Wizards look uninterested vs. 76ers, then Wall puts them on his back

John Wall launched toward the basket and hung in the air, defying gravity longer than anyone else around him at Wells Fargo Center. By the end of the ascent, he had overcome a mid-air collision with Jerami Grant to bank in a basket with 2.9 seconds remaining in the third quarter of the Washington Wizards’ 103-94 victory Friday night over the Philadelphia 76ers. A foul wasn’t called, so he strutted a couple of steps, chest puffed out, before jogging back to play defense.

The coast-to-coast field goal punctuated a game-changing 10-0 run to close the period and inject some sorely needed life into his Wizards. Washington had been bafflingly lackadaisical for nearly 34 minutes — Wall included — and on the brink of a loss to a team that owns the NBA’s worst record.

Then the three-time all-star, igniting offense with defensive stops, put his team on his back. The surge hiked the Wizards’ lead to four points, their biggest of the night at the time, and they wouldn’t trail again as they held Philadelphia to 42 second-half points. With the win, Washington improved to 27-30 and snapped a three-game road losing streak.

“We got to defend, man, it’s as simple as that,” Wall said. “When we defend, we’re perfectly fine.”

It was nearly a year to the day since the Wizards suffered an 89-81 loss in this same building to another lottery-bound 76ers team. But a year ago, the Wizards had created some room for error. That loss dropped them to 33-26 and they recovered. They didn’t have that luxury Friday night. The Wizards began the night three games out of the playoff picture with 26 to go, and a loss would’ve dropped them further since the eighth-place Charlotte Hornets topped the Pacers in Indianapolis on Friday night. A loss, two days after falling to a severely depleted Bulls team, would’ve been disastrous.

“This game is a game that you should win 95 percent of the time,” Wizards forward Jared Dudley said. “We did what we’re supposed to do. It would’ve been a terrible loss that would’ve hurt our playoff chances. We did what we had to do tonight.”

Wall was far from perfect, but he finished just two rebounds shy of his third triple-double of the month with 23 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. He settled for his 33rd double-double. Dudley added 14 points and Marcin Gortat contributed 12 points and 11 rebounds as Washington, the league’s worst rebounding team entering the night, won the battle on the boards, 55-41.

“Our perimeters getting in there rebounding the ball [is important],” Wizards Coach Randy Wittman said. “When John gets [six] defensive rebounds, that’s [six] less passes we have to make to get into our offense. And he can take it coast to coast or give a guy an open look. So that was big tonight.”

Wittman didn’t hesitate when asked whether his team had the necessary urgency against the 76ers, given the Wizards’ precarious playoff situation.

“I anticipate that they’ll be focused and ready to go,” he said.

Wittman was mistaken. For nearly three quarters, the 76ers, not Washington, looked like the team vying for a postseason berth and not the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft. Philadelphia led by nine points in the first half. But the 76ers are 8-50 this season for a reason and fizzled. Rookie Jahlil Okafor paced Philadelphia with 21 points. Nik Stauskas added 15 points, and Robert Covington scored 12.

Okafor, selected No. 2 overall in June’s draft for his scoring ability, tormented the Wizards with his low-post prowess in the second quarter. The Duke product recorded eight points in the period, including six straight in 1 minute 17 seconds to expand the 76ers’ lead to nine points. He buoyed Philadelphia’s offense, the league’s worst, to 52 first-half points.

Frustrated, Wizards players, led by Alan Anderson, spent halftime questioning their defensive effort among themselves. They were ball watching. They weren’t communicating. They let players go one-on-one whenever they pleased. The formula, they emphasized, would not suffice, even if Philadelphia was the opponent. They told each other that they had dominated the 76ers just a few weeks earlier, at one juncture building a 29-point lead. They questioned why they couldn’t duplicate the effort.

With Wall serving as the fuel, Washington then limited Philadelphia to 20 points in the third quarter and 22 in the fourth. It was the kind of performance the Wizards insist they need to maintain for 48 minutes. On Friday, they got away with neglecting it for 24, but on Sunday, against the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers, waiting isn’t an option.

“In the third quarter, I said, ‘We have to win this game,’” Wizards guard Bradley Beal said. “And we did. But we can’t come out the way we did, especially on Sunday, or we’re going to get beat by 30. So we need to come out with more focus and more energy. And it starts on defense.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 12:12 AM with the headline "Wizards look uninterested vs. 76ers, then Wall puts them on his back."