Wizards vs. Heat final score: Miami’s starters dominate as Wizards fall in preseason opener 106-95

The Washington Wizards kicked off their 2016 preseason campaign with a 106-95 loss to the Miami Heat. Hassan Whiteside had a superb game finishing with 20 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks. The Heat outscored the Wizards by 19 in the 23 minutes Whiteside was on the floor, and that was plenty enough to secure the win.

Unfortunately for the Wizards, despite sweeping changes to the roster and the coaching staff over the summer, the loss was marked by several of the same calling cards that plagued the team last season.

Slow start? The Heat were up by 13 at the end of the first quarter.

Defensive issues? The Heat shot 11-23 from beyond the arc.

Offensive issues? The Wizards only had 21 assists on 35 made shots.

To be fair, tonight’s issues are more correctable than the ones that ravaged the Wizards last season, especially once John Wall, Ian Mahinmi and Marcus Thornton are healthy again. But if Tuesday’s performance showed us anything, it’s that all of this summer’s changes aren’t a quick fix to what ailed the team last season.

Of course, it’s only one preseason game. There’s no reason to panic about anything bad or get too excited about anything good. That said, here are a few things that stuck out from the Wizards’ first game.

What we learned

Bradley Beal was fine - Beal didn’t take over the game in the way some people might hope, but he had a very smooth, solid outing. He had a nice bounce in his step, was smart about getting into the lane and finishing inside, especially on this play:

Maybe he didn’t take over the game the way some people would hope, but the good news is everything he did well is stuff that will still translate well when John Wall returns to the lineup. That’s a good thing.

The Wizards still don’t have an answer for Hassan Whiteside - If you go back and look at last season’s Wizards-Heat games, basically any time Whiteside was on the floor, the Heat were dominant. That didn’t change tonight.

Defensively, Whiteside made it difficult for the Wizards to get into the lane which forced the team to settle for a lot of Markieff Morris post ups (which were fine) and midrange jumpers (not as fine). On the other end, he was getting all sorts of easy shots inside because the Wizards struggled to stay in front of Goran Dragic, which put Marcin Gortat and Jason Smith in a position where they had to guard Dragic and Whiteside at the same time. It did not go well. Whiteside had 16 points on 7-8 shooting, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks in the first quarter alone.

Having Ian Mahinmi certainly would have helped tonight, but he wouldn’t be able to stop everything the Heat were throwing at them, not without better containment on the outside.

Tomas Satoransky delivers - If the biggest concern about Tomas Satoransky’s game was how he would adjust to the NBA game, he did a good job of putting those fears to rest in his first game. He had a nice, productive stat line, with . More importantly, he just didn’t look fazed by the challenge. He played with a poise you wouldn’t expect to see from a player in his first NBA game.

He had his share of struggles on the defensive end, but so did just about everyone else on the squad today. We’ll see if that improves over the course of the season.

Early roster spot battles - Sheldon McClellan was the first player with a nonguaranteed contract to take the floor for the Wizards, but that was probably a byproduct of Marcus Thornton missing the game with a thumb injury. He was a little wild out there, but he certainly has the athletic prowess to make an impact on the defensive end.

Of the players battling for roster spots, he had the best showing, but he didn’t face much competition. Jarell Eddie didn’t get playing time until the second half, and didn’t do much with it, save for one three-pointer that he made in transition. Johnny O’Bryant had a few nice moments, but they mostly came against the Heat’s training camp guys, so it’s hard to properly assess his performance. Danuel House and Daniel Ochefu didn’t enter the game until the closing minutes and Casper Ware didn’t play at all. They’ll have to wait until Thursday to make an impression on the court.