Here are five plays or moments from the Washington Wizards' 101-91 loss to the Houston Rockets on Monday night at the Toyota Center that are worth revisiting...
1. We'll get to the game very soon.
But first here is John Wall arriving at the stadium in Houston with a bright red Snoopy sweater. We at CSN went ahead and helped him out with some theme music to go along with it:
When you play like Wall, you can wear whatever you want. Check this coast-to-coast drive and dish by the Wall Star:
2. Did you know Jason Smith could dunk like this? Watch him throw down a big one on the other end of a botched alley-oop by the Rockets:
3. This may have been the play of the night, at least judging by the reaction on Twitter. Wall went between his legs to set up Marcin Gortat for a dunk with a beautiful pass:
4. That play was pretty and so was this one. Here is a steal by Kelly Oubre, Jr. setting up a pretty assist from Wall to Otto Porter for the alley-oop:
5. And finally, here's another nice defensive play by Oubre to set up another assist by Wall, his 10th of the night:
[RELATED: Takeaways from Wizards' road loss to Rockets]
Before he joined the Los Angeles Lakers as part of a blockbuster summer that saw them land Anthony Davis, before he won the NBA Finals as a role player with the Golden State Warriors, and before he averaged double-digit scoring and won the NCAA tournament at Duke, Quinn Cook was a star point guard at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Md.
Cook was in town this week for his fourth annual youth basketball camp at First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Landover. NBC Sports Washington’s Chris Miller sat down with the former Stag, who he’s known since the now-Lakers guard was 14 years old, on the Wizards Talk podcast.
Miller talked with Cook about why he feels connected to kids in the local community and what it was like losing his father as a teenager. One of his closest friends is fellow DeMatha product Victor Oladipo, who helped him get through the loss of his father Ted when he died suddenly in 2008 after going into a coma following a colon procedure.
“My best friend Norman and Victor, their parents took them out of school, and they were with me for two weeks,” Cook said. “At the funeral, [head coach Mike] Jones had the entire DeMatha basketball program…come to the funeral and all sit together [with] their uniforms on.”
Cook also went on to talk about his time at Duke, the viral video in which he convinced some people at the mall he was J Cole and his obsession with winning before going into how he landed in Los Angeles this offseason.
“When Golden State withdrew their qualifying offer, I became unrestricted and had some teams call me and the Lakers thing, it just happened quick,” Cook said. “I had talks with them, AD called me, [LeBron James] called Rob Palinka for me, and Coach K called them, talked to Bron and stuff and we got it done.”
Check out the full podcast below and listen to Miller talk hoops every week on the Wizards Talk podcast.
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The Dwight Howard saga continues, this time turning the clock back to 2013.
The 33-year-old center, who only played nine games for the Wizards a season ago, will be bought out by the Memphis Grizzlies and sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Los Angeles reportedly expressed interest in Howard after center Demarcus Cousins tore his ACL during a workout last week.
Howard was famously traded to the Lakers during the 2012 offseason and spent the 2012-13 season before signing with the Houston Rockets in free agency.
In his lone season for the Purple and Gold, Howard averaged 17.1 points while grabbing 12.4 rebounds. But those numbers took a considerable dip from his final season in Orlando.
The year prior, the dynamic center averaged 20.6 points with 14.5 boards per game. While he dealt with injury, the Lakers significantly underperformed during Howard's lone season in Hollywood. It took miraculous play from Kobe Bryant to will the Lakers into playoff position before the future Hall of Famer ruptured his Achilles that April. The Lakers were swept in the first round of the playoffs.
But Howard won't be asked to be a superstar during his reunion in Los Angeles. The Lakers, of course, traded for Anthony Davis this offseason, pairing one of the best big men in the NBA with LeBron James.
In Howard's last full season, which was in 2017, he averaged 16.6 points and 12.5 rebounds for the Charlotte Hornets in 30 minutes. If the eight-time All-Star can come even near that production, the Lakers should be thrilled with their late summer signing.
Maybe this go-round will be when Howard wins a title with the Lakers?
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