KLMNO

SPORTS

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 , 2021. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS M2 D

BY AVA WALLACE

The Washington Wizards nearly pulled

off a repeat performance Monday at Capi-

tal One Arena. Point guard Spencer Din-

widdie already had done his part against

the Charlotte Hornets, making his only two

field goals of the night in the fourth quarter

— both three-pointers, of course. Kentavi-

ous Caldwell-Pope then slid into his role,

nailing a three with 51.6 seconds left to

leave the Wizards two points behind.

But Washington didn’t have enough to

complete a second fourth-quarter come-

back in as many games as it fell, 109-103. A

gritty effort saved the Wizards on Saturday

against the Miami Heat, papering over a

hoard of turnovers and disorganized of-

fense as Washington rallied from a 16-

point deficit.

The same flaws appeared again Monday,

and this time there was no ignoring them

as the Wizards suffered their third loss in

four games.

Bradley Beal attributed the offensive

struggles — the Wizards were 17th in the

league in offensive rating entering Monday

— to the group still developing chemistry

less than 20 games into the season. Backup

center Montrezl Harrell said the team

spent too much time playing hero ball

when plays went awry.

“We can’t try to get it all back in one

possession.... We’ve just got to keep doing

it together,” he said. “We had aspects to-

night where we tried to get it all back in one

play.”

Charlotte (11-8) got hot from the perim-

eter early on its way to hitting 15 of 31

three-point attempts. Although the Wiz-

ards (11-6) dominated on the boards, out-

rebounding the Hornets 65-36, the solid

shots that they used snappy ball movement

to generate didn’t fall and they didn’t

SEE WIZARDS ON D5

Just a little short

HORNETS 109,

WIZARDS 103

Washington can’t complete

latest rally in loss to Charlotte

Wizards at Pelicans

Tomorrow, 8 p.m., NBC Sports Washington

RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST

Wizards guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope steals the ball from Hornets guard LaMelo Ball. Washington lost Monday for the third time in four games.

Seahawks at Washington

Monday, 8:15 p.m., ESPN, WJLA-7

BY NICKI JHABVALA

After the Washington Football

Team’s win at the Carolina Pan-

thers on Sunday, Coach Ron Rive-

ra lauded his players’ resilience

and cohesiveness. He, as well as

the players, cited attention to de-

tail in recent practices, the elimi-

nation of some mistakes and trust

in a quarterback who, months ear-

lier, wasn’t supposed to be the

starter.

Sound familiar?

A year after using the NFC East

race as a carrot for a midseason

turnaround and a push for the

playoffs, Washington is again feel-

ing renewed hope that maybe, just

maybe, it has the juice to achieve

something similar this season. Af-

ter winning two straight games,

over the defending Super Bowl

champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers

and the Panthers, Washington is

4-6 and in third place in the NFC

East. But it sits among a clump of

teams that remain within reach of

the final NFC wild-card spot —

which Rivera said he would happi-

ly accept.

“But we can also use the divi-

sion, because if we’re fortunate

enough to take care of our busi-

ness and get to the second week of

December where we play five

straight division games, we have a

chance,” he said Monday during a

conference call with reporters.

SEE WASHINGTON ON D2

Rivera says

playo≠s are

feasible for

Washington

Coach lauds Heinicke’s

recent play at QB

and growth as a leader

Los Angeles Times.

“I like the fans. I like the

atmosphere in the organization,”

Ohtani said at the end of the

season when asked about

staying with the Angels for the

long term. “But my feelings [of]

wanting to win are stronger.”

For Trout and Ohtani and

others, the Angels have been

something of an all-consuming

quicksand, a franchise where

elite talent slips into oblivion.

Minasian’s task is to yank Trout,

Ohtani and the rest of what

promise is left out of the depths,

SEE ON BASEBALL ON D3

And perhaps most strikingly, the

transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime

talent that somehow landed in

Anaheim (not Trout, the other

one) is not obligated to remain

with the franchise beyond the

next two seasons. And that

player seems to know it.

The normally reticent Ohtani

has made his disappointment

with the Angels clear this

offseason, wondering aloud

whether the team would even

make the playoffs during his

tenure and explaining that the

current state of affairs was not

one he enjoyed, according to the

Angels have no playoff wins (and

just one appearance) in those

eight years.

Several offseasons before this

one have brought a supposed

reckoning, a change in manager,

a new general manager in

Minasian and so on. But the

stakes seem higher with each

passing year.

Trout, now 30, isn’t getting

any younger. Manager Joe

Maddon was openly critical of

the team’s roster construction in

late September, when it had long

since been clear that his Angels

were out of contention again.

who knows bravado is nothing

without results. And for a

franchise that has reached a

nearly indefensible state of

annual futility, he knows results

are the only thing that will

change that.

Last week, Shohei Ohtani was

named the American League

MVP, the fourth time in the past

eight seasons that award has

gone to a member of the Angels.

Despite owner Arte Moreno’s

annual willingness to spend,

despite doling out huge

contracts to Mike Trout and

Anthony Rendon and others, the

Perry Minasian
never seems to
suggest that he
has all the
answers, but he
never gives the
sense that he doesn’t like being
asked the questions, either.
Instead of punctuating
sentences with new-age baseball
jargon and subtle implications
that he knows more than the
next guy, the Los Angeles Angels’
general manager self-deprecates
away any would-be air of
condescension. He is the show-
don’t-tell type, the kind of guy

Ohtani is tired of losing. The Angels hope Syndergaard can help.

On
Baseball

CHELSEA
JANES

PRO FOOTBALL

Another upside-down

weekend in the NFL

put its parity on display,

Adam Kilgore writes. D3

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

After St. John’s capped

its perfect season,

our rankings remain

unchanged at the top. D4

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

South Carolina finds its

way past Connecticut in a

matchup of the country’s

top women’s teams. D7

BY MOLLY HENSLEY-CLANCY

Years before the National
Women’s Soccer League erupted
over allegations of systemic
abuse, players on the Chicago Red
Stars tried to speak up about their
coach.
Over and over, according to
interviews and confidential rec-
ords reviewed by The Washing-

ton Post, players had seen Rory

Dames cross a line into what they

believed was verbal and emotion-

al abuse: controlling, berating

and humiliating players, and

breaking the boundaries of the

player-coach relationship.

The players turned not to the

league itself, which has struggled

to police abuse in its decade of

existence. Instead, they went to

the U.S. Soccer Federation, the

sport’s powerful governing body,

which oversaw the NWSL at the

time and supported it financially

by paying national team mem-

bers to play in the league.

But Dames kept his job, going

on to become the NWSL’s longest-

tenured coach. On Saturday,

Dames’s Red Stars lost in the

NWSL championship game to the

Washington Spirit, whose coach

was fired midseason amid com-

plaints that he was verbally abu-

sive.

Dames resigned from his posi-

tion early Monday, as The Post

prepared to publish this story. In

a statement, he said he was “refo-

cusing my attention to my family

and future endeavors.” He did not

respond to multiple requests for

comment.

“I think Rory emotionally

abuses players,” Christen Press, a

U.S. national team star and for-

mer player for the Red Stars,

wrote in notes compiled for a

formal complaint about Dames,

which was reviewed by The Post.

“He doesn’t have a safe distance

between himself and his players.

He uses his power and status as

the coach to manipulate players

and get close to them.” Becca

Roux, executive director of the

national team players’ union,

confirmed that the contents of

the complaint were reported to

U.S. Soccer in early 2018.

Press is among seven players

who told The Post they believed

Dames had been emotionally

abusive to them or their team-

mates, including five players who

said they sought to be traded or

leave the team because of it. Some

spoke on the condition of ano-

nymity, fearing that speaking

publicly could jeopardize their

future in women’s soccer, where

most coaches, general managers

and team executives are men.

“Things were happening that

were inappropriate,” Press said in

an interview. “But I’d been told to

be quiet, that this was fine.”

After The Post presented the

Red Stars with a summary of

players’ claims, a team spokes-

woman, Natalie Bauer Luce, is-

sued a statement that vowed an

“independent review of player

health and safety and the team’s

SEE NWSL ON D6

NWSL players: U.S. Soccer ignored complaints

Red Stars coach accused

of systemic e motional

and verbal abuse resigns

BY BEN GOLLIVER

The NBA issued a one-game

suspension to LeBron James on

Monday for his flagrant foul of

Isaiah Stewart that bloodied the

Detroit Pistons center’s face and

triggered an extended alterca-

tion during the Los Angeles Lak-

ers’ 121-116 road victory Sunday.

Stewart, who repeatedly re-

sisted teammates, coaches and

security guards as he attempted

to confront James after the ini-

tial blow, received a two-game

suspension. Lakers guard Rus-

sell Westbrook, who received a

technical foul for escalating dur-

ing the altercation, didn’t receive

additional punishment.

The tense scene began as

James and Stewart jockeyed for

rebounding position on a free

throw with Detroit leading 78-66

early in the third quarter. Stew-

art leaned on James with his

right arm as he boxed out,

prompting James to swing his

left arm in an attempt to free

himself from the contact. James’s

swing caught Stewart directly in

the face, sending the 20-year-old

big man staggering to his knees

and causing blood to stream

down his face.

SEE JAMES ON D5

L akers star

James gets

one-game

suspension