The Washington Wizards lost 150-125 to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night. While the result was disappointing, there was one very positive thing to note.
Desmond Hester mentioned it in the recap from the wee hours in the morning, but Rui Hachimura scored a career-high 30 points and embedded a tweet. I’m showing the highlights again in the video above. It’s because he shot 13-of-23 from the field, made 2-of-5 three pointers and he even grabbed a team-high 9 rebounds while at it.
Hachimura’s big night against the Clippers is also part of something bigger. He had that performance after scoring 16 points against the Los Angeles Lakers last Friday. The two performances in L.A. also helped Hachimura shake off a shooting slump where he failed to shoot higher than 30 percent from the field in three consecutive games.
Rookies tend to perform better at home on the road and Hachimura is also no different. Even after the two big performances against the Clippers and Lakers, Hachimura is averaging 13.0 points per game on the road while shooting 46 percent from the field. That’s not quite as good as his home performance where he averages 13.9 points per game while shooting 53.3 percent from the field.
It will be interesting to see how Hachimura continues to perform on the road as the season goes on. Hopefully, he’ll continue to perform as consistently on the road like he does in D.C.