I thought the Washington Wizards would win this game, but I didn’t think it would be an epic beatdown where a 27-point margin understates their dominance over the Indiana Pacers.

Here’s the summary: virtually everyone who took the floor for the Wizards was very good or great. Nearly everyone who took the floor for Indiana was meh, at best.

Here’s how things went for the Wizards:

• Rui Hachimura pulled a Dr. J and palmed the ball off the dribble for a layup.
• Robin Lopez had 9 points, 3 rebounds and a block in 6 minutes and wasn’t even the most productive Wizards player on a per possession basis. That honor went to Anthony Gill, who had 10 points on 4 shots in 6 minutes.
• Russell Westbrook had a ho-hum 18 points, 8 rebounds, 15 assists and gave away his shoes early in the 4th quarter.
• Bradley Beal had 25 points on 17 shots and got to rest his hamstring by not playing a minute of the final period.
• Daniel Gafford had 15 points, 13 rebounds and 5 blocks in 22 minutes.
• Isaac Bonga got garbage time minutes and made a three.
• Chandler Hutchison, who has struggled to finish at the rim despite above average athleticism, got a semi-contested dunk on the break.

The Wizards move on to a first round matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers, where the most important question may be how the 76ers hope to contain Captain Hook Lopez.

Four Factors

Below are the four factors that decide who wins and loses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).

I’ve simplified them a bit. While the factors are usually presented as percentages, that’s more useful over a full season. In a single game, the raw numbers in each category are easier to understand.

PACE is possessions per 48 minutes.

Scoreboard Impact Rating

Below are Scoreboard Impact Rating (SIR) results from last night’s game. It’s based on my PPA metric, but it shows each player’s TOTAL contribution for the game in terms of points on the scoreboard. This may make more sense for a single game — PPA is a per possession metric, which probably makes more sense over a larger sample size.

Since SIR is based on the PPA metric, it credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, play-making, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls). The scale is points.

POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.

PTS = points scored

ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possessions x 100. League average this season is 112.3.

USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%.

ORTG and USG were created by Dean Oliver and modified slightly by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that accounts for the value of shooting, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.