Some Bright Spots During Wizards' Three-Game Winning Streak

 By Colby Giacubeno

1.    Defense

The defense the past three games has been a night-and-day comparison to when the Wizards were struggling towards the end of November and beginning of December. Throughout their three-game winning streak, Washington has allowed 97 ppg, which would rank in the top-5 overall if they sustained that effort throughout the season. Due to the early struggles, the Wizards currently sit 25th in the NBA allowing an average of 105 points per contest. Even though the NBA as a league is becoming much more offense oriented, winning games still comes down to one thing—defense. Just ask the San Antonio Spurs or Golden State Warriors.

 2.   Garrett Temple 

As Bradley Beal continues to miss games due to a flare up in the right leg that he has struggled with since his rookie season, a reserve player had to step up ready to produce in the starting lineup. Temple exceeded expectations by all costs by averaging 21.3 points and 5.3 rebounds through the past three games. For his career, Temple’s scoring average is just 3.8 ppg, so to see him explode for these three games was a pleasant surprise for the Wizards. If he can sustain his high-level of play off the bench once Beal returns, it will make the Wizards that much more dangerous of a team heading forward.

3.   The Rookie

Because of the plethora of injuries, the Wizards had to turn to playing their rookie Kelly Oubre Jr. starter’s minutes. With Otto Porter out due to a thigh injury, the Wizards’ first-round draft pick heard his name announced with the starters for the past few games and has performed well. Oubre Jr. is averaging 8.7 points and six rebounds 25 minutes of play throughout the past three games. It seems as if he is becoming more comfortable within the offense and is benefitting off John Wall’s ability to penetrate and create open shots. Oubre Jr. has connected on all eight of his three-pointers during the winning streak. Playing Oubre Jr. this much this early wasn’t in the cards for this team, but it is great for his overall development to play meaningful minutes now so that he is adjusted to it for the future.

4.   The Usual 

 

Even though John Wall and Marcin Gortat make up 2/3 of the main core for the Wizards and are expected to play flawlessly each night, it is still worthy to give them notice. Wall is back to playing like an MVP candidate as he was early on in the season. He has posted 17.7 points and a ridiculous 15 assists per game during the winning streak. In a home win versus Sacramento, Wall dissected the defense for a career-high 19 assists, beating his previous high of 16. Gortat has had to log big minutes as well with Nene still out nursing a calf injury. In 38.3 minutes per game, Gortat is averaging 19 points, 11.3 rebounds, and three blocks. Similar to Wall, Gortat had a monster outing against Sacramento finishing with 27 points and 16 rebounds against one of the league’s best big men in DeMarcus Cousins. Even with logging huge minutes the past three games, Gortat still manages to beat his matchup up the floor every possession, which usually results in an uncontested lay up. 

 

The Wizards will look to extend their winning streak to four games as they take on the Brooklyn Nets Saturday at 4:00pm ET. 

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