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Yesterday, the Houston Rockets defeated the Chicago Bulls, 125-104 in their preseason debut. But the game is notable because of two reasons. First, former Washington Wizards franchise star John Wall made his debut. And second, we got to see him go face-to-face against some of the biggest faces of “Everybody Eats,” which was a thing a couple years ago.
Let us first focus solely on Wall’s performance. He started the game, played just under 19 minutes, scoring 13 points and dishing 9 assists along the way. It was an impressive performance for him, especially because he missed the court for nearly two calendar years since an Achilles injury. Forget about the fact that Wall scored and led Houston to victory. He also has much of, if not all, of his speed back.
After the game, Wall indicated that being fully healed from previous bone spurs have helped him feel great. Let’s remember that Wall wasn’t just dealing with a ruptured Achilles.
Hey Albert...i think context matters about dealing with injuries and should be brought up in articles he was dealing w/ injuries that wiz misdiagnosed since the 14-15 season. Not just the 18 ruptured Achilles...wall mentioned the bone spurs himself in the post game yesterday
— jarem (@ChilledOnTheRox) December 12, 2020
It goes without saying that as Wizards fans, there was a divide of philosophies among the fans in the last two seasons as some wanted to see more “Everybody Eats” basketball while others believed 110 percent in Wall doing his thing would be the way to go, which I at least called “WallWay.”
The Bulls aren’t just any opponent for Wall. They also have two recent Wizards players: Otto Porter and Tomas Satoransky, two of the biggest faces of “Everybody Eats” when this thing was at its peak.
Satoransky scored 11 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and dished 6 assists — but he played 25 minutes to get those numbers off the bench. And as for Porter? He had 9 points on 3-of-6 shooting, but the Bulls were -18 with him on the floor. Either way you look at it, Wall and his brand of basketball won the night.
It’s very early in the preseason for the Rockets. But if Wall can consistently perform like this throughout the next several weeks, you never know if it can convince James Harden to pump the brakes about asking for a trade. Just saying.
And either way, I’m very happy to see that Wall had a great game last night. As for the Wizards themselves, their debut will be tomorrow night at 6 p.m. ET vs. the Brooklyn Nets.