Wizards vs. Cavs Recap: Ghosts of Washington Past Come Back to Haunt Wizards in 98-89 Loss

I won't have to resort to the adjectives that Mike used last night to describe the Wizard's loss to Knicks. Instead, tonight was simply disappointing. Playing against a team made up of former Wizards castoffs, bric-a-brack and Luke Walton, the Wizards simply couldn't muster a consistent enough offense or get to the line often enough to make up the difference in FT disparity which stood at 33 attempts for the Cavs and just 12 for the Wizards. Making matters worse is that every shot that the Cavs took during crucial portions of the third and fourth quarter seemingly always ended in a "and 1." Making matters worse, the Wizards simply did not have the shooters to get them back later in the fourth. WIth Roger Mason nursing an injured hand and Cartier Martin completely ice cold, the Wizards were forced to keep driving relentlessly to the basket and look for calls that never came. The lack of spacing let the Cavs simply clog the center of the lane against Jordan Crawford and John Wall and the Cavs hung on to their nine point lead without much effort.

Why so many fouls? For the most part it was simply over aggression on the part of the Wizards players challenging shots or going over the back for rebounds. They were fouls that good positioning could make up for, but the Wizards were too often slow to box out or out of position on the defensive end.

The good news to come out this game is that after a series of unremarkable performances, John Wall regained his shooting stroke, at least for one night. Combine this with another solid game from Kevin Seraphin and a surprisingly solid game for Jan Vesely and you might have something to build on as we close in on the final few games of the season. Notably not great on the evening was Chris Singleton, who continues to push forward the agenda that the Wizards need to draft yet another SF. I'm not sure if that is the right move, but at the moment he simply isn't capable of handling the minutes being allotted to him.