The Washington Wizards’ second loss of the season came in ugly fashion, a 110-107 defeat to an injured Charlotte Hornets team that exposed a few glaring problems right away. From the opening stretch, Washington looked slow to sort things out on defense, and the mistakes piled up from there.
The biggest issue was on the glass. The Wizards were badly outrebounded, gave up far too many second-chance opportunities, and never really found a way to clean that up. Even with the starters carrying the offensive load, the bench unit that had started the season so well went quiet.
Anthony Davis was the bright spot after two rough games. He looked like an All-Star again, anchoring the defense well enough to hold Charlotte to 110 points, even if the rebounding piece was still missing.
Offensively, he was a force in the paint and also knocked down some huge threes late. Just as important, he kept the ball moving, which helped the offense look a little smoother.
Wizards all-star duo Trae Young and Anthony Davis today:Trae Young: Anthony Davis:22 points 29 points 6 rebounds 11 rebounds 10 assists 1 steal10/20 FG. 11/22 FGWiz lose 💔💔 pic.twitter.com/63XXIWbpjk
Tre Johnson had one of the roughest outings of his young NBA career. As the bench scorer, he needed to provide a lift, but his shot never came around.
He hit only one long-range attempt, and when the jumper wasn’t falling, he couldn’t make up for it in other areas. That made him tough to keep on the floor.
Trae Young kept rolling, extending his hot start to the season. The three-ball wasn’t there, but just about everything else on offense was.
His floater was working early, and he continued to set up teammates at a high level. The defense was predictably shaky, but that has never been the part of his game the Wizards are leaning on.
His offensive performance was strong in the loss.
Still, the defining number from this game was 20 offensive rebounds allowed. Charlotte’s Moussa Diabate alone grabbed 11 of them, and that kind of effort on the boards made life far too easy for the Hornets.
After Justin Champagne got hurt early, Washington seemed to lose whatever edge it had on the dirty work. For a team this big and this tall, that kind of rebounding performance stands out in the worst way.
If the Wizards want to be taken seriously as a playoff team this season, they have to fix that part of the floor fast.
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For Washington fans following the wider conference picture, it was another reminder of how thin the margins can be when a game is hanging in the balance. The missed call did not erase the Bulls uneven middle stretch, but it did leave one more hard-to-accept moment attached to a loss that will sit with Chicago for a while. [Read more 🡒]
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The bigger question for Washington is how much that buy-in changes the shape of the rotation as the season settles in. Ayton has been praised for embracing the assignment and helping the teams early-season performance, which puts the Wizards in an intriguing spot if he keeps giving them quality minutes off the bench. For now, the front office has a useful problem on its hands: a former top-tier starter willing to work as a reserve, and a frontcourt setup that may need to be revisited if his play keeps trending in the right direction. [Read more 🡒]