Three encouraging things to build on from the Wizards’ 115-108 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers:
Good gracious, Nick Young. Despite how badly the Wizards have played on the road and the obvious overwhelming odds of facing the Lakers at Staples Center, Young’s propensity for playing well in his hometown always gave Washington a chance to compete. Similar goes for Gilbert Arenas, but last night’s game for Young was due given how well he’s been shooting this season. When his low dribble split a pair of L.A. defenders and then he spun 360 degrees in front of Lamar Odom to lay the ball in, Young might’ve claimed the play of the year – an honor that seemed to have been sewn up by John Wall in the preseason when he did nearly the same thing at Patriot Center. But Young was even better in the second half, playing a huge role in helping Washington narrow the Lakers’ 19-point lead to three by the end of the third quarter and then hitting his career-high sixth 3-pointer in transition to make the score 110-106 with 1:20 to play.
Young finished with a season-high 30 points and a career-high six 3-pointers, and the question becomes, since he still remains essentially one-dimensional on the offensive end even if his defense has improved, how does Wizards head coach Flip Saunders use him going forward? It seems pretty clear that the sixth-man role works, and works well. Why mess with it.
Plus, Saunders has plenty of lineup challenges without considering what to do with Young. First, it was refreshing to see Arenas back in the first five on Tuesday night, if nothing else as an indication that Saunders wasn’t going to keep beating his head against the wall with a starting five that wasn’t working. As well as Kirk Hinrich has played at times, as much leadership as he brings to the team, he wasn’t brought to Washington to be a starter. Arenas can defer all he wants to Wall, but having him on the bench to start games is a waste of offense for a team that doesn’t have a huge number of options off the opening tip. Arenas and Wall must learn how to play together for the Wizards to reach anything close to their potential this season. Best not to overthink it.
Andray Blatche’s hip bruise forced Saunders’s hand when it came to power forward, and Yi Jianlian, who was a game-worst -24, didn’t make a good case for ever starting again. Yi deserves blame for perhaps half of Arenas’s seven turnovers, which came on passes he couldn’t handle.
Small forward remains the biggest challenge, as Al Thornton’s return on Tuesday was decent early but he was outshined by Young, and Josh Howard’s return is growing imminent – could it come against the Lakers next week? The Heat on Dec. 18?
But one lasting image from last night is Washington’s rookies – Wall, Trevor Booker, and Kevin Seraphin – who were all on the floor down the stretch with Young and Arenas. With increasing poise and incredibly dynamic playmaking ability, Booker (career-high 14 points) is improving dramatically with every minute he plays and Kevin Seraphin isn’t far behind, making two poised free throws at the end of the third quarter and remaining a physical presence throughout the fourth. And of course, Wall, with 22 points, 14 assists, and three blocks, had one of his best games of the season.
Tuesday’s loss felt like the Orlando loss a week and a half ago, which makes it well worth the pain. Unfortunately, there’s no separate category for good losses in the NBA. Given the number of teams that have little hope for making the playoffs but are trying to take steps toward becoming night-in, night-out competitive, there should be, and the Wizards need to keep this one in mind. After the one-point loss to the Magic, the Wizards were satisfied with only being somewhat competitive at Miami. To prove they’re growing, the Wizards can’t be satisfied with just showing up in Sacramento.
