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Wizards stomp Pacers to earn a trip to the playoffs

Indiana Pacers v Washington Wizards - Play-In Tournament
Washington Wizards center Daniel Gafford lowers the boom on the Indiana Pacers.
Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images

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.

Pacers at Wizards

FOUR FACTORS PACERS WIZARDS
FOUR FACTORS PACERS WIZARDS
EFG 0.485 0.656
OREB 9 7
TOV 14 15
FTM 18 20
PACE 112
ORTG 103 127

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.

Wizards SIR & ORTG

WIZARDS MIN POSS PTS ORTG USG SIR +/-
WIZARDS MIN POSS PTS ORTG USG SIR +/-
Rui Hachimura 25 59 18 184 15.2% 22 14
Russell Westbrook 33 77 18 116 29.3% 20 30
Bradley Beal 28 66 25 111 31.4% 18 18
Daniel Gafford 22 51 15 124 21.8% 18 17
Anthony Gill 6 15 10 240 25.3% 15 -8
Raul Neto 26 60 14 135 14.3% 14 17
Robin Lopez 6 15 9 169 34.8% 10 7
Alex Len 13 31 4 135 10.7% 8 11
Chandler Hutchison 20 46 6 151 7.6% 6 8
Ish Smith 22 51 8 96 20.5% 6 26
Davis Bertans 19 43 9 101 16.8% 4 19
Isaac Bonga 5 12 3 112 26.4% 2 -8
Garrison Mathews 8 19 3 73 17.2% 0 -8
Cassius Winston 5 12 0 0 0.0% 0 -8

Pacers SIR & ORTG

PACERS MIN POSS PTS ORTG USG SIR +/-
PACERS MIN POSS PTS ORTG USG SIR +/-
Cassius Stanley 8 19 11 170 34.7% 21 8
Domantas Sabonis 32 75 19 105 29.0% 19 -18
Oshae Brissett 29 68 10 107 11.9% 15 -17
Malcolm Brogdon 29 67 24 103 30.4% 14 -25
Doug McDermott 24 56 13 114 17.2% 12 -14
Aaron Holiday 12 28 7 117 17.7% 11 3
TJ McConnell 22 52 4 95 12.4% 10 -23
Amida Brimah 5 11 3 170 16.5% 5 8
Edmond Sumner 13 31 5 131 14.1% 5 -17
Kelan Martin 23 53 13 87 22.7% 2 -13
Justin Holiday 25 59 6 72 16.4% 0 -14
Goga Bitadze 17 39 0 57 11.1% 0 -13