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GAME INFO
Gainbridge Fieldhouse | 7 p.m. | TV: NBCSW+ | Radio: The Team 980 & Wizards App
The Wizards are in Indianapolis on Monday night, taking on the Pacers at 7 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Washington will be playing in the second game of a back-to-back, coming off a loss to the Raptors on Sunday night in Toronto. Indiana comes in having lost four games in a row, most recently a 113-104 final to the Heat on Friday night.
Spencer Dinwiddie (right knee injury maintenance) will not play.
INJURY REPORT
WIZARDS: Thomas Bryant (left ACL injury recovery – out), Spencer Dinwiddie (right knee injury maintenance – out), Rui Hachimura (return to competition reconditioning – out)
PACERS: Justin Holiday (health and safety protocols – out), T.J. McConnell (right wrist soreness – out), T.J. Warren (left navicular fracture – out)
STORYLINES
Wizards keeping focus forward amid recent slide
After a 10-3 start to the season, Washington has now lost seven of its last 11 games, including three double-digit losses in its last four outings. The near-franchise-record run to open the season built some room for error, and with 58 games left in the regular season, the wins, losses and standings carry limited weight at this point on the calendar. But identifying and resolving the issues causing the slide – and preventing a snowball effect – will be crucial with a difficult stretch of the schedule looming.
“Our communication has slipped a little bit, but that’s fixable,” Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said after Sunday’s loss. “We have to just get back into film, practice and be ready to go over what we need to go over and fix it.”
“It’s human nature,” Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr. said after the loss in Toronto. “I don’t care how many years you’ve played in the league or you’ve been around, when things aren’t going well, it’s going to test you. Where are you mentally? Can you handle that?...If it’s not working, yeah, we have to change some things, but let’s make sure we’re trying to do it and do it right.”
Capitalizing on opposing defenses
From November 11 to November 17, Bradley Beal scored 20-plus points in six of seven games, including a 30-point game and four games with at least seven assists. In his last four, the playmaking has remained consistent (6.3 assists per game), but the scoring has fallen off. He’s gone four-consecutive games without scoring 20 points, including a 14-point game against the Raptors on Sunday. Unseld Jr. says opposing defense has a lot to do with Beal’s recent numbers – and that one of the keys to freeing up Beal’s offensive game lies in the ability of the surrounding cast to capitalize on the aggressive defense from opposing teams.
“They are doubling him, making him give the ball up – and it’s probably a smart ploy,” Unseld Jr. said. “When he generates shots for other people, we have to be able to knock them down. Once we do, that will help loosen up their pressure (on Beal).”
In this recent stretch of sub-20-point performances from Beal, others have stepped up as Washington’s star takes the brunt of the attention from opposing defenses. Against Toronto, Caldwell-Pope shot 8-9 (.889) from the field and scored a season-high 26 points. In a 115-107 win over the Timberwolves, Beal dished his way out of double teams on his way to nine assists – and Montrezl Harrell came off the bench to score a season-high 27 points on 11-12 (.916) shooting. But on other nights, like losses to San Antonio and Cleveland, the Wizards have struggled to get those secondary scoring performances. More consistent complementary scoring will be vital for Washington to get back to the winning ways that defined their opening month of the season.
Up-and-down Indiana
While the Wizards are playing in the second game of a back-to-back and completing a stretch of three game in four days, the Pacers will be playing on two days’ rest. Indiana, however, has been sliding as of late. Four-straight losses and eight losses in its last 11 games puts Indiana at 9-16 on the season and 13th in the Eastern Conference. Still, the Pacers have managed to maintain a positive net rating through 25 games. All eight of their recent losses have come by single digits while their wins have come by an average of 22.0 points per game. As the Wizards continue to deal with their own night-by-night inconsistencies, Monday’s game could largely in part be decided by which versions of each team shows up.
TICKETS
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