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Happy Sunday everyone. The Washington Wizards won 111-100 over the Milwaukee Bucks after a poor start where they were behind by 15 points at one point in the second quarter. Paul Pierce scored a season-high 25 points to close the game out, and he autographed a fan's shoes after fouling out.
1. Recaps of Saturday's win
From the D.C. media: Bullets Forever | Truth About It | Wiz of Awes | Hoop District | Washington Post | Daily Wizdom | Washington Wizards Official Blog
From the Milwaukee media: Brew Hoop | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
2. Videos
Wizards videos (from Monumental Network): Randy Wittman | Paul Pierce | Bradley Beal | John Wall
Bucks videos (from Brew Hoop): Giannis Antetokounmpo
3. The injury bug strikes
Nene played 6 minutes during Saturday's game but sat out the rest of the contest due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot. He had the same condition, albeit on his left foot in 2012. I hope he's not out for too long. Otto Porter also sat the game out due to a hamstring injury he suffered during Friday's win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post has more on the injuries.
On the bright side, we have an army of big men like Kris Humphries, Kevin Seraphin, and DeJuan Blair (who has GOT to get some burn soon.) Martell Webster is getting close to returning after being cleared for full contact practices.
4. Four Factors and Statistical Analysis
(Yes, the #4 and putting Four Factors was intentional.)
If you watch this game and only look at the stats for a completed, this looks like another solid win, which it was. But once we stratify the statistics by quarter, it clearly shows that the Wizards steadily improved as the game went on:
| WIZARDS | BUCKS | ||||||||
| eFG% | TOV% | ORB% | FT/FGA | eFG% | TOV% | ORB% | FT/FGA | ||
| Total | 50.54% | 12.00% | 41.67% | 18.28% | Total | 45.83% | 12.79% | 19.51% | 27.38% |
| 1Q | 45.24% | 24.24% | 30.00% | 9.52% | 1Q | 56.52% | 14.35% | 25.00% | 8.70% |
| 2Q | 42.31% | 12.42% | 53.33% | 15.38% | 2Q | 44.74% | 11.76% | 9.09% | 36.84% |
| 3Q | 40.91% | 3.54% | 26.67% | 40.91% | 3Q | 26.09% | 13.50% | 14.29% | 26.09% |
| 4Q | 72.92% | 7.32% | 62.50% | 8.33% | 4Q | 57.89% | 11.36% | 37.50% | 42.11% |
To find out where these wacky numbers came from, click here to get to Basketball Reference.
Now, some trends from the game as a whole:
The Wizards dominated the third quarter to complete the comeback - Washington outperformed Milwaukee in every one of the four factors during these crucial 12 minutes. While their eFG% was lower this quarter than any other in the game, the Wizards also scored 8 second chance points, while the Bucks didn't get any.
4th Quarter Shooting Efficiency helped close the game out - The Wizards made two-thirds of their shots, and all three of their three pointers in the last 12 minutes of this contest. Yes, the Bucks also had their highest shooting percentage in the fourth quarter as well, but the Wizards took their games up another notch. In addition, Washington scored 18 points in the paint during the 4th quarter, compared with Milwaukee's 10. It wasn't just three point shots that helped close this game out.
Paul Pierce was the one who specifically made the timely shots to seal the deal, and he shot a perfect 3-of-3 from the field to make it happen.
Turnovers - The Wizards had their worst performance in the first quarter when they committed 7 turnovers, hence the absurdly high TOV%. Fortunately, they were able to take care of the ball from that point on, and their TOV% was outstanding in the second half when the game turned around in their favor.
Offensive Rebounding - This may be the third most influential factor of the Four Factors, but Washington dominated the offensive glass throughout the entire game. Even in the first quarter, they still had a higher ORB% than Milwaukee. Overall, the Wizards had 20 offensive rebounds, while the Bucks only had eight. No question that the Wizards' improvement of taking care of the ball and controlling the glass helped them turn this game around.