The latest loss for the Wizards comes at the hands of the Indiana Pacers, which means Washington has now lost its fourth straight game. This four game losing streak comes directly after it had appeared the Wizards had turned things around during a five game winning streak.
What has changed? There has not been much difference in keys to the game, or in the game plan itself, but the Wizards are finding a way to blow leads and opportunities to get back into games. Finishing games is the reason each of the last four games resulted in a loss, and if the Wizards want to go anywhere in the playoffs, they are going to need to be able to finish all games they play in.
The Wizards had leads of six points after the first quarter, two points after the second quarter, and six points after the third quarter. They controlled the tempo, shots seemed to be falling at the right time, and the energy was on point. Then, the fourth quarter came.
Washington lost the fourth quarter by 8 points to a deal that is likely not going to make the playoffs unless Paul George comes back from his injury to suddenly become an unstoppable force. They don’t really have the talent to be able to say they should be able to beat the Wizards in a tight game down the stretch, but they somehow pulled it out and got the victory.
The defensive effort was sub par to say the least for Washington. Even with John Wall dropping 34 points, he has no reason to be letting George Hill score 29 points in the point guard matchup. The scoring load was taken away from the bigs, as David West scored 10 points and Roy Hibbert scored 0 points, which was an opposite of what we saw last season in the playoffs.
This young Wizards team is going to learn how to finish games as their careers advance, but for the sake of Wizards fans, let’s hope they learn how to do this sooner rather than later. Randy Wittman does need to take responsibility for his team giving away late leads in easy games, but he cannot be fully blamed for this. If things don’t turn around in Washington, they might be getting ready for an early exit come playoff time.
