Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
A lot has changed in 47 years in Wizards/ Bullets history. They no longer play in Landover, they do have a person by the name of Wes Unseld on the team, but he is the Head Coach. Oh yes, did we mention they are in first place and off a to a 10-3 start, which is the best in 47 years. Oh My!!
Call it what you want, but even without Bradley Beal in the line-up, the Wizards battled their way back to a 105-100 victory over the Zionless New Orleans Pelicans and finished with another complete team effort.
Tonight’s victory also tied the second-best start in franchise history with 1968-69 when they also went 10-3. Both of those teams featured Wes Unseld Sr. in the heyday of his legendary playing career.
Spencer Dinwiddie clearly is making his presence known on this team and he solely Wizards on his back in the third quarter to get them back in this game. They were down 17 points at halftime, but then went on a 20-8 run to cut it all the way down to five. He led the way with 14 points and four assists in the quarter. He shot 4-for-7 overall and 3-for-4 from three.
We just woke up — I think we flipped a switch,” said forward Deni Advija. “When we play together and we have that right energy, it’s very hard to stop us.”
New Orleans continues to struggle late in games and has not really found a balanced scoring effort on a nightly basis without Zion Williamson in the line-up. They certainly have a better than 2-13 team and 1-7 on the road, but just like tonight, solid teams find ways to beat them. The Wizards have been on the other side of the coin many of times, just tonight was another example of how different this Wizards team is so far in the first 13 games.
One big key in this game is that the Wizards held an opponent at 100 or fewer points for the sixth time in 13 games. They only did that five times last season.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope finished with 18 points and hit four 3 pointers. Another big difference is many of the Wizards are sharing the ball quite a bit more this season as evidenced with Dinwiddie’s nine assists. Montrezel Harrell has also scored in double figures in every game so far this season.
