The Washington Wizards are 7-22, the third worst record in the league. This season they’ve been a doormat for most of the NBA, but despite this, the Wizards say they’re starting to build a little confidence.
On Sunday night, the Wizards ended a seven-game losing streak in Detroit that went back to 2007. CSN Washington says that after the game the Wizards were “upbeat” and coach Randy Wittman had a lot of optimism for his team.
“I think we are finding guys that are playing well together,” coach Wittman said. “You are seeing an understanding on the floor of positions and extra passes are starting to be made. We have to continue to play at our pace and make good decisions in the transition game.”
They carried that confidence into last night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers, who have been struggling but were still expected to win. The Wizards put up 124 points on the Blazers, more than 30 points over their season scoring average. Nick Young dropped 35 and John Wall, who’s been getting a lot of criticism this year, added 29 more. They got their first win in Portland since 2005, ending a six-game losing streak.
It’s just two games against two struggling teams, so I’m not ready to crown the Wizards the comeback team of the year, but they do seem to have a bit more swagger than a team with only 7 wins should have.
Confidence is a huge part of basketball and whether it’s deserved or not, if you’ve got it, you can beat anyone on any given day. You can see a lot of talent in this Wizards team, but not a lot of chemistry. I honestly thought when they had their fluke win against Oklahoma City a month ago, that they might get something going, but they didn’t.
This mini win streak they have now could be a spark they need to start playing to the level they’re capable of. They have a tough test tonight in L.A. against the Clippers. If they can pull off 3 wins in a row on the road, I may start to believe that they have something going.