Wall’s floater, waived-off goaltend push Wizards past Magic
Coming off their second straight trip to the second round of the playoffs, the Washington Wizards entered this season considered by some a viable contender for the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference. Kicking off the 2015-16 campaign with a loss to the upstart Orlando Magic under new head coach Scott Skiles wouldn’t necessarily have made us believers blanch, but it also wouldn’t have represented a particularly compelling opening statement for Randy Wittman’s crew.
Luckily, John Wall is all about making a good first impression.
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With the clock winding down in the final minute of Wednesday’s 2015-16 season-opening matchup at Amway Center, Washington trailed Orlando, 87-86. Wall took the ball and a high screen from center Marcin Gortat, blew past Magic sophomore Elfrid Payton and sized up center Nikola Vucevic, sinking back toward the paint on the pick-and-roll. Wall just ate the big man up, crossing to his left hand, driving into the lane, lowering his shoulder, elevating and lofting up a 5-foot floater that splashed softly through the twine, giving the Wiz an 88-87 lead with 12.7 seconds remaining.
Orlando would have a chance to regain the lead, but the Magic got the short end of the stick on a critical possession that appeared to feature a Washington goaltend:
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Magic forward Tobias Harris drove right against the defense of Washington swingman Otto Porter Jr., putting up a runner that could have put Orlando back on top. The flip went awry, though, and hung on the heel of the rim. Not wanting to commit an offensive goaltending violation by touching the ball while it was on the rim, Vucevic waited a beat before jumping to try to tip in the miss. As he leapt, though, so did Bradley Beal, and the Wizards shooting guard’s right hand appeared to hit the rim while the ball was still bouncing around:
The officials initially whistled Beal for goaltending, which would have given Orlando an 89-88 lead. A review from the replay center in Secaucus, N.J., though, concluded that the call should be overturned and the goaltending waived off; it was not immediately clear why, though replay officials might have ruled that Vucevic had made contact with the ball before Beal got there and that his touch came when the ball was not above the cylinder, meaning play should have continued without being blown dead by the goaltending call. Then again, the official scoresheet lists Gortat as the goaltender, and he was on the other side of the rim, so who knows exactly what went into the decision-making?
However the call was arrived at, the Wizards retained a one-point lead and the Magic retained possession with 3.5 seconds left. Orlando’s final attempts at a winner — another close layup by Harris, and an 18-footer by Vucevic off an offensive rebound — came up empty, allowing the Wizards to escape the Magic Kingdom with an 88-87 victory.
Beal led all scorers with 24 points on 9-for-19 shooting and six rebounds in 37 1/2 minutes. All-Star running buddy Wall added 22 on 9-for-18 shooting with seven rebounds, six assists, five blocks and three steals in 39-plus minutes.
Washington came out firing, holding firm to its intended shift in offensive philosophy from the traditional, two-big-men, ground-and-pound style that Wittman has favored for the bulk of his time in the nation’s capital to the faster-paced, more spread-out and wide-open approach that helped sweep the Toronto Raptors out of the postseason this past spring. The Wizards scored 31 first-quarter points, shooting 4-for-6 from 3-point land as a team and dishing eight assists on 11 made field goals.
One problem, though: they received nearly as much as they gave, allowing a Magic team that ranked 27th among 30 NBA teams in offensive efficiency to score 29 points on 54.2 percent shooting. Orlando rookie Mario Hezonja, the No. 5 pick in the 2015 NBA draft, coming off the bench to hit his first three shots, including two 3-pointers, and score eight points in less than five minutes of opening-period play. Second-year man Aaron Gordon made his presence felt early, using his exceptional athleticism to throw down a pair of sensational putback dunks that had the Amway crowd rocking.
The pace slowed and the offenses cooled considerably thereafter, with the defense that’s been the Wizards’ calling card over the past two seasons keeping them in a contest that saw 11 lead changes. Washington held Orlando to just 7-for-26 shooting in the final frame and forced five Magic turnovers that led to 10 Wizards points.
“Very frustrating,” said Magic guard Victor Oladipo, who 17 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two steals in 36 minutes, according to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. “But at the end of the day, we’re growing and we’re learning from it.”
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With the defense cranked up and the Magic struggling to generate opportunities, Wall and Beal took over, combining for 19 of Washington’s 23 fourth-quarter points, including 12 straight in a three-minute, 35-second span that saw the Wiz come back from an eight-point deficit to take a four-point lead.
Orlando returned fire with nine straight, capped by a dunk by Harris, who finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a block in 31 minutes. But the Wizards would hold the Magic scoreless over the final two minutes, with Wall flying in to swat what looked like it’d be another Harris dunk and saving the ball to kickstart a possession that would end with a Porter putback of a missed 3-pointer by offseason addition Gary Neal that drew Washington within one and set the stage for Wall’s closing-seconds heroics.
“I knew we needed stops,” Wall said after the game, according to Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. “I wanted to be more aggressive. The most important thing was the way we locked down when we were down eight.”
And while the revamped offense remains a work in progress, that late-game evidence that the rebooted Wiz can still put the clamps on when it counts — and that their All-Star point guard can take matters into his own hands when the game’s in the balance — seems like a pretty strong opening statement for a team with designs on a deep postseason push.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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