The Wizards closed on a 12-2 run over the final two minutes to take down the Thunder 102-96 on Tuesday evening.
On the same day the team learned John Wall will need to undergo knee surgery the rest of the starting lineup, and his fill-in Tomas Satoransky, stepped up to help the team win their second-straight game, scoring 79 of the team’s 102 points.
Washington got off to a hot start offensively, as they connected on five of their first seven 3-point attempts en route to an early 24-15 lead, but after that, things got ugly.
It was clear both teams were struggling to find their rhythm after losing key players recently. Not only were the Wizards missing Wall, but the Thunder were missing Andre Roberson who got hurt the weekend. Both teams shot under 40 percent from the field and under 30 percent from deep.
In the end, Washington’s defense got the job done. They forced Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony into tough shots in the closing minutes, and Satoransky shut the door by forcing a turnover and then drawing a foul on the other end in the final minute to put Washington up for good and help them secure their second-straight win.
Takeaways
Sato stood tall against Westbrook
Tomas Satoransky’s final stat line was nothing to write home about (seriously, we’re not even going to write it here) but he was arguably the most important part of the Wizards’ win. He was a big part of why Westbrook only scored 13 points on 18 shots and committed 7 turnovers. Frankly, his numbers would have looked even worse if not for a couple of easy buckets he got in the second quarter when Tim Frazier was guarding him.
The biggest key to Satoransky’s success on Westbrook was how he snuffed out his opportunities in transition. The Thunder only scored four fast break points all game long, and Satoransky’s disruptive length was a big part of the reason why. Westbrook couldn’t get free to attack the rim and when he did, Sato was there to reject shots:
GET SOME. Tomas Satoransky just caught Russell Westbrook with a sick block.
— NBC Sports Wizards (@NBCSWizards) January 31, 2018
LIVE STREAM: https://t.co/Uvk3ibqA3C pic.twitter.com/H8KTXydDko
Otto Porter steps up
With Wall out, the Wizards need Porter to be more of a scoring threat, and he delivered. He was an efficient 8-of-13 from the field and made a season-high eight free throws. He also hit a big shot with 1:29 left in the game to tie things up.
It was still discouraging to see Morris took more shots than Porter in this game, but it was still good to see him take a step in the right direction. Hopefully we see more of that moving forward. He said after the game his hip still doesn’t feel right, but this game shows he can still be productive out there in an increased role
Game Notes
- Y’all though John Wall had some issues shooting the ball? Satoransky and Frazier combined to go 0-of-8 from the field.
- Three players on Team LeBron have gotten injured since James picked them in the All-Star draft last Thursday. Someone needs to put Bradley Beal in bubble wrap until after the All-Star Game.
- After opening the game 5-of-7 from three, the Wizards only made two of their last 18 3-point attempts.
- Ian Mahinmi had five fouls in only nine minutes and 24 seconds of playing time.
Next up: The Wizards are back in action on Thursday as they host the Toronto Raptors.