Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
We were just one night removed from what might have been the best Wizards performance against the Nuggets last night that grabbed them their first win since back in October.
Tonight, it was like the Wizards of old as the Wizards failed to find a single combination of defense that helped to contain the Grizzlies, who were without Ja Morant (back soreness) but it didn’t seem t matter as the battle of the Jr’s took over with Scottie Pippen Jr. (14 points 12 assists) and Jaren Jackson Jr. (21 points) leading the way
The Grizzlies shot 52.1% from the floor and 39.5% from 3-point range to win their third straight and ninth out of 10.
The biggest stat of the night for the Wizards was their horrendous 3-point shooting. The Wizards missed their first 11 3-point attempts Bilal Coulibaly hit Washington’s first basket from beyond the arc, it was only good enough to cut its deficit to 57-40. This is where it continued to go downhill even further with nothing to stop the sliding.
Jonas Valanciunas led the Wizards with 20 points and 14 rebounds. In addition, Coulibaly added 17 points. It appeared the Keefe also could not find the combination to stop the outside shooting of the Grizzlies at any point in the game. He failed to get Valanciunas going early as he did last night against Denver and it showed late in the game.
Wizards Head Coach Brian Keefe identified that there was quite a bit of work to do before they face the Cavs on Friday of this week coming up.
“We have to get lost in the work to find some consistency,” said Keefe. Our opportunity to stack practices will also help this coming week.”
Next up for the Wizards a trip to visit Cleveland on Friday night.
