How can the Wizards team that throttled the Raptors tonight, 93-73, for their first win of the season possibly be the same group that had lost eight straight, that seemed to have a coach unable to connect with his players, and was utterly dreadful and listless two days ago against Minnesota?
It can’t be simply that Flip Saunders managed to move Andray Blatche out of the starting lineup. But it’s a nice first domino, even if it isn’t exactly clear how injured both Blatche’s shoulder and knee were. More importantly, it paved the way for rotation changes that made sense for once, reflecting the roster that Saunders has at his disposal and the larger objectives of the franchise.
Word started to leak out prior to the game that Blatche wasn’t at full speed, but he didn’t appear hampered in the least, working hard at both ends against Toronto.
“I talked to him yesterday, and I told him I was going to bring him off the bench,” Saunders said. “He hurt his shoulder in practice yesterday. His knee’s been bothering him. I told him we needed some offensive punch and stability from the bench. Yesterday, he played with the second unit – and so did Rashard [Lewis]. They beat the first unit handily, so I thought we’d be better going to that.”
So whatever the calculus, the result – again, nine games into the year – was a team that finally looked like was rebuilding properly and rewarding players who played the right way. Trevor Booker and Chris Singleton battled, fought and scrapped, even if they couldn’t score, and when Blatche and Rashard Lewis both entered the game, the urgency and the opportunity was there without the entitlement that comes with being in the starting lineup.
“My main focus coming into this game was to get a win,” Lewis said. “I came in told the guys at halftime, who cares who scores. That’s go out and get a win and play how we’ve been playing. We’ve given up leads before and I didn’t want us to give up a lead tonight.”
It was similar with Shelvin Mack replacing John Wall at the point. Instead of trying to shoehorn Jordan Crawford into a role that doesn’t suit him, Saunders let Mack go, and Mack couldn’t have played much better – exactly like he’s done every time he’s gotten a chance.
“It’s tough because Jordan is more of a two guard,” Wall said. “He’s a scorer so you can bring him in to back up Nick [Young], and bringing in Shelvin to run the team and keep everything going, I think that takes a lot of pressure off Jordan, you see he got it going pretty easy today.”
Blatche, of course, had a couple of great moments in the second half, including one sequence when was fed the ball on the wing, passed up a shot and got rid of it, then got it back and passed up another shot, instead feeding Singleton in the short corner. Earlier in the game, Blatche stayed with a back-and-forth sequence of both teams on the break and blocked DeMar DeRozan to make up for his own turnover.
The basketball gods rewarded him with a three-pointer later, doing the same thing for Lewis.
“I decided I’d try to tough it out,” Blatche said. “I seen it was a good opportunity for us to come in and get this win. I was there to support my teammates.”
The important theme here is for the players to do what they do best, and that generates the best product on the court. Whatever the Wizards thought they were going to be this season, some amalgamation of future stars and potential trade assets worth showcasing, what they are is a young team full of role players that when put in the position where they can best succeed, might win a few games. Perhaps the model shouldn’t be Oklahoma City but Denver.
“We moved the ball, played defense for one another, helped each other,” Booker said. “It was like everybody was on the same page.”
For one night, that was the case. How many victories will it reproduce? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Wall said on Sunday it was about pride. At least that’s been restored.
“We needed a victory,” Young said. “We got tired of being booed. We heard some tonight. It felt good to get a win instead of getting booed.”
