A set of back-to-back games against a Boston team with aging and upstart centers was the perfect recipe for JaVale McGee to demonstrate his change in approach and mindset this season. But keeping up the pace won’t be easy, and this week could reset perception of McGee’s progress after two solid outings against the Celtics.
After putting up 16 points, 14 rebounds and a season-high five blocks against Boston at home Sunday, McGee went on the road to Boston on Monday and finished with 17 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks.
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The Wizards still lost both games, but the fourth-year big man may be the best thing going for a team that has started the season 0-5 and is the only one left in the NBA without a victory.
| Up next | ||||
| Wizards at Magic | ||||
| When » | Wednesday, 7 p.m. | |||
| Where » | Amway Center, | Orlando, Fla. | ||
| TV » | CSN/NBA TV | |||
It also helped that McGee was going against veterans Jermaine O’Neal (15 seasons) and Chris Wilcox (nine seasons) and first-year center Greg Stiemsma (four games). None of the three could keep up with the 23-year-old in transition.
“[Assistant] coach [Randy] Wittman was doing a great job of just letting us play and not really setting up half court sets,” McGee said after Wizards coach Flip Saunders was ejected in the first quarter of Monday’s game. “We were just running.”
The pace suits just fine for McGee (13.8 points a game), whose athletic 7-foot, 252-pound frame may be best adapted to get out in the open floor with John Wall.
But despite his attention to rebounding (11.0 a game, fourth in the NBA) and persistence with blocked shots (2.4 a game, sixth in the NBA), McGee remains a work in progress defensively. In his first career start, Stiemsma finished with 13 points off mostly jump shots that McGee, preferring to look for blocked shots around the basket, failed to close out. In Sunday’s game, Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett combined to exploit McGee down the stretch repeatedly in pick-and-roll situations.
“Part of his process is learning to play through those things,” Saunders said. “When he gets tired sometimes, he also has a tendency to not be as quick from that.”
The level of competition will also increase dramatically over the next two games for McGee. On Wednesday, he will face Dwight Howard (17.7 ppg, 15.3 rpg, 2.7 bpg) and the Magic (4-2) in Orlando. And on Friday, McGee will go against Tyson Chandler (11.0 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 2.2 bpg), who signed with the New York Knicks (2-3) in December after winning a championship in June with Dallas.
In a combined six games against the Magic and Mavericks last year, McGee averaged 5.0 points and 4.8 rebounds.
“I’m just trying to stay prepared, watch film, stay healthy,” McGee said. “Make sure that I hydrate and that we get these wins. I’m the defensive anchor back there.”
