The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-02)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5

Avdija exits

Avdija appeared to bump

knees with another player in the

first quarter, falling to the floor

and clutching his leg before

standing up and continuing to

play.

The forward retreated to the

locker room midway through the

second and did not return be-

cause of a right quadriceps con-

tusion.

Hachimura stays hot

Hachimura was smooth as

butter from the three-point line

2016 to 2019, his first three in the

NBA after a stretch overseas.

Smith and Satoransky have

circled each other before — the

Wizards signed Smith and Isaiah

Thomas in 2019 to help blunt

Satoransky’s departure — but

have never played together. The

only Wizard on the court Tues-

day with whom Satoransky has

shared a locker room i s Bryant.

The Czech spent most of his 14

minutes at shooting guard and

had four points, three rebounds,

two steals, one block and one

assist.

backup center. It felt like an
expression of relief as much as
genuine encouragement.
“I’m really happy [Raul Neto]
saw me in the lane right there,”
Bryant said. “That was a big one
for us, a big dunk for me. Seeing
that defensive play that Kuz
made right then and there, get
that block for us to get us out in
transition really helped us.”
If Washington is to rack up
wins over what remains of this
season, this is how it will have to
be done: with purpose and a
healthy dose of creativity.
“You have to have that balance.
We don’t want to think we’re just
going to hoist threes and out-
score teams; we don’t shoot it
well enough,” said Coach Wes
Unseld Jr., whose team snapped
a two-game skid. “At the same
time, we don’t have too many
guys who can play off the bounce
and just beat their own guy.
There has to be that mix, but also
you have to move the defense.”
By now, the initial shock of the
Wizards’ trade deadline shake-
up has passed, even though the
hypothetical jewel of those
moves, Kristaps Porzingis, has
yet to play for Washington, re-
mains day-to-day and is only
participating in one-on-one
drills at practice, Unseld said.
The Wizards brought back point
guard Tomas Satoransky on
Monday to bolster their depth.
They will need Satoransky, Bry-
ant, Ish Smith, Rui Hachimura
and Deni Avdija to produce off
the bench as Kuzma shoulders
the load.
Washington spent too much
time waffling Tuesday, trading
runs with the Pistons as Jerami
Grant (26 points) and Cunning-
ham (20 points) erupted. It lost a
12-point lead early in the fourth
quarter after relaxing on defense
as Grant stayed sharp.
Kuzma led the Wizards with 21
points and nine rebounds. Bry-
ant had 16 points and six re-
bounds. All five starters were in
double figures, and that still
wasn’t enough to take full con-
trol — the downtrodden Pistons
(15-47) had a chance to tie with
15.6 seconds remaining. Wash-
ington held them off with cohe-
sive three-point defense.
“Coming back home and get-
ting this win against Detroit, our
first win back home, that really
helps,” Bryant said. “That helps
us get momentum.”
Here’s what else to know from
Tuesday’s game:

Satoransky returns

In his third game at Capital
One Arena this season, Satoran-
sky finally donned the home
team’s jersey.
The Czech point guard re-
turned to Washington three sea-
sons after the franchise let him
go in a sign-and-trade deal with
Chicago. Signing the 30-year-old
was mutually beneficial. Sa-
toransky struggled this season in
32 rocky games with New Or-
leans and just one with San
Antonio before the Spurs bought
out his contract. It just so hap-
pened that one game was a
double-overtime win over the
Wizards on Friday, at which
point rumors were already swirl-
ing about Satoransky’s reunion
with the franchise that drafted
him all the way back in 2012.
In return, Washington gets a
6-foot-7 stopgap point guard
whom it trusts to help reduce
Neto’s and Smith’s heavy min-
utes. Satoransky averaged 6.6
points and 3.7 assists over three
seasons with the Wizards from

WIZARDS FROM D1

W izards g et creative, find path to win

WIZARDS’ NEXT THREE

vs. Atlanta Hawks

Friday7NBCSW

vs. Indiana Pacers

Sunday6NBCSW

at Los Angeles Clippers

March 91 0:30 NBCSW

Radio: WTEM (980 AM)

RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST

Kyle Kuzma, who led the Wizards with 21 points and nine rebounds, d raws a foul on I saiah Stewart.

Minnesota still won its sixth

straight game against Golden

State at home to move a season-

best five games above .500. The

Warriors, meanwhile, have lost six

of eight.

l RAPTORS 109, NETS 108:

Scottie Barnes had 18 points and

10 rebounds, Gary Trent Jr. scored

24, and host Toronto rallied to beat

Brooklyn for its second win over

the depleted Nets in two days.

Pascal Siakam fouled out with

18 points and Malachi Flynn

scored 15 for the Raptors, who

were coming off a 133-97 victory in

Brooklyn on Monday.

James Johnson had 19 points,

Seth Curry scored 18 and LaMar-

cus Aldridge added 16 for the Nets,

who are still without Kevin Du-

rant, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons,

Andre Drummond and Joe Harris.

l CLIPPERS 113, ROCKETS

100: Ivica Zubac had 22 points

and 12 rebounds, and Los Angeles

pulled away in the third quarter

and cruised to a win in Houston.

Rookie Jalen Green chipped in

20 points for the Rockets, who

have lost 10 straight and 14 of 15.

Hornets sign veteran Thomas

The Charlotte Hornets a greed

to a 10-day contract with two-time

all-star and veteran point guard

Isaiah Thomas, a person familiar

with the situation told the Associ-

ated Press.

Thomas, 33, hasn’t seen signifi-

cant playing time in the NBA since

the 2019-20 season, when he aver-

aged 12.2 points in 40 games for

the Washington Wizards.

l LAKERS: L os Angeles waived

veteran center DeAndre Jordan

and signed point guard D.J. Au-

gustin and forward Wenyen Ga-

briel.

The Lakers also waived Sekou

Doumbouya before their game

against the Dallas Mavericks.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jayson Tatum had 33 points,

eight rebounds and seven assists

to help the Boston Celtics rally in

the second half and beat the visit-

ing Atlanta Hawks, 107-98, on

Tuesday.

Derrick White and Grant Wil-

liams each added 18 points off the

bench a nd Marcus S mart tallied 16

points and four assists for Boston,

which has won 10 of its last 12. Trae

Young had 31 points and Bogdan

Bogdanovic added 25 for Atlanta,

which has lost two of three.

The Hawks led by as many as 17

points in the first half and 14 at

halftime before that cushion evap-

orated in a 14-0 run by the Celtics

to open the third quarter.

Boston entered at full strength

for the first time in weeks, but that

changed in the first quarter when

Jaylen Brown suffered a right an-

kle sprain after taking an awk-

ward fall. He was able to walk to

the locker room under his own

power, although he did not return.

l TIMBERWOLVES 129,

WARRIORS 114: In Minneapolis,

Karl-Anthony Towns had 39

points and nine rebounds for Min-

nesota, which had its offense hum-

ming inside and out in a victory

over sputtering Golden State in a

potential playoff series preview.

D’Angelo Russell pitched in 22

points and Malik Beasley added

20 points on 6-for-9 shooting from

three-point range for the Timber-

wolves. Stephen Curry paced the

Warriors with 34 points but was

just 5 for 16 from deep, with sev-

eral of his heaves way off the mark.

Playing without Anthony Ed-

wards because of knee tendinitis,

NBA ROUNDUP

Boston loses star Brown

but rallies past Atlanta

CELTICS 107,

HAWKS 98

in a continuation of his excellent

long-range shooting of late. The

forward had made 12 of 17 at-

tempts (70.6 percent) over his

previous seven games and then

was a perfect 3 for 3 on Tuesday, a

trend Unseld attributes to

Hachimura’s increased confi-

dence.

“I just like to shoot like [I’m in]

practice,” said Hachimura, who

finished with 11 points.

Wizards 116, Pistons 113

Detroit ................................ 2440212 8— 113

Washington ........................ 2736242 9— 116

DETROIT MIN FG FT O-TAPFPTS

Bey 30:54 7-14 3-3 2-7 2019

Grant 35:41 9-17 5-5 0-3 4226

Stewart 27:13 3-9 3-4 5-9 149

Cunningham 31:35 9-18 2-3 2-9 5420

Joseph 15:33 3-3 2-2 0-1 029

Hayes 26:56 2-6 3-4 2-7 537

Olynyk 20:47 4-5 1-1 2-4 3210

Diallo 19:16 3-8 0-1 0-2 006

Jackson 14:21 1-4 0-0 0-0 123

Livers 10:26 1-3 0-0 1-1 122

McGruder 7:18 1-3 0-0 0-0 102

TOTALS 240 43-9019-2314-43 2321113

Percentages: FG .478, FT .826. 3-Point Goals: 8-27, .296

(Grant 3-5, Bey 2-5, Joseph 1-1, Olynyk 1-2, Jackson 1-3,

Livers 0-1, Hayes 0-2, McGruder 0-2, Cunningham 0-3,

Diallo 0-3). Team Rebounds: 4. Team Turnovers: None.

Blocked Shots: 3 (Grant, Hayes, Stewart). Turnovers: 12

(Cunningham 3, Hayes 2, Jackson 2, Bey, Diallo, Grant,

Olynyk, Stewart). Steals: 9 (Hayes 3, Bey, Cunningham,

Diallo, Grant, Jackson, Stewart). Technical Fouls: Hayes,

11:04 second.

WASHINGTON MIN FG FT O-TAPFPTS

Caldwell-Pope 31:32 5-12 2-2 1-3 3215

Kuzma 34:02 7-15 6-6 2-9 6421

Gafford 20:17 5-6 2-5 3-4 0212

Kispert 36:12 4-11 0-1 1-4 5311

Neto 23:56 4-7 4-5 1-4 3213

I.Smith 23:29 5-8 0-0 1-4 8411

Bryant 22:03 6-10 3-3 1-6 1116

Hachimura 20:35 4-9 0-0 1-1 0311

Satoransky 13:50 1-1 2-2 0-3 104

Avdija 9:15 0-2 2-2 1-4 212

Gill 4:49 0-1 0-0 0-0 000

TOTALS 240 41-8221-2612-42 2922116

Percentages: FG .500, FT .808. 3-Point Goals: 13-26, .500

(Hachimura 3-3, Caldwell-Pope 3-4, Kispert 3-8, Neto

1-1, Bryant 1-2, I.Smith 1-2, Kuzma 1-5, Avdija 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 8. Team Turnovers: None. Blocked

Shots: 8 (Gafford 3, Kuzma 2, Bryant, Kispert, Satoran-

sky). Turnovers: 15 (Kuzma 5, I.Smith 3, Bryant 2,

Caldwell-Pope 2, Avdija, Gafford, Kispert). Steals: 6

(Satoransky 2, Avdija, Gafford, Kispert, Neto). Technical

Fouls: Neto, 4:45 third.

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