By Mark Bacon
One of the absolute joys of watching the Wizards on local TV in DC is the broadcast team of Bullets legend Phil Chenier, and play by play man, Steve Buckhantz. Fans know, wait for, and savor Bucky’s enthusiastic call of “DAGGER!!!” when a member of the Wizards bury an important bucket. A momentum changer. Like the man says, a Dagger.
For the first seven minutes of the game, the night was beautiful. The Wizards sprinted to a 19-2 lead. At one point, John Wall had more assists (6) than the Spurs had points (4). Porter was cutting hard to the rim, and Wall’s passing game was on point, leading to the high percentage baskets Coach Randy Wittman envisioned when installing the team’s new small ball scheme.
But the Spurs are the Spurs. DC started taking questionable shots, and San Antonio found the cracks in the defense, ending the quarter on a 21-3 run. The Wizards regained their composure, and for most of the second and third stanzas, they trailed by somewhere between 3 and 10 points. Not out of it, but not in control either.
The Spurs are a well-oiled machine. Any one player can have a sub-par game, and yet they keep clicking. But the Wizards found a way to turn it up a notch at the end of the 4th, with momentum changing plays
John Wall tied the game with 3:40 left to go, and Beal gave the Wizards the lead with a vicious slam at 3:20. The Spurs, of course, always had an answer.
With less than a minute left to play and the Wizards up 1, a hectic play involving two crucial deflections from Beal and Porter (giving Washington time to reset their defense) and two missed jumpers from Kawhi Leonard led to the ball in John Wall’s hands and a trip to the free throw line. Wall made them both, but Tony Parker hit a contested three (his only three of the game) on the other end to tie it again.
Back with possession and 7.3 seconds to go, the Wittman drew up a play for Bradley Beal, who shook LaMarcus Aldridge like a bowl of Jello with a sick jab step, then buried the game winning Dagger. The young sharpshooting guard on the cusp of stardom, seized the moment and buried a three-pointer with 0.3 seconds remaining to lift the Wizards over the San Antonio Spurs, 102-99, at Verizon Center.
Steve Buckhantz's signature "DAGGER!!!" call never sounded better.
- Is this the new normal for Bradley Beal? He has scored 24+ points in every game this season. With John Wall, he has become a go-to player when the Wizards need a basket. Tonight he had 25, plus four assists and three steals
- Otto Porter emerged from his recent scoring slump to score 19 points.
- Turnovers made the difference. The Wizards had just 10, but they forced 20. This helped keep the Spurs from pulling away in the third quarter.
- The Wizards’ big man rotation still has question marks. Kris Humphries was short on most of his shots tonight, hitting 3-7 overall and 1-4 of his threes. Gortat picked up three fouls early and struggled from the field, shooting 4-9. Nene was solid, but his poor free throw shooting was a constant fourth quarter danger. Dudley was the lone bright spot, continuing the pattern of playing very little in the first half but being on the floor to close the game, doing all of the little things (and hitting some shots).
- Remarkably, there were only two lead changes throughout the entire game, though the game was tied five times.
- As they have all season, the Wizards won the fast-break battle on Wednesday, 24-17.
- John Wall's 13 assists Wednesday marked his best performance in the category this season. His career high is 18.
- The key moment, of course, with less than a second left, Bradley Beal's 3-pointer sealed the deal for the Wizards, who now move to 3-1 on the young season.
- Bradley Beal was the player of the game with 25 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals.
- Marcin Gortat was perhaps an unsung hero for the Wiz. Guard and wing play has been the headliner for the Wizards so far this season, but Gortat was solid again on Wednesday. He scored 10 points with eight rebounds and a block.
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