Washington Wizards coach Scott Brooks called on his team for better play and effort after Friday’s home loss against the Hawks, the Wizards’ fourth loss in a row and eighth of their past 10 games.
“It’s embarrassing that we don’t play with the passion that we need to play [with],” Brooks said, according to Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. “Selfish basketball is no fun to coach, it’s no fun to play with, and it’s no fun to watch. We’re a selfish basketball team right now.”
Washington allowed the Hawks to score 103 points on their home floor, with the Hawks shooting 48 percent from the field and beating the Wizards on the glass. The team’s best player, Dennis Schroder, didn’t even suit up.
“It’s not a divided team, it’s a together team,” Brooks said, according to Candace Buckner of the Washington Post, “but if we’re going to talk about doing things, we’ve got to do it with our actions. We got to guard somebody. Our perimeter defense is porous. It’s embarrassing we get beat backdoors after backdoors.”
Atlanta is just 23-57 on the season, owning the worst record in the Eastern Conference and third worst record in the league. With his team struggling and the Playoffs just one week away, Brooks is putting his foot down on who earns playing time.
“It’s a simple game: You pass it to your teammate, you pass it because the game tells you to,” he said. “If you don’t pass to your teammates, you’re not going to end up getting good shots. One-on-one players, there aren’t many in this league, and we don’t have one on our team.
“But I got to do a better job and I have to figure out going into the playoffs who’s going to be able to not make mistakes as many times that we do,” Brooks said. “Regardless of what they think they should play, they’re not going to play.”
The Wizards currently hold a 42-38 record and the eighth seed with two games left this season. The team is one game behind Miami for the sixth seed and a half game behind Milwaukee for the seventh seed.
