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After a somewhat uneven but ultimately successful road opener against the Chicago Bulls, the Washington Wizards will look to build on their 2-1 record when they visit the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night. The Wizards' depth fueled a second-half surge that overwhelmed Chicago's defense, securing another win over a less-talented opponent.
A 2-1 mark for a team still integrating recently acquired All-Stars and promising young talent is roughly what most realistic fans expected through three games. Now, Washington has another winnable contest to start the new week.
Hornets Also Defying Expectations
The Hornets, like the Wizards, were not projected by many to make noise in the Eastern Conference this season, and a string of early injuries seemed to dash any hopes of surprising opponents. Yet Charlotte has won two of three without Kon Knueppel, knocking off the Brooklyn Nets and the reeling Miami Heat while suffering a lopsided 47-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
These are not the same Hornets that Washington fans are accustomed to seeing multiple times per season, though they still jack up 3-pointers with abandon. LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges, the two longest-tenured players from last year's Play-In Tournament squad, are gone, having been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns, respectively.
Until Knueppel returns, this is Brandon Miller's team, even if his 21.3% field goal percentage suggests otherwise. The reigning Rookie of the Year runner-up will join fellow rotation regulars Coby White and Grant Williams on the bench, a spot the Wizards' own potential future face of the franchise, AJ Dybantsa, has grown all too familiar with. Dybantsa has yet to make his in-game debut after rolling his ankle in Washington's preseason finale, another significant loss.
Alex Sarr's Mini-Breakout
Following back-to-back quiet performances in the Wizards' two home games, one of the team's top prospects finally found some offensive assertiveness in Chicago. Alex Sarr scored a season-high 10 points, matching his total field goals from the first two games combined.
Washington's coaching staff has seemed unsure how to utilize Sarr within their double-big lineups, often stationing him in the corner as a hypothetical floor-spacer without threatening volume shooting. He can hit 3-pointers occasionally, though he remains far from a perimeter-first threat despite a tweaked jump shot.
Where Sarr has excelled is through his playmaking feel. His off-ball buckets have not only come from Trae Young entry passes in transition or pick-and-roll feeds; he has proven to be a timely cutter when Anthony Davis has the ball in the high post, gliding into space and using his agile 7'1" frame to quickly overpower rotating helpers. He has also repaid Davis, feeding him an alley-oop slam at least once in every game thus far.
Sarr has always been a keen passer, and limiting his range to dump-offs and assists from point-blank range has done wonders for the frontcourt options. Those positive strides, along with his ability to punish smaller defenders one-on-one in space, will make head coach Brian Keefe's job even tougher in providing another scoring threat worth fixating on—a good problem for any game-manager to have.
Outside of Moussa Diabate, who is three inches shorter than Sarr, the Hornets have little to throw at the opposing center, granting Sarr, Davis and Deandre Ayton plenty of room to operate in Charlotte.
Trae Young's Efficient Direction
Trae Young's extension doubters had plenty of concerns over the summer—'Why is the money backloaded with a player-option four years out?' and 'Who were the Wizards even bidding against?' chief among them. As far as on-court worries went, though, Young immediately quelled plenty by feeding his dependent play-finishers while sharing the ball with other playmakers.
After years of posting gaudy scoring totals on sub-par shooting splits, he finally offered a glimpse of something resembling an efficient return-to-form with a 25-point performance in Chicago, his highest mark yet as a Wizard. Young sank six of his 13 field goal attempts, including four 3-pointers for the second straight game.
His ability to dominate on a mere 13 shot attempts will be key for Washington going forward, even though he'll need to attempt more than three shots inside the arc to remain a frightening slashing penetrator and distributor off screens. Unlike the Toronto Raptors, who had all the perimeter and wing stoppers to make life exceedingly unpleasant for the Wizards last week, the Hornets' middling defense and lack of high-minute point-of-attack disruptors could open everything up for another Young gem.
Expect to see plenty of Sion James activity in this one, as well as frequent camera shots of Dybantsa and Knueppel on their respective benches while fans imagine the duels that will have to wait.