The Washington Post - 12.11.2019

d4 eZ M2 the washington post.tuesday, november 12 , 2019

ASSOCIATED PRESS

K emba Walker made three key
three-pointers in the fourth quar-
ter and finished with 29 points,
Jaylen Brown added 2 5 points and
11 rebounds, and Boston beat the
visiting Dallas mavericks, 116-106,
on monday night in the Celtics’
first game since Gordon Hayward
had surgery on his broken left
hand.
Daniel Theis chipped in 11
points and Brad Wanamaker had
10 for Boston, which won its
eighth straight game since a
s eason-opening loss at Philadel-
phia. Jayson Tatum shot 1 for 18
and scored only five points for the
Celtics.
Luka Doncic led the mavericks
with 34 points, nine a ssists and six
rebounds. maxi Kleber had 15
points and eight rebounds, but
Kristaps P orzingis scored just four
points on 1-for-11 shooting.
The Celtics released a state-
ment during the opening quarter
that said Hayward had successful
surgery “to repair a fourth meta-
carpal fracture in his left
[ non-shooting] hand.”
He was injured during their
previous game in San Antonio
when he collided with Lamarcus
Aldridge as the Spurs big man set
a screen.
H ayward is expected to be out
for about six weeks.
Hayward, 29, m issed all but five
minutes of the 2017-18 season af-
ter breaking his leg in the first
quarter of the season opener
against Cleveland.
Hayward returned last season
and played 72 games, most of
them off the bench, and averaged
11.5 points and 4.5 rebounds. He
was averaging 19 points, four as-
sists and a career-high seven re-
bounds over the first seven games
this s eason.
“ He’ll be out a little bit and go
from there, and he’ll come back,”
Coach Brad Stevens said before
the game. “This is not a season-
ending thing. There’s a silver lin-
ing whenever you miss games —
you’re more fresh in the end. He’s
playing great, but there’s other
guys that are ready to step up and
fill the void.”
l TiMBErwOLVEs 1 20,
P isTONs 114: In Detroit,
A ndrew Wiggins scored 33 points
as minnesota spoiled Blake
G riffin’s return to the Pistons.
Griffin, who was coming back
from hamstring and knee issues,
played for the first time this

s eason. Derrick rose also re-

turned to the Detroit lineup from

a strained hamstring, but both he

and G riffin played limited min-

utes.

Griffin scored 19 points, but

rose a dded just six. Luke Kennard

led Detroit with 25 points.

Karl-Anthony To wns scored 25

points for minnesota, which

snapped an eight-game losing

streak a gainst the Pistons.

l GrizzLiEs 113, sPUrs

109: Jaren Jackson Jr. had 24

points as memphis put a damper

on To ny Parker’s j ersey retirement

by beating host San Antonio.

Parker’s uniform was lifted to

the rafters alongside fellow Big

Three members Tim Duncan and

manu Ginóbili following the

game. They led San Antonio to

four o f its five championships and

have the most wins (541) of any

trio in league history.

Dillon Brooks had 21 points a nd

Jonas Valanciunas added 18

points and 12 rebounds for mem-

phis. Aldridge had 19 points for

San Antonio.

l rOCKETs 1 22, PELiCaNs

116: James Harden scored 39

points, including 13 straight dur-

ing the fourth quarter, and visit-

ing Houston beat New orleans.

russell Westbrook had 26

points and Clint Capela added 11

points and 20 rebounds to help

the rockets to their fourth

straight w in.

JJ redick had 24 points, Josh

Hart scored 19, and Jrue Holiday

added 18 points, 11 assists and

nine r ebounds for the Pelicans.

Curry ‘definitely’ sees return

Golden State star Stephen Cur-

ry said he “definitely” plans to

return this season from his bro-

ken left hand and is hoping to be

back on the court at “some point

in early spring.”

When exactly the two-time

NBA mVP will be able to play

again remains uncertain. Curry

addressed the media monday for

the first time since getting injured

oct. 30 and s aid he needs a second

surgery on his non-shooting hand,

probably in early December, to

remove pins that were inserted

during the first procedure Nov. 1

that involved his hand and index

finger.

l BUCKs: milwaukee forward

Khris middleton is expected to be

sidelined for up to a month after

suffering a left t high contusion.

middleton was hurt during

Sunday night’s 121-119 win at

oklahoma City. An mrI exam

c onfirmed the injury.

middleton has averaged 18.5

points, 5.7 rebounds and 2. 9

a ssists in 10 games this s eason.

nba roundup

Hayward-less Boston

prevails behind Walker

CeLtICs 116,

MaVerICKs 106

and jump into me. People’s eyes

are on me, and I don’t r eally care. I

want to stop that man in that

situation.”

outside of practice, when the

pressure m ounts a nd there’s m ore

at stake than getting scored on by

a teammate, the Wizards must

build better defensive habits.

Without them, they will continue

to get called out — by the relent-

less scorers of the NBA.

“We can’t give up 70 points in

the first half, especially at home,”

Wagner said, referencing the 76

points the Wizards allowed to the

Houston rockets on oct. 30. “You

got to come out with a mentality

to protect home court. I think we

all got to look ourselves in the

mirror and take that very serious-

ly, because I do think it’s a

p roblem.”

[email protected]

moritz Wagner also was selected

by Brooks t o take the challenge.

“I just feel like Coach is trying to

call me and mo out at that point,

for us to get stops,” Brown said. “It

can be anybody, but I think it’s

more of a pride thing, and Coach

wants to see who’s going to take

the initiative and guard.”

Wagner, who has struggled to

stay on the floor because of foul

trouble, didn’t mind the pressure

of being a solo defender in front of

his teammates. He is used to the

attention — and the referee’s g lare

— being on him as the last line of

defense.

“When you’re out here and you

play in front of people, there’s

always eyes on you,” said Wagner,

who entered monday tied for 10th

in the league with 3.9 personal

fouls per game. “fast-[expletive]

guards come off the ball screen

won’t b e the last.
“It’s not a secret: We have to be
better defensively,” Brooks said.
“We have a good group of guys
that want to be good defenders,
but it takes time.”
It’s still early in the 82-game
schedule, but the Wizards have
displayed poor habits on defense.
Washington entered the week
ranked 28th of 30 teams in defen-
sive rating (112.7), which mea-
sures how many points a team
allows per 100 possessions.
There have been bright spots,
such as the Wizards limiting cor-
ner three-pointers (the shot of
choice in the modern NBA) —
opponents shoot only 31.8 percent
from the left s ide and 38.1 percent
from the right, according t o statis-
tics from NBA.com. But they still
allow opponents to convert with
45.9 percent efficiency in the
paint, which was second worst.
“It’s like that old cartoon,”
Brooks said. “You plug one hole,
the water comes out of another
spot. You plug that one, and it
comes out [elsewhere]. That’s
what we have to do right now.
That’s w hy w e don’t p anic, and it’s
teaching mode. They have to be
able to understand every day
we’re going to come in and work
on the things that we need to work
on. We have to build that founda-
tion.”
Even though the season has
entered its third week, that foun-
dation appears shaky — which is
why Brooks spent Sunday forcing
several players to get a stop on
command.
After being called on,
Hachimura grabbed the ball near
the top of the free throw line, and
center Thomas Bryant stepped up
to play defense. Hachimura was
allowed only two dribbles and de-
cided to go inside, but Bryant
deflected his shot at the rim. Bry-
ant spared the rookie from trash
talk as Hachimura returned to his
spot, ready for the next one-on-
one contestant.

wizards from d1

“Get s ome, Troy,” g uard Bradley

Beal commanded from the side-

line, prompting second-year play-

er Troy Brown Jr. to meet

Hachimura at t he elbow.

Brown had several moments in

the defensive spotlight; Brooks

earlier had chosen him to get

three consecutive stops. Center

Wizards’ neXt tHree

at boston celtics

tomorrow 7:30 nBcsw

at Minnesota timberwolves

Fr iday8nBcsw+

at orlando Magic

sunday6nBcsw

Radio: WFED (1500 AM)

Even in practice, the Wizards’ defense gets called out

Jonathan newton/the washington Post

davis Bertans got a hand on this shot, but the wizards are allowing 112 .7 points per 100 possessions.

FROM NEWS SERVICES

AND STAFF REPORTS

T wo days after shocking the

best team in the world, the

top-ranked oregon Ducks easily

won their season opener.

ruthy Hebard had 21 points

and 12 rebounds as the oregon

women easily downed North-

eastern, 89-47, on monday in

Eugene, ore. A ll-American g uard

Sabrina I onescu added 12 points,

eight rebounds and six assists for

the Ducks.

Ionescu’s three-pointer with

just over five minutes left

stretched oregon’s lead to 78-45.

She went to the bench with just

under three minutes to go.

L ydia Giomi added 18 points

and nine rebounds for oregon,

which downed the U.S. women’s

national team, 93-86, in an exhi-

bition game Saturday, handing

the Americans only their second

loss ever to a college program.

Stella Clark led Northeastern

(0-2) with 12 points.

Satou Sabally, who scored 25

points against the U.S. national

team, was not with the Ducks

against the Huskies because of

obligations with the German na-

tional team. She’s missing ore-

gon’s first three games.

Sabally’s absence helped open

the door for Giomi’s big night. At

6-foot-6, Giomi was able to show

off her surprising speed.

“ I like to run,” she said. “So I

guess I take it as an advantage

just because it’s what I like to do.

It’s one of my favorite things. It’s

part of why I chose basketball as

a sport.”

Ionescu needed 16 points to

reach 2,000 for her career. She

sits at 18 career triple-doubles,

an NCAA record among men and

women. Last season she had

eight, also an NCAA record.

The Huskies were outmatched

against the nation’s top team.

The Ducks advanced to the final

four last season for the first

time, but they fell, 72-67, to

eventual national champion

B aylor to finish 33-5.

l MississiPPi sTaTE 82,

TENNEssEE MarTiN 46: Jes-

sika Carter scored 19 points to

lead the No. 10 Bulldogs past the

Skyhawks in Starkville, miss.

freshman Aliyah matharu

scored 15 points, including a trio

of three-pointers, and Chloe Bib-

by added 12 points and seven

rebounds for mississippi State

(2-0). Zaire Hicks scored 12

points for UT martin (0-2),

which was held scoreless for the

game’s first 6:30.

l NOrTH CarOLiNa 80,

NaVY 40: Taylor Koenen had 21

points and eight rebounds, and

Janelle Bailey added 20 points

and 15 rebounds to lead the Ta r

Heels to an easy victory over the

midshipmen in Chapel Hill, N.C.

madinah muhammad contrib-

uted 13 points and malu Tshit-

enge (St. John’s) added 11 points

and nine rebounds for North

Carolina (2-0), which raced to a

29-9 lead after one quarter, shot

52.7 percent (29 for 55) and had a

45-27 rebounding advantage.

Jennifer Coleman scored 10

points for Navy (2-1), which was

held to 26.3 percent shooting

( 15 for 57).

saint Mary’s men falter

Chandler Vaudrin scored 19

points to help the Winthrop men

edge No. 18 Saint mary’s, 61-59,

in moraga, Calif.

Josh ferguson had 14 points

for Winthrop (2-1). Jordan ford

scored 22 for the Gaels (1-1).

college basketball roundup

Top-ranked Ducks roll

to easy victory in opener

oregon 89,

northeastern 47

Not even the most

overbearing

D.A.r.E. officer

could have

imagined this

headline: “THC-

infused edible

costs Dion Waiters $2 million.”

The story goes like this:

Waiters suffered a panic attack

after consuming an edible on the

miami Heat’s team plane,

according to miami radio host

Andy Slater and ESPN.com. The

Heat was flying from Phoenix to

Los Angeles on Thursday night,

and Waiters was not with the

team for its friday night game

against the Lakers.

While some social media

users met the news of Waiters’s

plight with stoner humor and

memories of their own bad trips,

the Heat wasn’t laughing in the

slightest.

Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra

walked away from a question

about the incident during his

postgame news conference

friday, and the organization

slapped Waiters with a 10-game

suspension Sunday. In an

unusually stern news release,

the Heat said it was “very

disappointed” i n Waiters over

the “very scary” plane incident,

questioned his “professionalism”

and noted that “there have been

a number of instances this

season in which Dion has

engaged in conduct detrimental

to the team.”

The financial implications

were as grave as the Heat’s

language. Waiters will miss out

on a $1.2 million bonus he could

have collected had he played in

70 games this season, and the

lost money from his 10-game

ban will total more than

$800,000 of his $12.1 million

salary. A 10-game ban is an

extraordinary punishment by

NBA standards, because such

penalties usually only come

from the league office, rather

than a team, and are reserved

for major fights, serious drug

violations or other heavy

misconduct.

Waiters’s time in miami has

unfolded in three acts. one: He

turned the best season of his

career into a four-year,

$52 million contract in 2017, and

he briefly appeared to be a

potential centerpiece. Two: A

string of injuries, coupled with

Dwyane Wade’s retirement tour,

moved him out of the spotlight.

Three: frustration over his

playing time, and the arrival of

younger players at his position,

left him as an afterthought.

The 27-year-old guard, who

was suspended for the season

opener after reportedly getting

into an argument with Spoelstra,

has yet to play this season. In

addition to his two suspensions,

Waiters was fined by miami last

season for publicly expressing

frustration over his minutes.

meanwhile, the Heat is off to a

6 -3 start thanks to quality

contributions from new

franchise player Jimmy Butler

and promising rookies Ty ler

Herro and Kendrick Nunn. The

Heat doesn’t need Waiters, now

or in the future.

miami would trade Waiters in

a heartbeat, but that’s easier said

than done. He has posted a

below-average player efficiency

rating in each of his seven

seasons; he has missed 126

games over the past three years;

he is a shoot-first guard who is a

career 41 percent shooter; and

he is on the books for a

combined $24 million this

season and next. of course, his

plane misbehavior just tanked

his market value even further.

Back in the rosier days of 2017,

Waiters penned an illuminating

essay for the Players’ Tribune

about his tragic upbringing and

signature self-confidence. The

South Philadelphia native

explained that both of his

parents had been shot by the

time he was 12 years old and

that many of his family members

and friends had been killed.

“Because of everything I’d

seen and lost, I decided from a

young age: You know what? I’m

just gonna [expletive] ball out,”

Waiters wrote. “I just willed

myself to be a legend on the

Philly playgrounds.”

That’s the most unsettling

aspect of this episode: His career

is at a crossroads, and there is

no resolution in sight. Waiters

has laid out his deep-seated

need to play and to score. The

Heat has discovered a winning

formula that doesn’t involve

him, and it will struggle to move

him.

A stubborn, proud player is

staring down a stubborn, proud

organization that just threw the

book at him. If no one blinks,

isn’t an untenable situation

bound to get worse?

[email protected]

After edible incident, Heat seems fed up with Waiters

on the

nBa

Ben

Golliver

John raoux/associated Press

dion waiters has not played this season, and Miami suspended the 2 7-year-old guard for 10 games.