The Wizards went to Indiana with a defensive plan — pack the paint, double and triple Pascal Siakam every time he tried to attack, and dare the Pacers to shoot. And it worked! Washington outscored the Pacers in the paint, 50-38.
The Wizards led by 11 at the half, 15 at the end of three, and 19 at the end of the game. It was Washington’s fourth win in 24 games.
Wizards forward Justin Champagnie gets a dunk against the Indiana Pacers.
Wizards forward Justin Champagnie gets a dunk against the Indiana Pacers.
NBAE via Getty Images
It was a physical, chippy contest and for once, the Wizards won on the boards overall (56-41), and on the offensive glass (17-11).
The Wizards did not shoot well in this one, but the Pacers couldn’t hit anything — 25.6% from three-point range and an effective field goal percentage of just 42.9%. Indiana has been awful this season with Tyrese Haliburton out with the Achilles tear, Myles Turner playing for Milwaukee, and much of the roster either injured or working their way back from injury.
This was the Pacers’ sixth worst shooting night of the season, and the best defensive performance by the Wizards this season. Their previous best defensive eFG% 46.9% in a Nov. 10 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Looping back to my lead paragraph, what impressed me last night was Washington’s execution of their defensive game plan. They sagged in the lane — on many possessions, all five defenders had a foot in the paint — showed up in driving lanes, and then did an admirable job of sprinting at shooters and rotating when the Pacers drove a closeout. It was a good plan that was well executed.
While the forgoing is 100% true, it’s also good to keep in mind this particular plan may not work quite as well with better shooting opponents. Indiana this season ranks 29th in three-point shooting. If you’re going to dare someone to shoot, it’d be this squad. Still, good plan, good execution is an exciting development for this group.
And by the way, Siakam — the primary target of Washington’s defense — had just 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. He shot 4-12 from the floor and got just three free throws.
Thoughts & Observations
A few days ago, I suggested the Wizards de-emphasize playing fast. Last night, was their slowest-paced game of the season — just 91 possessions. It was also their best defensive game of the year.
It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that the Wizards did a better job on the boards on a night they gave major minutes (finally!) to Justin Champagnie (3 offensive and 11 defensive boards), and Marvin Bagley III (9 offensive rebounds! and 5 defensive rebounds).
Washington’s offense was efficient (119 offensive rating — points scored per possession x 100) because of offensive rebounding and limiting turnovers.
While their 19 assists tied for their third lowest total of the season, it was good to see Kyshawn George with 9 and Bub Carrington with 5.
Tre Johnson can shoot! He hit 3-4 from three, including one on-the-move fading shot that made me think of Reggie Miller.
Bagley was impressive — 23 points on 14 shots, 14 rebounds, solid defense with lots of communication. He’s bounced around a bit, but he has talent.
Justin Champagnie is feasting on the extended playing time. To me, it’s a no-brainer — even when the team is fully healthy, he should be a fixture in the starting lineup until he either demonstrates he shouldn’t be there, or someone can win the job from him.
Four Factors
Below are the four factors that decide wins and losses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).
The four factors are measured by:
eFG% (effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the three-point shot)
OREB% (offensive rebound percentage)
TOV% (turnover percentage — turnovers divided by possessions)
FTM/FGA (free throws made divided by field goal attempts)
### FOUR FACTORS ### WIZARDS ### PACERS ### LGAVG
eFG% 51.7% 42.9% 54.5%
OREB% 36.2% 22.0% 26.2%
TOV% 12.1% 8.8% 13.0%
FTM/FGA 0.180 0.202 0.219
PACE 91 100.0
ORTG 119 98 115.9
Stats & Metrics
PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls).
PPA is a per possession metric designed for larger data sets. In small sample sizes, the numbers can get weird. In PPA, 100 is average, higher is better and replacement level is 45. For a single game, replacement level isn’t much use, and I reiterate the caution about small samples sometimes producing weird results.
POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.
ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possessions x 100. League average so far this season is 115.1. Points produced is not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as sharing credit when receiving an assist.
USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%.
ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by former Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that accounts for the value of shooting, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.
+PTS = “Plus Points” is a measure of the points gained or lost by each player based on their efficiency in this game compared to league average efficiency on the same number of possessions. A player with an offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) of 100 who uses 20 possessions would produce 20 points. If the league average efficiency is 114, the league — on average — would produced 22.8 points in the same 20 possessions. So, the player in this hypothetical would have a +PTS score of -2.8.
Players are sorted by total production in the game.
### WIZARDS ### MIN ### POSS ### ORTG ### USG ### +PTS ### PPA ### +/-
Marvin Bagley III 32 61 138 29.8% 4.0 233 11
Justin Champagnie 33 62 120 15.5% 0.4 175 23
Tre Johnson 16 30 193 22.1% 5.1 366 9
Bub Carrington 36 69 111 15.3% -0.5 89 12
CJ McCollum 34 65 109 21.8% -0.9 84 10
Kyshawn George 36 68 98 20.9% -2.6 56 13
Will Riley 23 43 133 18.9% 1.4 77 14
Jamir Watkins 15 27 114 6.8% 0.0 -38 -5
Tristan Vukcevic 16 30 64 26.2% -4.2 -140 8
### PACERS ### MIN ### POSS ### ORTG ### USG ### +PTS ### PPA ### +/-
Jay Huff 25 47 138 14.8% 1.5 177 -21
Isaiah Jackson 23 44 117 21.0% 0.1 161 2
Garrison Mathews 19 35 145 15.1% 1.5 120 7
Bennedict Mathurin 32 60 121 20.8% 0.6 52 -21
Johnny Furphy 13 26 123 13.7% 0.2 96 -5
Pascal Siakam 29 54 92 24.0% -3.1 42 -12
Jarace Walker 22 42 83 27.0% -3.7 34 0
T.J. McConnell 15 29 70 29.3% -4.0 2 -1
Andrew Nembhard 30 57 78 22.7% -5.0 -14 -26
Ethan Thompson 24 45 71 10.0% -2.0 -39 -15
Quenton Jackson 8 15 31 21.3% -2.7 -155 -3