The Washington Wizards are 0-6, and that really doesn’t do justice to how poorly they have played.
After another loss Wednesday night — a game that started with a 12-0 Orlando run, that started with Washington going 0-12 shooting, and never got much better — John Wall let his frustrations out, speaking with Michael Lee of the Washington Post.
Actually, Wall should be able to get his own bucket whenever. Especially in transition, if the Wizards would run more. But he’s right about everything else — the Wizards end up working hard for every shot and get no easy buckets because they do not work as a team. There is little ball movement and there seems to be a lot of isolations (which is not what coach Flip Saunders is drawing up). That is why they are shooting just 39.2 percent as a team and why they are dead last in the league in offensive efficiency.
Wall is not the only one saying it. Here are other quotes from the same article.“Right now, we playing as individuals and we got to change it ASAP,” Jordan Crawford said.
“Nobody came to compete. To me, we didn’t even come out playing hard,” Rashard Lewis said in his embarrassing return to Orlando. “I know that Orlando Magic team. And to me, they played pretty well, but they didn’t play nearly as hard as they should have. The game was easy for them tonight. We went through the motions and nobody competed….
“The way [the Magic] played tonight as a team, that’s what we’ve got to get to,” Lewis said. “We got to watch teams like them. Teams like the Boston Celtics, setting screens for each other, getting easy looks, doing the little things to win ball games. It’s not all about stats, individual play, trying to make a name for yourself in this league. I think when you play together and you win ball games everybody gets noticed. You’ve got to get individual out of the way with this team.”