Washington Wizards Roll into 2nd Round Dangerous and Revitalized
All these months later, even after a first-round sweep of the Toronto Raptors, the Washington Wizards are still walking that fine line between legitimate playoff threat and blip on the NBA postseason radar.
On paper, they look absolutely dangerous. They have the right mix of offensive ammunition, defensive know-how and steadying veteran presences—a roster fit for the towering expectations with which they began the 2014-2015 season.
In practice, the Wizards have been generally underwhelming. Though they entered January with the Eastern Conference's third-best record (22-9), they closed out the regular season 24-27, a showing that fueled a slide to fifth place.
What happened against Toronto, though, forces us to at least reconsider the danger Washington poses.
Despite not having home-court advantage, the Wizards dispatched the Raptors easily, capping their first-round romping with a dominant 125-94 victory in Game 4. This marks the first time in franchise history they've completed a sweep in a best-of-seven series, per ESPN Stats & Information, a feat that has the team oozing confidence.
“We have that mind-set that we’re an elite team in this league," Bradley Beal said on the heels of Game 4, per The Washington Post's Michael Lee, "and we’re going to continue to play this way."
There is certainly a newfound edge to the way these Wizards are playing. Their defense remains as staunch as it was during the regular season, when they finished fifth in points allowed per 100 possessions. But a previously middling offense is humming through four playoff contests, pumping in an insane 112.5 points per 100 possessions to lead all postseason squads.
That offensive jump alone is enough to reassess the Wizards' threat level. They ranked 19th in efficiency during the regular season, all while running a conservative attack, never once figuring out how to unify their deluge of individual firepower.
But most of the Wizards' longstanding issues were averted against Toronto. They moved the ball and pushed the pace, overwhelming the Raptors at every turn.
John Wall scored under 15 points twice, yet they still found production elsewhere. Bradley Beal shot just 38 percent for the series, but he remained aggressive, attacking and firing away as if he always had the hot hand.
Paul Pierce kept his time machine handy, coming up huge in three of four outings, draining late-game daggers with the swagger and vibrancy of someone 10 years his junior.
Marcin Gortat capitalized on a Raptors defense designed to neutralize Beal's and Wall's open looks, rolling off screen after screen to the tune of 17.3 points per game on 74.4 percent shooting. He missed only 10 shots for the entire series.
Even sophomore Otto Porter, who spent much of the regular season losing minutes to Rasual Butler, outdid himself. He averaged 9.5 points on 55.6 percent shooting, boosting Washington's fast-break assaults and floor spacing.
By the end of Game 4, fans were chanting his name:
"We just started playing together, having fun, distributing the ball," Gortat said, per NBA.com's John Schuhmann. "It doesn't matter who's going to score, as long as we're winning."
Four tilts into their postseason push, the Wizards have hit their offensive stride. And if they're clicking on the more glamorous end, they're instantly one of the NBA's most balanced outfits, making them that much harder to beat.
The lingering concern, of course, is whether the Wizards' first-round exploits are the product of inferior competition. They did not unseat an Eastern Conference powerhouse. They didn't even take down the best version of Toronto.
Like the Wizards, the Raptors entered the playoffs as a silhouette of their early-season selves. Sure, they won a franchise-best 49 games. But 33 of those victories came before Feb. 1. They finished the calendar 16-18 and their statistically tantalizing offense regressed, while their defense remained among the eight worst.
Game 4's performance perfectly encapsulated that slide, too. With their season on the line, the Raptors folded, displaying the defensive resistance and offensive creativity of a broken team that neither knew nor cared about the stakes.
No such opponent awaits the Wizards as they move on to the second round.
They'll either face the Atlanta Hawks or the Brooklyn Nets next round. If they make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, either the Cleveland Cavaliers or Chicago Bulls await. The Wizards went a combined 6-10 against those four teams during the regular season, including 2-6 against the Hawks and Cavaliers, the two most likely obstacles standing between them and an NBA Finals appearance.
Yet if the first round has taught us anything, it's that the regular season isn't an end-all projection. The Raptors' regular-season sweep of the Wizards clearly didn't portend anything.
Teams change. They improve. They gain momentum at the right time. Others fall apart (Toronto), sustain injuries (Memphis Grizzlies) or some combination of both (Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks).
The Wizards are establishing momentum at the best possible time.
First-round victories aren't solely the offshoot of good luck, for starters. While Kyle Lowry didn't look entirely healthy, the Raptors weren't missing any key contributors. They were just outplayed by the Wizards in every way imaginable—thoroughly and, as David Aldridge of NBA.com notes, convincingly:
This, without question, is the most encouraging part of the Wizards' current play. No one style gave them the right to advance. They used defense to win Game 1 and offense to win Game 2, then both to win Games 3 and 4.
Playoff Pierce is also a luxury the Wizards haven't enjoyed in the past. He is a different species in the postseason, even at 37—equal parts even-keeled and impassioned, ensuring Washington is never without guidance, zeal or, most importantly, backbone.
As Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley deftly described prior to Game 4, Pierce is very much responsible for where the Wizards are now:
"He might be filling his memory banks, but more importantly, he's strengthening Washington's foundation.
The Wizards could not have found a better teacher for their young building blocks—John Wall, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter. Pierce is not only helping them get through this postseason test, he's preparing them for the ones that lie ahead.
These past few weeks have been a masterpiece of true veteran leadership.
"
Given how the Wizards ended their regular season, they could easily have suffered the same fate dealt to the Raptors. But they're a different team, with an obviously defiant mindset, largely thanks to Pierce's leadership and killer instincts.
His perfect 3-of-3 shooting in the clutch is a welcomed commodity as well.
So too is his top-notch troll game:
Head coach Randy Wittman, meanwhile, deserves credit for his mid-series adjustments. A lot of credit.
This much credit, per Bleacher Report's Adam Fromal:
Wall's and Beal's heightened attack modes are everything, but Wittman is trotting out smaller lineups sooner and for longer stretches, creating offensive mismatches Washington seldom exploited during the regular season.
Prioritizing spacing has helped the Wizards increase the pace at a time when most squads are slowing down. They're attempting far more three-pointers than usual (24.3 per game), playing an athletically pleasing brand of basketball that, truthfully, they should have been embracing all along.
When they do field traditional lineups, they're using more on-ball screens to create the separation and lanes they struggled to find in months past:
More so than anything else, that's the biggest takeaway from Washington's first-round performance: This is not the same team that faded in the latter half of the season. These Wizards are smarter. Better.
Scarier.
Suddenly slumping offense and all, Atlanta will still be deemed the favorite in Round 2 if they get past the Nets. And in the event that Washington pulls off an upset—or ends up facing Brooklyn—Chicago or Cleveland will then be favored in the conference finals. That's the caveat of upending a defenseless Raptors unit.
Still, the Wizards' play in the first round is more than a symptom of Toronto's malaise. It's a reflection of their two-way potential when everything and everyone is clicking. And for that, they must be taken seriously in the coming rounds, regardless of which team they're facing.
For that, they are every bit as dangerous as their four-game shellacking of the Raptors implies.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
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