After a shootout with the Houston Rockets on Thursday night, the Wizards returned to action last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wizards came into the game with promise and with Karl Anthony Towns serving the first of a two game suspension for an altercation with Joel Embiid, they were primed to get their first win of the season. What happened was the complete opposite.
The Wizards came out flat and uninspired and the Wolves jumped on them early. Poor shot selection, bad defense, lack of communication and no aggression were their undoing as they fell to Minnesota 131-109.
There weren’t many positives for the Wizards throughout the night. Beal ended the game with 30 points and Isaiah Thomas added 16 points in 20 minutes but he has some careless turnovers in what was an all around poor showing from the home team.
Andrew Wiggins started off the game on a mission and Jeff Teague joined the party early as well. Teague was scoring and facilitating effectively ending the first half with a near double-double (10 points, 9 assists). Wiggins also added 14 points and 4 assists in the first half with Covington and Dieng chipping in with 10 and 15 points respectively to give Minnesota a 70-56 lead going into the half.
The Wizards will be back in action on Monday night against the Detroit Pistons. Hopefully they will have had some time to shake this one off and be ready to compete. Here are some thoughts on Saturday’s loss.
