D6 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, JULY 31 , 2020
12 points, and Emma Meesseman
chipped in 10 points, five re-
bounds, four assists and three
steals.
Sami Whitcomb was the only
Seattle player other than Stewart
to score in double figures, finish-
ing with 11 off the bench.
For the third consecutive
game, the shorthanded Mystics
allowed their opponent to rally
in the fourth quarter, but a
four-point play by Atkins extend-
ed the lead to 16 with 4:21 left to
play.
“For whatever reason, we just
didn’t come out with a whole lot
of energy,” Seattle Coach Gary
Kloppenburg said. “They’ve got
some outstanding shooters. I feel
we just gave them too much
room. A team gets momentum
like that and hits some shots,
they get a lot of confidence....
It’s going to happen occasionally.
It’s hard to pinpoint why. It just
looked like we were a step slow
on everything that first half.”
Note: Mystics forward Tianna
Hawkins missed her second
straight game with a lumbar
sprain in her back. She is not
expected to play Saturday
against the Chicago Sky, and
Thibault is hoping she can re-
turn by the middle or later part
of next week.
“She’s not anywhere close to
being on the court yet,” Thibault
said.
[email protected]Coach-General Manager Mike
Thibault said. “But we do move
the basketball. We do force peo-
ple to help. And we’re willing to
make the extra pass. That’s
where you end up with 25 assists
in a game.”
Another strong defensive ef-
fort kept Seattle from finding a
rhythm on offense, and the
Storm finished 26 for 66
(39.4 percent) from the field,
including 5 for 25 (20 percent)
from three-point range, and had
18 turnovers. Bird, a probable
future Hall of Famer, struggled
after going the first two games
without a turnover, committing
three Thursday while recording
only five points and one assist.
Stewart was kept largely in check
despite finishing with 15 points
and 10 rebounds. The Storm,
playing its third game in six days,
seemed a bit tired.
Seattle’s lack of crispness
hardly mattered the way the
Mystics scored at will in the first
half. Myisha Hines-Allen was the
star in the season opener, and
Aerial Powers put on a show the
second time out, but Thursday
saw a bit from everyone. Atkins
was four points shy of matching
her career high, and Hines-Allen
added 17 points and seven re-
bounds. Mitchell had her best
game of the young season, add-
ing six assists to go with her
MYSTICS FROM D1
Mystics weather Storm
for third straight victory
BY SAMANTHA PELLtoronto — Washington Capi-
tals defenseman John Carlson did
not participate in practice Thurs-
day, but the team hopes to have
him back skating Saturday, Coach
Todd Reirden said, ahead of its
first game in the NHL’s restart
Monday.
Carlson did not finish the Capi-
tals’ 3-2 exhibition win against
the Carolina Hurricanes on
Wednesday after he fell awkward-
ly into the boards behind the
Washington net midway through
the third period. The Norris Tro-
phy finalist got up under his own
power and played one more shift
before leaving the ice and going
down the tunnel to the locker
room with trainer Jason Serbus.
Reirden said after the game
that the decision to take Carlson
out was precautionary because of
the nature of the exhibition. The
team has a day off Friday and will
be back to practice at Ford Perfor-
mance Centre on Saturday at
noon. Reirden said Carlson will
continue to be evaluated.
“Obviously a really important
guy for our team,” Reirden said.“[He has had] a tremendous sea-
son and did a lot of good things in
the game [Wednesday] and fell a
little bit awkwardly and got tan-
gled up, and so we kept him off
[Thursday]. We will evaluate ev-
ery day, and best hope is to have
him back on Saturday.”
The Capitals’ first round-robin
game in the NHL’s modified re-
turn-to-play format is scheduled
for Monday afternoon against the
Tampa Bay Lightning. While it
doesn’t appear Carlson’s injury
will be a long-term issue, Radko
Gudas dressed as the seventh de-
fenseman in Wednesday’s exhibi-
tion and appears to be next in line
if Carlson is unable to play. Gudas
recorded 12:33 of ice time against
the Hurricanes, including 2:19 on
the penalty kill.
“I was taking a look at some
different combinations,” Reirden
said, “and if there was an extend-
ed amount of power plays or pen-
alty kills, how to utilize guys with-
out having them sitting around
the bench. And we had a couple
different looks of things I liked,
and I think that makes our team a
dangerous matchup if we are able
to use different players.”Despite Carlson’s injury, Reird-
en felt confident in his group and
called Wednesday’s game a “de-
cent start to our life in the bubble.”
He said that the intensity to start
the game was a product of good
planning by the coaching staff
and players and that the team will
need to carry the same energy
into round-robin play — especial-
ly with no fans in the stands in the
secure environment in Toronto.
“We are going to have to figure
[that] out on our bench and create
our own energy and make sure
that between myself and the other
coaches and our leaders and guys
that are more talkative on the
bench,” Reirden said. “So we’re
going to realize that certain mo-
ments happen in a game, and it’s
not going to be the crowd that is
going to be getting us going but
more the plays that are executed
that we can focus on.”
The players reiterated Thurs-
day that they couldn’t really feel
the difference in the arena, espe-
cially on the ice. It was more when
they were on the bench that they
noticed the quiet and at times
missed the atmosphere of a home
crowd.“We’re missing the ‘Unleash the
Fury,’ you know,” winger Jakub
Vrana said, referring to the hype
video shown on the video board at
Capital One Arena. “Missing some
extra energy from the fans. I can
say every team, when they play
home, you have an extra player
out there. It’s the fans, and Wash-
ington, we have the best fans.
They give us an extra energy.”
Braden Holtby said he actually
thinks having no fans gives him
an advantage. With the lower
bowl seats covered, it gives the
veteran goaltender better sight
lines. With arenas moving to in-
stall darker seats, pucks can blend
into the backgrounds. With the
light gray coverings, it isn’t an
issue.
“Sound-wise, too, you can hear
everything, so it makes it all a
little bit easier that way,” Holtby
said. “I thought it was a pretty
good setup there.... Felt pretty
normal. A few of the guys were
saying on the bench it’s kind of a
hard time, which obviously as a
goalie you don’t have to deal with.
I was quite surprised. It seemed
like a normal game.”
[email protected]Caps hope Carlson can skate Saturday
BY AVA WALLACEFor all the new that the Wash-
ington Wizards have faced in the
past month since they arrived in
the NBA’s Florida bubble — new
basketball facilities, new daily
routines, new teammates to fill
in for Bradley Beal and Davis
Bertans — their first official
game of the league’s restart Fri-
day should provide one of the
same old tests they have strug-
gled to pass all season.
When the Wizards finally take
the court against the Phoenix
Suns for their first regular sea-
son game since March 10, they
will do so against one of the
biggest scoring threats in the
league in Devin Booker. The
Suns guard, whose 26.1 points
per game were 10th most in the
NBA this season, should give
ample opportunity for Washing-
ton to work on its defense, one of
the team’s top priorities in Flori-
da.
Defense, of course, is just one
of the targets the Wizards are
eyeing in the bubble, which they
consider to be one grand oppor-
tunity to develop their young
players.
With Beal at home with a right
rotator cuff injury and Bertans
having opted out of the season
ahead of free agency, having
players such as Troy Brown Jr.,
Thomas Bryant and Rui
Hachimura progress is para-
mount as Washington looks
ahead to a 2020-21 season with a
healthy Beal and John Wall to-
gether again. The team wants to
make a playoff run, but the road
ahead is gnarly — the Wizards
(24-40) sit 5^1 / 2 games behind the
eighth-place Orlando Magic and
must get within four games to
force a play-in tournament to
qualify for the postseason.
That makes development the
name of the game for the Wiz-
ards’ eight scheduled games in
Florida.
“When we found out, we were
really excited,” Coach Scott
Brooks said of discovering the
Wizards would be one of 22
teams invited to the bubble. “We
knew we’d have a couple of
months of really a lot of good
work we can put in and get better
as a group. A lot of our guys need
it.”
Brooks wants to focus on com-
munication to help improve the
team’s league-worst defensive
rating (it allows 116.5 points per
100 possessions, according to
basketball-reference.com).
The players he is working with
in Florida aren’t the team’s usual
leaders — they’re less experi-
enced and therefore less likely to
speak up on court. Brooks has
called the group soft-spoken
many times in his regular virtual
news conferences with report-
ers, but he is hoping all of the
Zoom training the team did
during the lockdown helped
make guys more comfortable
talking.
Brown, who started at guard
in two of the three exhibition
games the Wizards played in
Florida, said Thursday the team
does feel more of a camaraderie
he hopes translates on the court.
“When you are all kind of
going through the same struggle
and going through the same
stuff, it definitely brings a cer-
tain type of bond,” said Brown,
who celebrated his 21st birthday
Tuesday. “With that, communi-
cation is a lot easier because
you’re able to hold somebody
else accountable when you know
them.”
Point guard Ish Smith, one of
just four Wizards players in the
bubble who has played more
than two years in the league, said
the root of the team’s defensive
communication issues lies in a
familiarity with the pro game.
Brooks tried to address that
during the league’s hiatus. He
had his players watch the team’s
2017 playoff series against the
Atlanta Hawks so they could get
an idea of what the team played
like with Wall and Beal in tiptop
shape and so they could get a
sense of the physicality and
speed the Wizards want to play
with.
“It’s knowing the actions.
That’s the biggest thing, being
familiar with it,” Smith said of
the team’s defensive issues. “So
once we can grow familiarity
with the actions and how things
are going, that’s going to allow us
to better communicate and know
where to be in the right spot,
where to tell people to be in the
right spot.”
As for dealing with the Suns,
Brooks said Brown and forwards
Isaac Bonga and Admiral Scho-
field will have a crack at defend-
ing Booker. Phoenix’s offense is
middling, but the Suns play with
a pace — 101.76 possessions per
game, ninth most in the league —
that tripped up the Wizards in
their final exhibition.
“We’ve been trying to figure
that out the last 10 days, how
we’re going to guard that young
man,” Brooks said Thursday. “He
is one of the best scorers in the
league — not quite sure why he’s
not an all-star the last couple of
years the way he’s been playing,
but he’s a problem. We’re going
to have to do it by committee.”
That’s how the Wizards expect
most things to happen in the
Florida bubble when this young
squad tips off Friday — by com-
mittee. The team hopes
Hachimura and Brown take sig-
nificant steps forward, to be
sure. But without their two cen-
terpieces from the bulk of the
regular season, with little pres-
sure and even lower outside
expectations to make the play-
offs, Washington’s NBA restart
will be all about getting better,
together.
[email protected]Right from restart, key
for Wizards is defense
WIZARDS’ NEXT THREEvs. Phoenix SunsToday4NBCSWat Brooklyn NetsSunday 2NBCSWvs. Indiana PacersMonday4NBCSW+Radio: WFED (1500 AM)ANDRE RINGUETTE/FREESTYLE PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
John Carlson, battling the Hurricanes’ Ryan Dzingel on Wednesday, left the exhibition early after a fall, then missed practice Thursday.sic, crowd noise and other sound
effects to spice up the experience.
Some of these efforts were
aimed at recreating a home-court
advantage. To mimic New Or-
leans’s Smoothie King Center for
the opener, the video boards dis-
played the Pelicans’ “Won’t Bow
Down” slogan and flashed images
of their logo, player headshots and
supportive tweets from fans. A
small crowd, which included
league executives such as Sam
Presti of the Oklahoma City Thun-
der and Lawrence Frank of the
Clippers, barely reacted as the
teams took the court, and the
small venue remained largely si-
lent throughout the night.
The NBA’s official restart slogan
— “Whole New Game” — was plas-
tered around the venues, and in-
deed there were changes to be
seen in all directions. The players
sat on socially distanced benches;
ballboys donned masks, medical
gloves and “Black Lives Matter”
T-shirts; and referees used whis-
tles with cloth coverings to catch
their spittle. Staffers at the NBA’s
new-look scorer’s table, protected
by high plexiglass walls to limit
contact with players, looked on
from the sideline.
Because the courts must be
thoroughly cleaned and disinfect-
ed after each game, the NBA’s
doubleheader took place at two
venues to avoid any delays for the
television audience. A select
group of media members was able
to attend both games, walking the
short distance from one gym to
another.
All things considered, the play-
ers, coaches and media members
in attendance seemed to be adapt-
ing well to the onerous health
protocols, closed campus and
empty gyms. While the NBA will
need to keep its bubble intact for
at least 10 more weeks to crown a
champion, the festivities opened
on an optimistic note.
“It’s the biggest and best AAU
tournament ever,” Pelicans Coach
Alvin Gentry quipped.
Proving Gentry’s point, several
NBA stars, including Damian Lil-
lard and Carmelo Anthony, sat
courtside to watch the Lakers and
Clippers. After one first-half dunk,
James looked over in the direction
of his colleagues as he celebrated.
[email protected]limited the hyped top overall
pick’s minutes after he left the
bubble this month for a family
issue.
In the nightcap, LeBron James,
who scored the winning basket on
a putback with 12.8 seconds left,
and the Lakers were without Av-
ery Bradley, who elected to sit out
the restart because of coronavirus
concerns, while the Clippers made
do without Williams and Montre-
zl Harrell because of personal
matters that required they exit the
bubble in recent days. All players
must undergo daily coronavirus
testing while in the bubble, and
those who leave to attend to family
matters or other emergencies
must quarantine for at least four
days upon their return.
To host games more safely dur-
ing the pandemic, the league com-
mitted to spending at least
$150 million to construct and op-
erate the restricted, single-site
bubble near Orlando. Without
fans in the stands, the NBA built
elaborate made-for-television
courts with video boards, robotic
cameras and enhanced micro-
phones to craft an intimate view-
ing experience. Live video of fans
cheering from home can be super-
imposed onto the video boards
behind the benches, and the
sound system pumps in rap mu-anticipation Thursday in advance
of opening night. Coaches and
media members jumped rope,
rode bikes and ran sprints during
morning workouts, while a large
group of referees gathered for
heated pickleball games before
the temperature reached 95 de-
grees in the afternoon. One league
official smiled widely at the pros-
pect of games returning after
more than four months off, noting
that it had been “a long time com-
ing.”
The opening night doublehead-
er encapsulated the trying cir-
cumstances facing the NBA. Silver
flew in this week from New York
City, but the league’s health proto-
cols mandated that he remain in
the arena’s upper deck and avoid
direct contact with players and
coaches because he hadn’t cleared
the full quarantine process. Rob-
erts took a courtside seat because
she arrived earlier this month and
cleared the bubble’s full quaran-
tine process.
Rudy Gobert, the “patient zero”
of American sports whose positive
test March 11 precipitated the
NBA’s shutdown, scored the first
game’s first points for the Jazz and
hit the game-winning free throws
in the two-point win. Zion Wil-
liamson countered with 13 points
in 15 minutes for the Pelicans, whoquarterback Colin Kaepernick
knelt to protest police brutality in
2016.
“I respect our teams’ unified act
of peaceful protest for social jus-
tice,” NBA Commissioner Adam
Silver said in a statement, “and
under these unique circumstanc-
es will not enforce our long-stand-
ing rule requiring standing dur-
ing the playing of our national
anthem.”
Multiple players who partici-
pated in the demonstrations
called them an “emotional” expe-
rience. Pelicans guard JJ Redick
defended the collective kneeling
from potential critics who might
believe the players were politiciz-
ing the anthem.
“The majority of Americans
want social justice, real equality
and to end police brutality,”
Redick said. “The polls back that
up. Politics and sports coexist
now. The league has recognized
that.”
The NBA’s long path to this
intentional opening was marred
by numerous potholes this week,
including an ESPN investigation
into alleged physical abuse at Chi-
nese training academies and a
Sports Illustrated article that de-
tailed an alleged sexual assault by
a Dallas Mavericks executive.
Clippers guard Lou Williams
made an unexpected trip to an
Atlanta strip club, which violated
the league’s health protocols and
landed him in a 10-day quarantine
upon his return, while Denver
Nuggets forward Michael Porter
Jr.’s assertion that the coronavirus
was “being used for population
control” drew widespread re-
bukes, including from Silver.
But on the bubble’s most funda-
mental issue — the health of the
1,000-plus players, coaches, staff-
ers and media members living at
Disney World — the NBA’s record
remained unblemished. While
positive tests have popped up in
NFL training camps and prompt-
ed the cancellation of MLB games,
the NBA completed its abbreviat-
ed training camp and week of
scrimmages without any player
testing positive after fully enter-
ing the bubble.
Perhaps buoyed by that track
record, the bubble buzzed withNBA FROM D1NBA’s return tips o≠ with a Florida doubleheaderASHLEY LANDIS/POOL PHOTO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Guard Donovan Mitchell glides in for two of his 20 points during
the Jazz’s 106-104 victory over the Pelicans in Florida on Thursday.