Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
There are some teams in the NBA that have so much offensive power that they often do not need much defense, but the Wizards have just two offensive powers that in Wall and Beal that just could not defend the 1-10 Dallas Mavericks.
Washington finally got a big run thanks to a bench unit anchored by Otto Porter and Jason Smith that made it a one possession game, but that was as close as they’d get. When Dallas’ starters returned, they opened the lead back up to double digits and pulled away for a comfortable win.
“I have to find a better way to work on defense,” said Wizards Head Coach Scott Brooks. “We can’t settle for the results like tonight for too many more games.”
Harrison Barnes scored 31 points, rookie Dennis Smith Jr. had 22 and the Dallas Mavericks snapped a six-game losing streak with a 113-99 victory.
Wesley Matthews made four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points for Dallas, which has won 14 of its last 15 meetings with Washington. It was just the second win on the season for the Mavericks.
For the Wizards, hopefully they will be able to get things going on Thursday night against the Lakers. This will be a game of revenge for the loss in Los Angeles last week and hopefully payback for LaVar Ball’s comments about defeating the Wizards and his son Lonzo able to take Wall and his team.
After the game, most of the players seemed to want to look forward to the rematch on Thursday night, but didn’t want to start the talking after the lackluster performance on court tonight.
