Brooklyn @ Washington preview
Capital One Arena
Last Meeting ( Dec 8, 2023 ) Washington 97, Brooklyn 124
The Brooklyn Nets hope their defensive dominance of the Washington Wizards carries over to the road when the clubs duel in the nation's capital Friday night.
The Nets have allowed just 94 and 97 points in a pair of home wins over Washington, limiting the guests to 37.5-percent shooting in an eight-point victory on Nov. 12, then 41.8 percent in a 27-point drubbing on Dec. 8.
Washington was a combined 16-for-74 (21.6 percent) on 3-pointers in the losses.
Only the Los Angeles Clippers (93) have scored fewer points against the Nets in a game this season.
As the Nets embark on a four-game trip, coach Jacque Vaughn hopes his club can rediscover the defensive magic that has been missing in recent outings. Brooklyn has lost six of eight, allowing at least 121 points in each defeat.
With defensive ace Ben Simmons slow to return from lower-back pain, Vaughn has called upon Dennis Smith Jr. to be a leader on that end of the court.
Smith was promoted to the starting lineup Wednesday in a 144-122 home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, chipping in with 14 points, seven rebounds and eight assists.
In his previous five outings off the bench, his contribution was better represented in five straight non-negative plus/minus figures (a total of plus-35) than his 8.4 points per game.
"There's a physicality that he plays with," Vaughn observed. "There's an edge that he plays with, that he gives to the rest of the group."
The Nets won their most recent road game, 118-112 over the Detroit Pistons to complete a home-and-home sweep bridging Christmas. Cam Johnson, who sat out the Milwaukee game for load-management purposes, had a team-high 24 points in the win at Detroit.
Washington has lost three in a row, the last two of which - 127-119 against the Orlando Magic and 132-102 against the Toronto Raptors - were at home.
The latter 30-point shellacking represented one of the Wizards' low points of the season. Not only did they allow 130 or more points for the 14th time this year but did so by watching the Raptors dish off 43 assists, five more than any previous Washington opponent and one off Toronto's season-high set against the woeful Pistons.
The general consensus was that the Wizards were tired in the wake of a four-game Western trip, Christmas and a home back-to-back.
"They came out with a level of aggressiveness that I feel like caught us by surprise," Wizards big man Daniel Gafford said. "The physicality piece is something that we should be better at and I take pride in that."
Wizards scoring leaders Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma combined to shoot just 2-for-12 on 3-pointers and totaled 28 points in the loss to the Raptors. Poole has managed a total of just 20 points (2-for-10 on 3-pointers) in the two games against the Nets this season, while Kuzma has shot 1-for-9 from distance en route to 32 points.
--Field Level Media