NBA Power Rankings week 11: OKC Thunder continues hot streak

Washington Wizards:

Offense: (111.9)  4th
Defense: (116.2)  30th
Net: (minus -4.3)  25th

Games Week 11 (2-2): Won vs Heat: 123-105, Nuggets: 128-114, Lost to Magic: 101-122, Blazers 103-122
Games Week 12 (4 games): Mon vs. Celtics | Weds at Magic | Fri vs Hawks | Sun vs. Jazz

The Wizards are a paradox since they don’t defend and the primary goal is to lure teams into offensive up and down – your turn, my turn matches. Teams who fail to comply have the best chance of defeating them.

But – therein lies the rub because this crew has played so much offense and their players are all used to getting up shots that if they stay close in a tight match they are more than capable of pulling off the victory.

Case in point, last week they bested the Heat and Nuggets no slouches defensively but then inexplicably lost to sub .500 clubs the Magic and Blazers with the former a team who struggles to score and the latter a team who struggles to defend.

Most impressive was the Wizards got those victories versus the Heat and Nuggets without Bradley Beal, Davis Bertans, Rui Hachimura or Thomas Bryant!

Even if you cite those losses as trap games the Nuggets especially (and as of this posting the Celtics too) can’t simply be underestimating the Wizards.

Frankly, it’s the most perplexing situation and it’s not like it can be rationalized Scotty Brooks has incentivized the guys who are playing to deliver defensively to win future playing time.  That’s because the numbers don’t justify that theory. Miami shot 45.2 percent from the field and 35.7 from deep while Denver shot 46 percent (but did struggle from deep 20.7 percent).

Whatever the answer is, these wins feel like an outlier on the season — but a few more victories against top tier squads and clearly reevaluation on why it’s happening will be required.