Kispert’s career-night not enough to power Wizards originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

WASHINGTON — The Washington Wizards lost to the Orlando Magic 116-109 on Friday night at Capital One Arena. Here are five takeaways from what went down…

Kispert was on fire

Missing their three top players on the depth chart, Bradley Beal, Kyle Kuzma and Kristaps Porzingis, someone was going to have to step up and carry the scoring burden. It was none other than second-year shooting guard Corey Kispert who answered the call with the best game of his career.

Kispert opened the game on a heater and came out firing. He scored Washington’s first basket with a catch-and-shoot wing three that was set up by Deni Avdija. By halftime, the Gonzaga product had tied his career-high with six made 3-pointers (doing so on just nine attempts). Two minutes of game action later he had a new career-high. Kispert finished the game with a career-high 27 points – all threes – going 9-for-14 from the field.

Hitting threes isn’t anything new for Kispert. He entered the game with 140 made threes this season, becoming the first Wizard to record 100+ in each of his first two seasons in the league. His 42.3% 3-point percentage is also the highest among all first and second-year players in the NBA.

Perhaps this game was a matter of Kispert stepping up when his number was called. This season saw so much of his development being cuts to the basket and creating offense rather than just scoring from a catch-and-shoot position. Against Orlando, it was just a matter of him hitting his marks in the offense.

Kispert was flying off pin-down screens set by Daniel Gafford and Deni Avdija. He was hitting swing threes in the corner and on the wings. Some of Kispert’s playmaking generation was designed in the second half but didn’t result in any additional baskets.

Not to be outdone by his performance on the floor, Kispert also grabbed the crowd’s attention early in the first quarter. It was revealed on the jumbotron that if Kispert were to host a late-night talk show, he would call it ‘Kis and Tell.’ By far it was the most creative among the Wizards players.

Wizards lose their spark

Orlando started the fourth quarter on a 20-7 run after Washington had an 11-point lead. The Magic must have decided at that point that they simply weren’t going to let Washington shoot open threes. Every deep ball for the remainder of the game was contested with Cole Anthony and Jalen Suggs playing a scrappy brand of defense full of double teams and aggressive closeouts.

When Washington scored it typically was a breakdown that led to an open drive to the rim or getting to the free throw line. It was a completely different dynamic from the first half of play. As a result, the Wizards only attempted three 3-pointers in the first six minutes of final quarter, missing all three. They finished with 10 3-point attempts in the frame, Kispert’s only attempted one and it came with 38 seconds left on the clock.

It got so bad that in the final two minutes, Johnny Davis and Deni Avdija each passed up two wide-open shots.

Orlando ended up winning the fourth quarter 31-13.

No Big Three

When the sun rose on Friday, the Wizards knew they were already going to be without two of their prominent stars in Beal (knee) and Kuzma (ankle). It’s not a new situation. Beal has missed the last four games and Kuzma the last five. But in warm-ups, Porzingis was an unexpected addition to the injury report and was unable to suit up due to a non-COVID illness. Head coach Wes Unseld Jr. described it as a stomach bug and doesn’t expect it to be anything serious.

But the absences, at first, didn’t seem to affect how ‘the others’ approached the game, as NBC Sports Washington sideline reporter Meghan McPeak would say. Several players stepped up without the top three guys using a well-balanced scoring attack. Kispert drilled his threes at a frantic rate, but Delon Wright also contributed 21 points, 12 points came from Kendrick Nunn and Johnny Davis chipped in 10.

Scoring off the bench has been one of Washington’s weaknesses this year. Many of the players are probably getting used to their increased role and added playing time at this point in the year, but they rose to the occasion again tonight — at least through three quarters.

On the positive injury front, Daniel Gafford did return after missing the win over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday.

Opening up the bench

Over the past two weeks, Unseld has made a point to get some of the younger pieces within the Wizards development program involved. Some of it has been because of necessity – due to the injuries to Beal and Kuzma – some of it because the coaching staff has wanted to get a bigger evaluation on those players as they build toward the future.

On Friday, the bench opened up quickly. Nine Wizards saw action in the first seven minutes. That rose to 11 once the ball was in-bounded to start the second quarter.

The Wizards’ 2022 first-round pick Davis was the first one to enter the game. His play during the last month or so of the season has been arguably the most encouraging after how most of his year has been spent with the team’s G League affiliate. He totaled 28 minutes of action. Goodwin had 18 minutes of play.

NBL addition Xavier Cooks also had his most playing time since joining the team six games ago with five minutes.

The only dressed Wizards to not play were Quenton Jackson and Jay Huff, two Capital City Go-Go regulars.

Deni vs. Banchero

Throughout Deni Avdija’s season, we’ve seen him frequently take on the top defensive matchup. He’s covered LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant among many others.

This time it was the 2022 No. 1 overall pick Paolo Banchero who drew an assignment from Avdija.

The former Duke star certainly had his way at times in the matchup. Banchero’s strength was too much for the third-year player as he continuously drove to the basket at ease and had multiple putback scoring opportunities. Avdija played aggressively at the 3-point arc to limit that element of Banchero’s game, but once the Magic star was able to get past the first level, it was game over.

The battle might have affected Avdija’s offensive game as well, as he was kept in check with just six points (2-for-14 FG). Banchero also covered the forward, but Avdija’s shot looked off from the beginning.

Who knows, if any of the missing players were healthy it would have probably adjusted the rotation so that Avdija would have covered Franz Wagner instead. But no Porzingis and no Kuzma meant that Avdija was going to cover the second-tallest Magic player on the court.