BULLET POINTS: DC's Identity Crisis

By Mark Bacon

It’s early in a long, grueling NBA campaign. However seven games in, the Washington Wizards (3-4) aren’t anywhere close to the 50-win goal they set for themselves. Add to that concern three straight double-digit beat downs and alarms are ringing.

Tuesday, The Oklahoma City Thunder toyed with them en route to 125 points, The Wiz had many missed defensive assignments highlighted by a lack of desire.  OKC is undoubtedly talented but allowing them to shoot better than 50 percent from the field and 70 percent from three-point range was a disaster.

• “I’m going to be honest with you: There weren’t too many positives defensively,” Wizards forward Jared Dudley said. “The good and the bad thing is it’s not just one person. It’s really collective. It’s someone new on each possession, from the bigs to the wings to the guards.”

• Turnovers tormented them in losses to the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks (50 combined in the defeats), but the other constant concern is their defense, a weird development for a team that established itself as one of the NBA’s elite defensive teams the last three seasons. Their offense was inconsistent, but their defense remained the Wizards’ backbone. They finished in the top 10 in the NBA in defensive rating, two of which ended in the playoffs.

• Two weeks into this season, they’re experiencing an identity crisis. Washington has allowed at least 113 points in five of seven games, after having seven such games (that ended in regulation) all of last season.

• “We’re not taking any pride in it,” Wittman said. “Until we get [ticked] off as individuals, take a little pride, taking a stand from a defensive standpoint, it’s going to be like that.”

• Wittman went as far as to call his team “soft” and blasted his team’s unwillingness to “get dirty.” He threatened to use just five players if left with no other choice. 

• A shift to a more up-tempo offense and the corresponding lineups to fit the style has adversely impacted the defense, but the decline still remains confounding for a team that returned every significant player from last season.

• “It’s early in the season, but you have to fix these problems now,” point guard John Wall said. “I mean, we lost three straight games like this, not playing defense and giving up almost 70 points in a half. You’ll never win a basketball game that way.”

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