Keys to the Palace: Starters lead the way while the bench hangs in there

The Wizards won four straight games in the past week. They started with a 109-99 win against Charlotte last Monday, then beat the Celtics the next day 123-108 in “The Funeral.” Then, last Friday, they beat the Hawks 112-86 before defeating the Pelicans 107-94 on Sunday.

When a team goes undefeated, it’s another week where I’m feeling like this:

Time to hand out virtual hardware:

Keys to the Palace

John Wall, 22 ppg, 10.5 apg, 4.5 rpg

Wall’s assist numbers dropped a little bit, but when the Wizards are undefeated and the he still shoots at a high level each game ... he’ll get credit for it. His best performance was an 18 point, 19 assist performance on Sunday.

Bradley Beal, 22.8 ppg, 3.8 apg

Beal got out of his shooting slump against the Hornets as he made 4 of his 9 three pointers last Monday. His best performance was against the Celtics last Tuesday when he scored 31 points. In addition, his 27 point, 11 of 16 shooting performance against the Pelicans on Sunday was a close second.

Markieff Morris, 19.5 ppg, 9 rpg, 2 apg

Keef scored in double figures in every game last week. His best performance was during the Celtics game when he scored 19 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, and dished 4 assists. His 21 point, 8 rebound performance against the Pelicans was a very close second. He’s really come into his own as of late and deserves a huge thank you for his efforts.

Otto Porter, 13.5 ppg, 8.5 rpg

Porter had two double doubles last week. His first was against the Hornets (14 points and 12 rebounds) and second was against the Hawks (21 points and 11 rebounds). Porter also made two or more three pointers in each game last week.

Marcin Gortat, 14 ppg, 9.5 rpg

Gortat shot 80 percent or better in every game besides the Pelicans game and he was still scoring and rebounding at a high level. He still earns a key in my book. Here are some of the highlights from his performance against the Hawks below where you see his “hidden stat”: screen setting!

Guest Passes

Kelly Oubre, 6.8 ppg, 3.3 apg

Oubre scored in double digits for the Hornets and Celtics games. His 2 of 11 shooting performance against the Hawks left a lot to be desired though.

Trey Burke, 6.5 ppg, 3.3 apg

Burke dished multiple assists in every game last week. His best scoring performance was a nine point effort against the Hawks last Friday.

Tomas Satoransky, 3.7 ppg

The good news with Sato is that he’s an efficient scorer when he takes shots. His 9 point, 4 of 5 shooting performance against the Hawks is an example of that. The bad news is that he only attempted six shots in 40-ish minutes last week.

Jason Smith, 3.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg

Smith continues to come into his own as he made over 60 percent of his shots last week. But I don’t like seeing players average nearly four personal fouls a game for every 15 minutes they play.

Not enough playing time

Sheldon McClellan averaged under 10 minutes a game last week while Daniel Ochefu only showed up when the Wizards came out with the victory formation. Andrew Nicholson only played one game last week.

Marcus Thornton — no, not the Marcus Thornton from William and Mary — didn’t play at all.

No evaluation due to injury

Get well soon Ian Mahinmi and Danuel House.