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1. Wizards beat Maccabi Haifa, 101-95
Due to some starters resting (Nene and Paul Pierce) and playing limited minutes (John Wall and Marcin Gortat), Otto Porter led the Wizards in court time (34 minutes) against Maccabi Haifa. Wizards fans can be happy knowing that he also led the team in points (19) and steals (four). He's looking more and more like a player who belongs, albeit if it's still in preseason.
Plus, with Glen Rice Jr.'s injury, he is going to be relied on even more heavily than imagined in the early portion of the upcoming season.
When Wizards drafted Otto they didnt expect Durant. They were small version of Lamar Odom. Does everything #WizardsTalk @CSNMA @CSNWizards
— J. Michael (@JMichaelCSN) October 16, 2014
Kevin Seraphin led the team with 12 rebounds to go along with his 18 points, and Xavier Silas had 13 points, though he shot only 3-for-12 from three-point range. We'll see if the production from these roles players continues when the bright lights of the regular season turn on.
Here are the stats and highlights from last night's win, via NBA.com.
Below are game recaps from around the web.
Monumental Sports (plus interviews with Seraphin and Porter)
2. Glen Rice Jr. sprains ankle
The injuries just keep piling on these days. Rice Jr. is the latest victim, going down after twisting his ankle when he stepped on the foot of a Maccabi Haifa player in the third quarter last night. In a position already lacking depth, Randy Wittman will sure have his work cut out for him as he looks for other players to fill in and be productive in the shooting guard spot. So the question is: Who will step up? (via J. Michael)
CSN has the story and all the updates.
We'll also be updating the site as soon as we get word on his timetable.
3. Wittman is a traditionalist
The NBA is experiencing with a new format for Sunday's matchup between the Brooklyn Nets and the Boston Celtics that will shorten the game length from 48 minutes to 44 minutes. There have been mixed feelings about this test, but you can count Wittman as one who firmly opposes the attempted change.
Via The Washington Post:
"Yeah, you don’t want to hear my thoughts," Wittman responded when asked for his thoughts. "I’m old school. I mean, are you going to have a whole new set of records? And how are you going to dictate who averaged more points LeBron James or Michael Jordan?...We’ve lived through mistakes made before. It’s a human game and I think if you want to speed the flow of the game up then you can look at that too. But I’m just a damn coach."
4. Otto gets UP
Boy is Otto growing up. He went from fumbling the ball on basic dribbles last season to doing things like this in last night's preseason game.
Now that's what I call weak-side help.
5. Free throw improvement
With last season's woes from the free throw line continuing through this preseason (covered in yesterday's wake-up call), last night looked better. The Wizards shot just 72.7 percent as a team, but key players were better. Porter was 4-for-4 after going 6-for-10 in the previous game, Seraphin shot 6-for-8, and Wall and Andre Miller each went 3-for-4 from the line.