The Washington Wizards fell to the Miami Heat Wednesday night in the season opener 107-95.
The big reason for that was the thin roster head coach Randy Wittman had to pull from. As we know Bradley Beal is out with a wrist injury, Martell Webster is recovering from back surgery, and Glen Rice Jr. is a battling an ankle injury.
Adding on to that list were power forwards Nene and DeJuan Blair who both had to serve one-game suspensions for leaving the bench area in a preseason game against the Chicago Bulls when Paul Pierce and Joakim Noah exchanged some shoves.
It’s hard to win against a good Miami Heat team under any circumstances but when one-third of your roster is not available to play it’s a tough task.
Washington’s main problem was rebounding as Miami out rebounded the Wizards 44-to-36, 12 of which were on the offensive glass. Marcin Gortat expressed the same sentiment after last night’s game, “I think we lost the game on rebounds, on the boards. We should fight a bit harder and stay a bit more focused on everything we do.”
With Nene and Blair back for tonight’s game the Wizards should do a better job on the glass.
Orlando suffered the same fate Tuesday night in their opener against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans defeated the Magic in convincing fashion 101-84 as Anthony Davis dominated on both sides of the ball.
The Magic struggled shooting from the field as they shot under 40%, and they turned the ball over 18 times. It’s hard to win games when you can’t make shots and give the opposing teams more possessions. They showed their youth on Tuesday; let’s see if they can make adjustments tonight in their home opener.
Washington has beaten the Magic in eight of their last 10 meetings, including two straight at the Amway Center.
The Wizards swept the four games series against the Magic last season. John Wall was leading the charge averaging 18.5 points and 10.8 assists.