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Wizards can’t rebound against the Knicks, lose 6th straight

Washington Wizards v New York Knicks
Wizards guard Corey Kispert against the New York Knicks.
Photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images

Kyle Kuzma hit some late threes that gave the Wizards a glimmer of hope, but the New York Knicks escaped last night’s slog with a 100-97 win.

This was very much a #SoWizards kind of game. The Knicks got terrible game from their “stars,” RJ Barrett and Julius Randle, shot 34.4% from the floor and had an effective field goal percentage of 40.0% and won.

The Knicks did it by grabbing 19 offensive rebounds (10 from Mitchell Robinson and 4 from Jericho Sims) and inducing the Wizards into 27 fouls. For the game, the Wizards were out-rebounded 60-38. Shades of the 1980s, New York had a 35% offensive rebound percentage.

Credit Washington defenders for the poor shooting from Barrett and Randle — each shot 6-22 with just one made three. Randle had 17 rebounds — 16 defensive boards — as well as 4 turnovers and 3 fouls.

For the Wizards, “feel good” stuff was mostly about who made shots. Rui Hachimura was 2-2 from three-point range, so he ended a positive contributor despite just 2 rebounds in 21 minutes.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 18 points on 9 field goal attempts and grabbed 11 rebounds in 29 minutes. He also committed 5 fouls tussling with Robinson.

Corey Kispert had 14 points on 7 field goal attempts. He managed just 2 rebounds, 1 assist and a steal in his 29 minutes.

On the other hand, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was just 1-5 from three. Kuzma was 6-17 from the floor, but was 4-9 from three-point range (though 3 of those were the basis for the team’s futile comeback), and he had 4 turnovers and 5 fouls.

Deni Avdija was 1-5 from the floor, missed both his threes, and was 2-4 from the free throw line. His defense was decent, but it’s difficult to offset an offensive performance that bad, especially in a game where offense was at a premium.

The Wizards will be decent favorites back in DC Saturday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, who beat the Toronto Raptors in overtime last night. In their last meeting, the Lakers coasted to a 122-109 victory, which was powered by 50 points from LeBron James. At home, the Wizards have a solid chance of ending their six-game losing streak.

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.

Four Factors: Wizards 97 at Knicks 100

FOUR FACTORS KNICKS WIZARDS
FOUR FACTORS KNICKS WIZARDS
EFG 0.400 0.513
OREB 19 3
TOV 12 13
FTM 28 16
PACE 97
ORTG 103 100

Key Stats

Below are a few performance metrics, including the Player Production Average (PPA) Game Score (very similar to the one I used to call Scoreboard Impact Rating). PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls).

Game Score (GmSC) converts individual production into points on the scoreboard in this game. The scale is the same as points and reflects each player’s total contributions for the game. The lowest possible GmSC is zero.

PPA is a per possession metric designed for larger data sets. In small sample sizes, the numbers can get weird. But some readers prefer it, so I’m including PPA scores as well. Reminder: in PPA, 100 is average, higher is better and replacement level is 45. For a single game, replacement level isn’t much use, and I reiterate the caution about small samples producing weird results.

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 last season was 112.3. Points produced is not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as sharing credit when receiving an assist.

USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%.

ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by Wizards assistant coach 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.

Key Stats: Wizards

WIZARDS MIN POSS PTS ORTG USG PPA GmSC +/-
WIZARDS MIN POSS PTS ORTG USG PPA GmSC +/-
Corey Kispert 29 59 14 164 13.6% 163 25.5 6
Kristaps Porzingis 29 58 18 148 21.1% 141 21.9 7
Raul Neto 24 49 11 109 21.4% 107 13.8 4
Rui Hachimura 21 41 11 124 17.8% 121 13.3 -11
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 37 75 9 84 13.6% 54 10.8 -6
Kyle Kuzma 35 71 18 93 32.7% 36 6.8 3
Daniel Gafford 17 34 5 115 11.1% 54 4.8 -6
Tomas Satoransky 10 20 3 80 19.6% -153 0.0 -7
Deni Avdija 25 50 4 53 14.5% -92 0.0 -5
Ish Smith 14 29 4 40 33.7% -218 0.0 0

Key Stats: Knicks

KNICKS MIN POSS PTS ORTG USG PPA GmSC +/-
KNICKS MIN POSS PTS ORTG USG PPA GmSC +/-
Mitchell Robinson 31 62 15 168 16.6% 219 27.5 4
Evan Fournier 34 69 15 123 15.4% 184 25.8 -1
Immanuel Quickley 28 56 15 153 18.7% 203 23.0 7
Alec Burks 28 56 12 137 14.1% 112 12.6 -3
Quentin Grimes 17 35 5 106 12.7% 150 10.6 5
RJ Barrett 40 80 18 88 24.1% 4 0.6 -4
Jericho Sims 15 30 0 55 14.3% -42 0.0 4
Obi Toppin 9 19 2 42 24.9% -95 0.0 -1
Julius Randle 39 78 18 74 29.5% -62 0.0 4