Somebody apparently erased the NBA hard drive that John Wall had filled up so remarkably over the first month of the season. The same person must’ve also replaced the Gilbert Arenas who nearly led the Wizards to an upset over Eastern Conference contender Orlando last weekend with an impostor who’d rather come off the bench than start.
On Friday, the glitches and alterations added up to a Wizards team that looked wholly unfamiliar and played a disjointed and out-of-sync first half to prove it. But equally unusual was the hearty defensive effort that Washington used in the second half to turn itself around and prevail in an 83-79 junk fest over struggling Portland in front of 13, 408 at Verizon Center.
The victory snapped a four-game losing streak for the Wizards (6-12) while sending Portland (8-11) to its sixth defeat in a row.
After going into halftime down by 12 points, 46-34, and with as many turnovers (13) as field goals, the Wizards limited the Trail Blazers to ten points in the third quarter – the fewest by an opponent in one quarter this season – and held them without a field goal for a nearly seven-minute stretch in the fourth en route to the fewest points allowed in a game this year.
“Go figure,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders, whose team had given up 127 points to Toronto two nights earlier. “We got back to two hard practices, we actually practiced this morning, went live stuff. All we did yesterday was work on defense – our offense kind of showed it – but I think if you want to be good in this league, you’re going to have to learn how to play defense. Right now that’s our point of emphasis.”
Yet, somehow Wall didn’t have a single steal despite entering the night averaging 2.73 per game, second best in the NBA. Making his first start in four games and just his second in the last ten, Wall (10 points, four rebounds, two assists, four turnovers) looked out of control, out of shape and indecisive, nothing like the confident and dominant presence he had been since his second NBA game.
“From my facial expressions, it looked like I wasn’t into it, but I still was,” said Wall, who missed ten of 13 shots. “It was just flowing through my mind, the shots I missed and the easy opportunities that we had. I think I was still playing as hard as I could, I just wasn’t as effective as I usually am.”
To make room for Wall in the starting lineup, Arenas moved into a reserve role, apparently by his own request, even though it helped make up for the absence of Nick Young (thigh bruise). Yi Jianlian also returned in a limited capacity after missing the previous nine games with a hyperextended knee.
“[Arenas] mentioned to me earlier in the year and he mentioned to [assistant coach] Sam [Cassell], he wanted to come off the bench when he thought that he could have more of an impact for the team at that point,” said Saunders. “I think that when reality came to do that, I don’t know if he was so sold on it at that point.”
Whatever the reason, Arenas’s replacement of the rookie point guard on the floor with 3:57 left in the third quarter turned the game. Down, 54-46, Arenas immediately hit a jumper and then finished off a fast break after a steal by Kirk Hinrich (11 points, five assists, three steals). His two free throws at the end of the quarter completed a 13-2 run that gave Washington its first lead since early in the opening period.
“I don’t mind right now,” said Arenas (15 points, six assists). “Right now we’re trying to search for something that works for us. Tonight it worked. We still have plenty of games left. We’ll see from there.”
Andray Blatche helped seal the game in fourth quarter. After spending most of his night denying LaMarcus Alridge, who had 16 points on 6-for-17 shooting, Blatche scored ten of his 19 points in the final period, including a pair of free throws from a loose-ball foul on Brandon Roy (18 points) that ended a sequence in which Alridge (15 rebound) missed three consecutive putbacks at the rim.
