Maybe the Wiz will be lucky enough to pull a "crappy team" in the first round of the playoffs.
If you watch the Suns and Warriors, they aren’t usually carrying deficits into the 4th quarter against mediocre teams. We had leads in the fourth quarter against both as I recall. AND this was without major pieces to the team.Yknow, I hate to be this guy, but I think I'm seeing really good teams do what really good teams do against bad teams: coast for 3.75 quarters and then turn it on when they need to.
Don't get me wrong, the talent difference in previous years was so lopsided that teams were blowing us out even when they were coasting, and never needed to turn it on at all. So I guess that's progress. I'm just a little wary of the narrative that this team is super close to anything...
The defense has improved, it's good to see some guys playing with some gumption, and I'm intrigued by Markkanen. But unless this team stays healthy and Garland turns into 1986 Isaiah Thomas, I think we miss the play-in.
Still, I hope I'm wrong. Curious to see what happens later on when other teams really start jockeying for position in the standings. Don't buy that our schedule has de facto been all that tough at a point in the year when nobody's playing for anything.
Dudes just went on a 3 game roadie to Dal, Mia and Wash and led by at least 27 points in all three games.
Goodness!
Now that we’re healthy I want a rematch with all those good teams that caught us limping.If you watch the Suns and Warriors, they aren’t usually carrying deficits into the 4th quarter against mediocre teams. We had leads in the fourth quarter against both as I recall. AND this was without major pieces to the team.
Here's a game. Put these three-point shooting percentages for Beal in chronological order:Hard pass. He is at the point in his career where being an undersized SG is starting to show up in his stats as he gets older (like McCollum) and the contract he will want is going to nuke that team's salary cap for the foreseeable future.