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With the playoffs beginning this weekend, the Wizards are heading into the last week of the regular season looking to string together two wins.
Washington will host Boston on Tuesday and then head to Orlando on Wednesday in a back-to-back to complete the season.
Slotted currently at the No. 8 seed, the Wizards would play the Raptors if the season ended today. The Heat and Bucks remain a game ahead of the Wizards, with the Heat owning the tiebreaker. If the Wizards win both of their remaining games and the Bucks split their final two games (vs. Magic and at Sixers), Washington will be the No. 7 seed. The Heat also own the tiebreaker over the Wizards, but two Washington wins and two Miami losses would move the Wizards past the Heat. Miami will take on the Thunder and Raptors this week, both at home.
6. Miami Heat 43-37 (15.0 GB)
7. Milwaukee Bucks 43-37 (15.0 GB)
8. Washington Wizards 42-38 (16.0 GB)
The Bucks have incentive to move up to the No. 6 seed – if they finish as the sixth seed or higher in the East, they keep their first-round draft pick this season since they would be picking 17th or higher in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Regardless of how the playoff picture looks, the Wizards are focused on themselves and playing better as a team. Even with John Wall out for half the season, there may have been opportunity to move up in the standings, but the team can’t focus on that. Making the playoffs still gives any team an opportunity to make noise in the postseason.
“Being in the playoffs is not disappointing,” Scott Brooks said on Sunday. “With where we are, sure I’d love to be in a higher seed. We’re worried about ourselves, we gotta play better. We gotta string some games together; have a good showing the next two games. Competitive spirit on both ends and for each other.”
On Sunday, the team held an honest film session in which the coaching staff showed clips from recent games as well as highlights from the Wizards’ playoff run last season. Brooks pointed out that playing for each other and being unselfish doesn’t only happen on the offensive end, that helping on switches and preventing back-door passes are a vital part of playing as one unit.
“Looking at the things we were doing over the course of the year, over the course of the last couple games,” Bradley Beal said about the film session. “Just seeing our demeanor and our approach and seeing two different teams. They showed us clips of us last year in the playoffs. Just our intensity, our focus, our grit and grind, attention for detail for everything was a lot better. So, that’s who we need to be.”
With Wall set to play Tuesday, the Wizards hope to start playing like they did in those playoffs. They don’t want to wait until this weekend to do so; there are two opportunities against the Celtics and Magic to get back to that intensity, attention to detail, and playing for each other.
The Wizards and Celtics will play at 8:00pm on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena, a nationally televised game. Washington will then play in Orlando at 8:00pm on Wednesday.
“I’m really hoping and praying when we’re going to hit those playoffs, the first game of the playoffs – maybe not even the playoffs,” Marcin Gortat said Sunday. “Let’s do this on Tuesday and Wednesday. We’re going to get out on the court, and we’re going to show who we are and what we represent and what we stand for. From being a defensive team, being a team with character and having a lot of veterans knowing what to do, sharing the ball, playing for each other, and having fun.
“Hopefully you’re going to see the best of us.”