The big teams of the East have not yet reached the summit of the conference. At the moment, a surprising quartet trustees the first places with a common record (4 wins – 1 loss). Alongside the expected outsiders, Knicks and Bulls, we find the Hornets and Wizards.
They have not had such a good start to the year since the 2014-2015 season. At the time, young Bradley Beal was still John Wall’s lieutenant. This tandem was supported by a Paul Pierce at the end of his career.
The collective feeling about this start of the season? ” We haven’t accomplished anything yet », Retorts the local superstar. Bradley Beal’s speech is shared by his new teammate, Kyle Kuzma: “ In reality, it doesn’t mean anything. “And the former Lakers winger to recall that Jason Kidd, then an assistant in Los Angeles, had taught him that the regular season was only a rehearsal before the” grand bal » des playoffs.
The final stages remain an accessible goal for this team which was completely upset this summer. A year after turning the page on John Wall, Washington opened a new chapter by trading Russell Westbrook to the Lakers to reclaim Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
All three holders last night against the Hawks, they all three responded to clinch the fourth victory of this season. In support of Bradley Beal, the first confirmed his solid debut (21 points and 8 rebounds), the second took advantage of a rare start to sign a second double-double in a row (25 points and 13 rebounds) and the third achieved his best outing so far (21 points).
A sense of trust
It is of course still early to draw conclusions from this summer exchange. The fact is that, as we had imagined before the resumption, Bradley Beal should have less to multiply the offensive cards to make his team exist. The rear, which is running at just 21.5 points average, now has more than one warrior to back it up. Especially since the trio of former Lakers, we must add another gunner, Spencer Dinwiddie (20 points average).
« There is a feeling of confidence ”, remark Wes Unseld Jr. “It’s not arrogance, but we’ve put a lot of time and work into it and we still have a lot of work to do. It’s good to be in the position we’re in, to have started that way, but we haven’t finished. »
Note also that, unlike the Bulls for example, the Wizards, without facing teams from the West, did not benefit from the easiest calendar (Raptors, Pacers, Nets, Celtics and Hawks). Note also that the Wizards reached this ratio without two major players, used to being tenured (Rui Hachimura and Thomas Bryant), and that they lost Daniel Gafford, revelation at the end of last season.
The signs of optimism are therefore numerous within the franchise of the capital. But Wes Unseld Jr. warns, “ We cannot afford to be satisfied. »
| Tirs | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Tirs | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Until | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Fte | Pts |
| Bradley Beal | 4 | 34.7 | 35.9 | 17.2 | 100.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 4.5 | 3.8 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 21.5 |
| Spencer Dinwiddie | 4 | 29.0 | 44.4 | 50.0 | 100.0 | 0.8 | 3.8 | 4.5 | 6.0 | 1.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 19.8 |
| Montrezl Harrell | 5 | 30.7 | 66.1 | 0.0 | 75.9 | 2.8 | 6.6 | 9.4 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 19.2 |
| Kyle Kuzma | 5 | 34.6 | 42.0 | 30.3 | 50.0 | 1.6 | 9.4 | 11.0 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 15.2 |
| Kentavious Caldwell-pope | 5 | 29.6 | 52.6 | 50.0 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 11.0 |
| Raulzinho Neto | 4 | 23.1 | 48.4 | 14.3 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 8.5 |
| Daniel Gafford | 4 | 17.5 | 70.6 | 0.0 | 72.7 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 4.0 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 8.0 |
| Aaron Holiday | 5 | 19.9 | 41.4 | 45.5 | 83.3 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 2.2 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 6.8 |
| Davis Bertans | 5 | 18.7 | 39.3 | 38.1 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 6.8 |
| Deni Avdija | 5 | 19.2 | 31.8 | 27.3 | 80.0 | 1.0 | 3.6 | 4.6 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 5.0 |
| Isaiah Todd | 1 | 4.5 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 |
| Corey Kispert | 4 | 9.0 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| Joel ayayi | 1 | 3.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
