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Wizards’ road problems continue in loss to Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets

By Chase Hughes

Wizards' road problems continue in loss to Nets originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

The Washington Wizards lost to the Brooklyn Nets 113-107 on Wednesday night. Here are five takeaways from what went down…

Road woes continue

The Wizards have been a much different team at home than they have been on the road this season, but there is now one opponent that has beaten them in both settings. The Brooklyn Nets handed the Wizards their worst home loss in franchise history on Nov. 4 and on Wednesday held on for a much closer victory at the Barclays Center.

Washington lost by six points, which makes the fact they shot just 23-for-34 (67.6%) from the free-throw line especially painful. That left the margin for error just too thin, as Kyrie Irving (27 points) and then Kevin Durant (39 points) went to work in the fourth quarter to put them away. The Nets also shot 24-for-26 on free throws, many of them coming down the stretch.

The Wizards, now 11-11 on the season overall, have now lost four straight games on the road, while at home they have won six of seven. 

No 3s on the road

The Wizards came into this game as the worst 3-point shooting team in the NBA on the road, averaging just 8.4 made threes per game compared to 13.1 at home. Unfortunately for them, that trend continued in this one as they shot just 6-for-24 from long range, good for 25%.

Why the Wizards are shooting so much better at home than on the road is unclear. Maybe it has something to do with them being more comfortable shooting on their own rims, but it’s a difficult problem to overcome, especially when they are playing a team with shooters as Brooklyn has. The Nets shot 11-for-26 (42.3%) from three, so they had a considerable advantage.

Top-heavy

While Bradley Beal (25 points), Kristaps Porzingis (27 points) and Kyle Kuzma (25 points) all put up 20-plus points apiece, the Wizards didn’t get much in the scoring department from the rest of the roster. Those three combined for 77 points, while everyone else collectively scored 30 and no one reached double-figures. Corey Kispert was next up with eight points, shooting 3-for-5 in 22 minutes.

The Wizards’ starting lineup is now whole with Beal, Kuzma and Monte Morris recently having returned from injuries. Their bench is missing Delon Wright, who has been out for a while with a hamstring injury, and Rui Hachimura, who has now missed six games due to a bone bruise in his right ankle. Those absences could help explain the bench issues at least some, but it’s not a good combination with some remaining on the roster underperforming.

Defending Durant

Durant had 28 points in the Nets’ blowout win over the Wizards earlier this month in D.C., so surely the Wizards were intent on not letting that happen again. Despite their best hopes, he was even better in this one, dropping 16 in the first quarter alone. Durant shot 13-for-20 from the field and 11-for-11 from the free throw line in what would be a masterpiece for most players but is just another Wednesday for him.

Kuzma spent extended time defending him and had some good moments, like in the second quarter when he stripped Durant for a breakaway slam. But Kuzma and his teammates mostly had no hope of stopping Durant, who is certifiably one of the greatest scorers to ever pick up a ball. Durant made a series of shots that were closely contested, and defended well enough that it’s hard to imagine what else the Wizards could have done.

Porzingis good again

While it came in a loss, Porzingis was able to keep it rolling on the offensive end after his career-high 41 points against the T’Wolves on Monday. In addition to his 27 points, he had a career-high 19 rebounds in this one plus two blocks, shooting 8-for-14 from the field and 2-for-3 from three. The one blemish was his 9-for-14 shooting from the line.

Porzingis found a rhythm in this game despite seeing a lot of help defense. The Nets were overloading on him in a clear response to what he did against Minnesota. It was interesting to see in that sense, as it showed Porzingis can still get his even when the defense is going out of their way to take him out of the game.

Ian Mahinmi on his involvement with NBA Africa, time with Wizards

By Chase Hughes
Ian Mahinmi on NBA Africa, his time with Wizards originally appeared on NBC Sports WashingtonFew NBA careers have ended under more unusual circumstances than Ian Mahinmi's. His last game was on Feb. 2020 and weeks later the entire league shut down due to the coronavirus. He did not play in the NBA's playoff bubble that summer. When he laced them up for his last professional game, there wasn't an inkling it would be his ride off into the sunset.After the Wizards' time in the bubble came to a close, as did the four-year contract he signed to join them in free agency in 2016, it left him at a crossroads with a 12-year NBA career in the books and his whole life ahead of him.It was shortly thereafter that Mahinmi was approached with an investment opportunity in NBA Africa. Mahinmi joined as a minority owner, attaching his name to a group that includes strategic partners and investors like former President Barack Obama, actor Forest Whitaker and former NBA players Dikembe Mutombo, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng.Mahinmi, who has roots in the West African country of Benin, has since been directly involved in the sport's expansion across the continent. That includes an appearance at the tip-off of the Basketball Africa League's (BAL) third season this week in Senegal."This is definitely, for me, the next chapter. I feel like everything I've done has led me to this," Mahinmi told NBC Sports Washington during a phone conversation from Dakar.The BAL features 12 teams from 12 different countries split between two conferences, the Nile and Sahara. The teams include players with G-League and Division 1 college basketball experience. They play 38 games over three months in Dakar (Senegal), Cairo (Egypt) and Kigali (Rwanda).The games are available to watch in all 54 African countries and 214 countries in total across the world. There are also 45 games from this NBA season being broadcast in primetime throughout the continent on various platforms.NBA Africa, which is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and has additional offices in Senegal, Nigeria and Egypt, also has other initiatives to drive interest in the sport among African youth. Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr. participated in a Basketball Without Borders camp in Egypt last summer."At the grassroot level, the game is popular now. The game is being played," Mahinmi said. "And obviously, as you know, basketball is not only the game. It's the whole lifestyle. The game goes with the music, the music goes with the swag, the clothes, the shoes, the sneakers."Mahinmi, who grew up in France, believes the full potential of basketball in Africa has barely been realized. That is despite multiple Hall of Famers hailing from the continent including Mutombo and Hakeem Olajuwon. Joel Embiid, who is from Cameroon, is a favorite to win this year's NBA MVP award.Soccer remains the No. 1 sport across Africa, but Mahinmi believes basketball is well on its way to the mainstream."It's been like a whole ecosystem awakening. For me to be a part of that, it's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time," he said. "This BAL league has changed the whole landscape of how basketball is viewed on the basketball continent."Mahinmi has drawn a sense of gratitude from his involvement with NBA Africa, as he continues to transition away from his professional basketball career. It's a revitalizing new venture for him after an admittedly disappointing tenure in Washington.Mahinmi's four-year, $64 million deal did not work out for the Wizards. He appeared in only 180 games and struggled to provide the impact they signed him for.Mahinmi points to injuries as a major reason for his performance and suggests they were worse than initially reported."My time with the Wizards was very challenging... My first steps as a Wizard, I injured myself. I injured myself in training camp and this was like such a tough start. I felt like from that injury, it was like a ripple effect," he said."That year we had such a good team. I believe we had aspirations of going far. I hurt myself, took a while to come back, then came back and I hurt myself again. I obviously wasn't healed all the way, trying to come back quickly for the playoffs. I hurt myself again, the same injury. I tore my meniscus twice in my first year. We don't talk about it a lot, but that trauma of tearing my meniscus twice took me a while to get back to myself. I didn't feel comfortable until maybe a year-and-a-half after. But a year-and-a-half after, a lot had changed in the Wizards organization. It was tough, it was tough for me. I felt like I gave it my all, but it was just like physically I wasn't at my best."Mahinmi said the Wizards not reaching their potential during those years remains a "regret," though he is happy he was able to play better during the 2019-20 season and end his career on a personal high note.Mahinmi is now out of the NBA, but still in basketball. And with NBA Africa's initiatives, he has a chance to impact the game for many years to come.
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