Keys to the Palace: The Wizards’ starters remain hot at the All-Star Break

The Wizards defeated the Thunder on Monday at home and the Pacers on Thursday before heading to the All-Star Break.

Since it was another winning week here in Washington, there will be plenty of keys to hand out, but we unfortunately have some lockouts as well.

Keys to the Palace

Markieff Morris, 22 ppg, 6.5 rpg

For those of you who haven’t kept track, Morris has scored 10 or more points in every game from December 23 on. He has developed into a very consistent stretch four as well. He made six of seven three point attempts in the Wizards’ last two games.

Otto Porter, 21.5 ppg, 10 rpg

Porter’s highlight performance was a 25 point and 8 rebound performance against the Pacers where he made five of his six three point shots.

Bradley Beal, 20.5 ppg, 3.5 apg

Beal’s best performance was a 22 point outburst against the Thunder last Monday. He made six of seven threes all in just 23 minutes on the court.

John Wall, 17.5 ppg, 13 apg, 2 bpg

Wall’s shooting wasn’t particularly great, but his assist and blocking games remained on point. Here are his highlights from the Pacers game where he scored 20 points, dished 12 assists, and blocked two shots.

Marcin Gortat, 12 ppg, 6 rpg

The Polish Machine made 67 percent of his shots last week. If you’re wondering why his rebounding numbers dropped, it’s in part because he only played 25 minutes in the Thunder game when he grabbed 5 rebounds in that time. Regardless, Gortat had an individual net rating of +41.6 points per 100 possessions, which is simply awesome.

Guest Passes

The bad news with the reserves last week was that all had a negative net rating. But I decided to give passes to two of them:

Ian Mahinmi, 3.5 ppg, 2 rpg

Mahinmi came out with no rebounds in the Thunder game though he did score four points on free throws. He scored five points and grabbed four rebounds in the Pacers game in a much better performance. Since he’s still getting back into game shape, I wasn’t going to be too harsh on him. But now that the worst of his injury should be behind him, Mahinmi now has to perform at a higher level in order to take some of the pressure off of Gortat.

Trey Burke, 7 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 3 apg

Burke’s best performance was an 11 point, 4 rebound, 4 assist effort against the Thunder. Over the course of this season, I think he’s become a somewhat reliable guard off the bench, but he’s not the “backup floor general” type that the Wizards — and LeBron James — want at the trade deadline.

Jason Smith, 6 ppg, 4.5 rpg

Smith’s plus/minus differential was the worst on the Wizards last week, but Smith has made some adjustments in the rotation where he now has to play power forward with Mahinmi at center. Smith also shot 71.4 percent for the week, so I’ll give him credit for that.

Lockouts

Kelly Oubre, 3.5 ppg, 1 rpg

Oubre’s minutes declined, so it’s to be expected that his production would take a hit. However, he did make the Wizards better during his time on the floor either last week, unlike his time last January when he looked like a clear sixth man for them. Fortunately, it’s the All-Star Break, so hopefully that gets him out of a slump.

Tomas Satoransky, 1 rpg, 1 apg

Satoransky did not score at all last week in 27 total minutes of action. Sigh.

How did Danuel House do in the D-League?

House averaged 17 ppg and 2.5 bpg in his last two games for the Delaware 87ers on February 10 and 11. He also shot 12 of 20 (or 60 percent) from the field, which is not too shabby after missing three months due to a wrist injury.

Not enough time for an evaluation

Sheldon McClellan and Andrew Nicholson played spot minutes last week while Daniel Ochefu and Marcus Thornton did not appear in any games.