The drama has already started on the Wizards six games into the season.
They're 1-5, Dwight Howard's still out with his butt injury, John Wall and Bradley Beal are
taking shots at teammates in interviews and their defense is historically bad,
allowing an NBA-worst 125 points per game.
The Wizards have allowed 750 points in their first six games. That's the most points allowed by an NBA team through six games since the 1990-91 Denver Nuggets.
— Chase Hughes (@ChaseHughesNBCS)
October 29, 2018 "They just can't seem to get down defensively and grind it out for four or five minutes right now," long-time college coach and current NBC Sports Washington analyst Jimmy Patsos told The Junkies Tuesday. "I was a little disappointed in the Clippers performance. I thought they were gonna grind it back out, and they got beat pretty badly."
The Wizards have been particularly terrible at rebounding, opponents getting tons of second chance shots off of offensive boards. Patsos expects the defense and rebounding to improve once Howard recovers and gets into the lineup.
The Wizards are 30th out of 30 NBA teams in opponent rebounds and opponent offensive rebounds. They are getting out-rebounded by an average of 13.8 boards per game.
— Chase Hughes (@ChaseHughesNBCS)
October 29, 2018 "They're a different team with him out there," Patsos said. "He's a unicorn in that he can block shots and he's just so big out there and he finishes around the rim with ease. Ian (Mahinmi) has trouble finishing right now."
"Defensively, if you put Howard out there, there's all your rebounds and blocked shots, and you're probably 4-2 and everybody's thrilled."
However, the Wizards are not 4-2 and no one seems thrilled at the moment, and Patsos says it falls on Washington's two star guards to right the ship.
"It's Beal and Wall's team. They're gonna have to perform on both ends of the court, and get the team to get along," he told The Junkies. "You have to want to get along. You can't be worrying about who you pass the ball to in basketball, whether it's high school, college, or the pros."
