on how it detracted from them.
Following from Chase Hughes of CSN Mid-Atlantic.
“We need to help our bench,” Wall told CSN’s Chris Miller. “Just to be honest, that was our downfall in each series that we had in the [Eastern Conference] semifinals, our bench got out played.”
Subsequently, Kelly Oubre Jr, who is one of Washingtons key bench pieces, didn’t see the floor in that pivotal game seven. Wall also lobbied that he would have liked to see the second-year wing out there playing in game seven.
Following from Chris Miller of CSN Mid-Atlantic.
“I think Kelly Oubre could’ve played a little bit more. … But Coach [Scott Brooks] makes the decision, and we stick behind him 100 percent.”
As Free Agency is looming closer, the Wizards will be tasked with building their bench up for next season.
