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It’s not about how you start. That was the story of the Wizards’ night Tuesday with their backs against the wall facing another big early deficit. What changed in the homestand finale was how Washington responded. The Wizards dusted themselves off with the help of their All-Star back court, outscoring the red-hot Clippers by 26 points in the second half to ride a furious comeback to a 125-118 victory. Washington (now 6-11 on the season) finished its longest homestand of the season 3-2 and now has a signature win to build off of as it looks to climb out of an early-season funk.
John Wall’s 30 points and eight assists paced the Wizards on the night, while Bradley Beal was hot on his heels with 27 points and seven assists of his own. But what the duo did to ignite the rest of their team was perhaps the most important. After trailing by as many as 24 points in the first half, Washington exploded for 71 points in the second, all while holding the Clippers to just 45 after the break (Los Angeles seemingly had control of the game with 73 points in the first half). The turnaround started with pure effort.
"I think the key was we just played harder than them," said head coach Scott Brooks. "I thought we did that in that second half. We were scoring the ball in the second quarter on, we just couldn't get them to miss some shots in the first quarter. They were on fire."
"It’s just effort and heart," Wall added from the locker room after the win. "We played defense. That’s all.”
The Wizards put together arguably their season’s best effort with a little help from everyone. Jeff Green led the second unit with 20 points, while Tomas Satoransky added 13 points (seven rebounds) and Markieff Morris chipped in 12 off the bench. With Dwight Howard sidelined with sore glutes, Thomas Bryant made his first career start, scoring seven points in 19 minutes. Scott Brooks also made a lineup change at forward, starting Kelly Oubre Jr. (three points in 12 minutes) at the ‘3’ and moving Otto Porter Jr. to the ‘4.’
While Morris was moved to the bench in the lineup shakeup, he responded with tough defense and sharp perimeter shooting down the stretch. On the night, he hit a pair of three-pointers and took on the challenge of handling the likes of Montrezl Harrell and others in the post, getting big stops and five rebounds for the game. Morris wasn’t alone in stepping up on the defensive end, as Washington used 20 points off of 19 Clippers turnovers on the night to surge back into the game. In comparison, the Wizards had another encouraging night of their own in protecting possession, committing just seven turnovers themselves.
"I thought the key of the game was Keef [Morris] and Tomas [Satoransky]," said Brooks. "If it wasn't for their games, we probably wouldn't have won. And obviously Jeff [Green] played well off the bench. But Keef, he couldn't buy a bucket in that first half. He missed five easy shots and could have easily gotten down on himself but he came back and made some clutch shots and made all of his free throws."
The Clippers dominated the first quarter, outscoring the Wizards 40-21. Tobias Harris scored 18 of his team-high 29 points in the opening period on 7-of-9 shooting. The Clippers would make 15-of-23 (65.2%) field goals in the first 12 minutes, while the Wizards only made 8-of-24 (33.3%).
The second quarter was even at 33-33, but the Clippers still took a 19-point lead into halftime. They would lead by as many as 24 points in the first half, but the Wizards were a plus-10 in the third quarter to get the game back into single digits. Wall and Beal combined for 20 points in the third quarter – scoring 10 points each. Washington thrived off Los Angeles’ eight turnovers, and got to the free throw line 14 times in the third.
By the 8:12 mark of the fourth quarter, the Wizards were within four points. The teams would go back and forth the next four minutes, and the Wizards took only their second lead of the game on a Morris 3-pointer with 4:26 left in the fourth. From there, the game remained tight until Otto Porter Jr. (11 points) grabbed the most important of his team-high 14 rebounds on the night to reload the offense and find a cutting Green for a dunk that put Washington up six with just over a minute remaining.
The Wizards hope that Tuesday's win will be the spark of a turnaround, but they're also know one game alone can't get them back to where they expect to be by season's end.
"We’ve still got a lot to fix -- it’s one game," said Beal. "I’m still not happy and I know [our team] isn’t happy with where we are. We have a lot of work to do, but we definitely take a lot of positives out of [tonight]."
Next up, the Wizards will take on the Raptors on Friday in Toronto at 7:30 P.M. in the first night of a road-home back-to-back.