Wizards Struggle in Japan

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Reuters

Rui Hachimura from the Wizards attempts to get past Moses Moody from the Golden State Warriors in Japan.

Chase Carty, Staff Writer

With the NBA regular season beginning in two weeks, fans are growing eager. Luckily, we got a sneak peak of two teams who partook in two exhibitional matches in Japan. The NBA made its first appearance in Japan in three years in a best-of-three series against the defending champion Golden State Warriors and our very own Washington Wizards.

Although it was nice to watch some professional basketball for the first time since the NBA’s summer league, it wasn’t so nice to see the Wizards choke both games away in a 2-0 sweep on Friday and Sunday. Perhaps due to rust, both teams struggled badly to shoot the ball. The Wizards–who shot an abysmal 36% on the weekend–didn’t see a single player score more than 18 points across both games. They also only averaged 91 points for the weekend, which is relatively low especially when compared to last season’s 109 points per game.

Their defense, on the contrary, was not half bad. They were capable of running renowned snipers Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins off the perimeter, causing them to shoot a combined 13/37. However, this intensity did not translate to their interior defense, as they allowed 21-year-old James Wiseman to notch a 20 point double-double without a single outside shot attempt.

Wizards fans hope that this was just a bad weekend caused by jet lag and not a preview to another lackluster season for Washington. The Wizards will travel to Indiana for their first regular season game on Wednesday, Oct. 19.