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Well, the Washington Wizards done gone and Wizarded some more.
Criminy, this team. One night after one of their better wins of the season, the Wizards rode apathy, poor shot selection and a defense-is-optional mentality to a 104-101 loss to the Utah Jazz. Trevor Ariza scored a team-high 23 points and nailed six of the team's seven three-pointers, but he also jacked up a wild, off-balance three with 11 seconds to play, the shot clock turned off, and Washington trailing, 101-98. The game was pretty much over from there.
Neither starting point guard had a great game, but John Wall got outplayed by rookie Trey Burke. Wall finished with 13 points, four assists and four turnovers on 4-of-14 shooting, while Burke tallied 12 points, eight assists and two turnovers on 4-of-12 shooting (4-of-5 from three). Bradley Beal scored 14 points (5-of-16 shooting) and dished out eight assists, but his minus-12 was worst on the team, and the only negative plus/minus put up by a Washington starter.
The Wizards blew their sixth chance this season at going above .500, but their seventh shot probably won't come for awhile. Washington now travels to play the Warriors and Clippers before coming home to face the Thunder, Trail Blazers and Spurs in consecutive games. Looking at that stretch charitably, the Wizards are probably at best two games under .500 when they play the Cavaliers at home Feb. 7.
So, if there's a silver lining to yesterday's loss, it's that we won't have to deal with the .500 shtick for awhile. Bad news is that the Wizards figure to remain a losing club for at least a couple more weeks. Sad face.
KEY LINKS
Road team recaps: BF StoryStream | Washington Post | AP | CSN Washington (recap, sidebar) | Wiz of Awes | DC Pro Sports Report | Wizards.com | Monumental Network | Daily Wizdom
Home team recaps: SLC Dunk | Salt Lake Tribune (gamer, sidebar) | Deseret News (gamer, sidebar) | Salt City Hoops
Postgame interviews: Randy Wittman | Bradley Beal | Marcin Gortat | Trevor Ariza
KEY STATS
30 - Combined shooting percentage of John Wall (4-of-14 shooting) and Bradley Beal (5-of-16) against the Jazz.
85 - Enes Kanter's shooting percentage against the Wizards. Kanter scored 24 points in 30 minutes on 11-of-13 shooting. Woof.
34 - Scoring discrepancy between Utah's bench and Washington's. Jazz reserves scored 52 points, while the Wizards' bench totaled 18.
TWEETS OF THE NIGHT
@BulletsForever my new theory? The Wiz targeting fifth in the Eastern Playoffs so as to maintain their Visitor Court Advantage
— Jonathan S (@JS889208) January 26, 2014
The Wizards played their best half defensively yesterday. Today may have been their worst.
— Michael Sykes, II (@Mikey_NBA) January 26, 2014
Ariza 6 of 9 on 3s... the rest of the Wizards are 0-for-8 from long range #WizardsTalk #WizJazz #NBA
— J. Michael (@JMichaelCSN) January 26, 2014
So....................#Wizards yet?
— Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) January 26, 2014
There's only 82 games in a season, can't expect to get 500!!! The. Math. Don't. Add. Up.
— Ｗｉｚ Ｓｐｕｒｔｉｎ ！ ！ (@Wiz_Spurtin) January 26, 2014
VIDEO/GIF OF THE NIGHT
(H/T @adammcginnis)
GAMETHREAD COMMENT OF THE NIGHT
GAMETHREAD ROLLCALL
| # | Commenter | # Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | qthaballa | 81 |
| 2 | DCrez | 73 |
| 3 | Wall_Hopeful | 68 |
| 4 | JimmyWall | 68 |
| 5 | Craig_ | 66 |
| 6 | souldrummer | 65 |
| 7 | wad0cash | 65 |
| 8 | HailSkinz | 47 |
| 9 | Durant | 43 |
| 10 | DCnhokies | 41 |
| 11 | Hands11 | 40 |
| 12 | Baird15 | 39 |
| 13 | Rice2012 | 37 |
| 14 | Singhgidda | 37 |
| 15 | Nickdoggmoneycash | 32 |
| 16 | LRJ | 31 |
| 17 | Banode | 29 |
| 18 | DCeee | 26 |
| 19 | WASwizardsfan671 | 25 |
| 20 | 17squall | 23 |
| 21 | Gators2015_BB3 | 23 |
| 22 | KurisuDevil | 19 |
| 23 | freshcat | 16 |
| 24 | DCKRS | 16 |
| 25 | eeee12 | 14 |
| 26 | Perm | 14 |
| 27 | gregjohnson1229 | 13 |
| 28 | ATrueNigerian | 13 |
| 29 | John Wall Stan | 12 |
| 30 | KINGWIZ86 | 9 |
| 31 | forthepeople | 9 |
| 32 | ts35 | 8 |
| 33 | PolishHammer | 7 |
| 34 | DJWiz | 7 |
| 35 | HijackedD | 7 |
| 36 | elliotlevy2 | 6 |
| 37 | wync | 5 |
| 38 | Mandark | 4 |
| 39 | RamVA | 4 |
| 40 | ZonkerBL | 4 |
| 41 | Rook6980 | 3 |
| 42 | DCON88 | 3 |
| 43 | thewiz06 | 3 |
| 44 | Mike Berry | 3 |
| 45 | verlierer | 3 |
| 46 | oakhillsteeze | 1 |
| 47 | wizncards | 1 |
| 48 | Nubboi | 1 |
| 49 | jaffejoe | 1 |
| 50 | Kend3zy | 1 |
| 51 | richkam14 | 1 |
| 52 | hotplate | 1 |
| 53 | LMB3 | 1 |
| 54 | pack0303 | 1 |
| 55 | Gilbert4SpaceJam2 | 1 |
| 56 | RCpige | 1 |
