National Basketball Association with an emphasis in covering the Washington Wizards.
The Washington Wizards feel cozy when in chaos.
While headlines about the team focus on everything but actual basketball and the din of scrutiny grows louder by the day, for some inconceivable reason, the Wizards look stable. They look like they care on the court. They play hard and play together. And in one of their toughest stretches of the early calendar, they have beaten three Western Conference teams that should all be in the playoffs by the time this regular season drags to an end.
[Wizards get defensive when it counts, outlast James Harden and the Rockets in overtime]
The Wizards are playing their best basketball of the young season at a time when the tumult has ratcheted up to 10. Just over the last few weeks, John Wall was accused of partying too much. Verbal altercations disrupted a Nov. 15 practice then leaked out into the public. A report indicated Washington was open to listening to all trade scenarios, even involving all-stars Wall and Bradley Beal. A former in-game host went on a Twitter rant against team President Ernie Grunfeld the morning after he was celebrated by the Wizards and the former video coordinator “confirmed” an account that Beal wants to escape Washington.
Even for 11-year veteran center Jason Smith, who knows what it’s like being over-covered during his lone season with the New York Knicks (2014-15), the first 20 games have produced an unusual amount of attention.
“We got a lot of news coverage, that’s for sure,” Smith said. “Whether it’s good or bad, we’ve got a lot of coverage.”
And Monday, while under the microscope again, Washington rallied back from a 17-point deficit in the first quarter and survived a 54-point night from MVP James Harden to defeat the Houston Rockets in overtime, 135-131.
The game was entertaining and the atmosphere created by the announced crowd of 16,872 was electric and yet, it was ignored by those who only watch the Wizards while sipping tea. An ESPN national radio producer shared a tweet to his 50,000 followers about the teams going into overtime and playing “five more minutes” and interpreted that as a countdown to the end of another bumpy night in Washington.
But for those who did watch on NBA TV, they witnessed the Wizards get their third win in four games since making a shift in the starting lineup. Markieff Morris, the newly-minted sixth man, was asked if he felt like things were starting to turn around and he couldn’t keep a wry smile from spreading on his face as he worked up to his zinger.
“Just got to wait and see, man,” Morris told reporters. “Beginning of the year, you know how y’all guys get: ‘Blow the whole thing up!’ We just gonna wait and see.”
That’s also good advice for the gallery of onlookers, who are waiting to see what’s the next narrative to emerge from the Wizards' locker room.
Dwight Howard, who spent much of the last weekend as a trending topic following an unsubstantiated social media post, missed his fourth straight game while dealing with “gluteal soreness,” a pain that stems from a previous piriformis muscle injury. He did not take part in the team’s morning shoot-around, and instead received treatment away from the court. Before the game, things seemed normal. Howard’s pregame meal of chicken strips, brown rice and broccoli waited for him. His workout gear was bundled on his seat and black Nike flip flops were placed near his stall. The only hint this wasn’t just another night: as Howard changed clothes for a private workout, several of the team’s public relations staffers lingered nearby, which doesn’t normally happen. Howard did not speak with reporters.
“You know, you just really don’t try to feed into it,” Morris said about how teammates are responding to Howard’s latest spin in the news cycle. “Of course, everybody sees it, but we don’t really make no decisions or make any judgments until you get to the bottom of it and regardless, you know, he’s a teammate and we just stick with him."
And, it appears, cable decision-makers are sticking with the Wizards, too.
Dennis Scott spent the day in his hometown as part of the NBA TV “Players Only” crew. The onetime three-point gunner joined the throng of reporters, a number that seems to swell with every new meme created about the Wizards, at shoot-around and revealed how his network executives had previously discussed removing this game from the broadcast schedule.
At the start of the season, both teams were losing games, which doesn’t exactly bode well for a prime time audience. But NBA TV elected to visit Washington. It helped having the Rockets find their footing through a five-game winning streak and the Wizards — well, it helped watching their season appear like an overturned semi-truck on the side of the road that’s burst into flames.
“So much going on here in the nation’s capital right now with this team,” Scott said. “I think the powers-that-be wanted to switch it back."
Hours before the game, Scott was asked how the broadcast would handle all the news swirling around the Wizards. Scott shrugged because it was still the afternoon, and way too early to script a nighttime soap. But to Scott’s credit, in his role as analyst and sideline reporter, when he conducted the postgame interview with Beal, he did not shy away from a touchy subject.
Two hours before tip-off, NBA writer Chris Sheridan tweeted that a source said Beal “made it known in no uncertain teams that he wants out of Washington pronto.” Beal’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, shot down the report, telling The Post: “That is absolutely not true. The only sources that would know Brad thinkings are Brad and myself. And Brad’s focus is 100 percent on helping the Wizards play consistent, winning basketball.”
After the Wizards' balanced win, Scott allowed Beal to chime in.
“This franchise has been going through a lot this season,” Scott said, setting up a question to Beal, who would call the report “nonsense.”
These distractions could fill a calendar for most teams. For the Wizards, they just call this November. And when it seems like everything’s ablaze in Washington, the Wizards find a way to pull up a chair and warm their hands to the fire.
Read more:
Otto Porter Jr. played in the fourth quarter, and it paid off for the Wizards
Big men sit but big names do the trick in Wizards’ win over the Pelicans
Stoic as usual, Markieff Morris accepts his benching, which may last for a while
At least one observer believes the Wizards are ready to blow up. In a good way.
