In the second quarter of the first game of their series against the Celtics, Washington Wizards forward Markieff Morris suffered an ankle sprain. The Wiz had a strong outing until this point, and frankly, the Celtics looked outmatched. Morris left the court with a marked limp and the Celtics rallied. Boston proceeded to dominate the rest of the game and take a 1-0 lead in the second round.
Led by Isaiah Thomas (as usual) the Celt’s honed in on center Marcin Gortat. While Gortat had a good game on the glass, he didn’t have the foot speed to scramble with guards on the perimeter. IT ran around high screens from Al Horford and Kelly Olynyk, forcing Gortat to either switch onto him or try to stay with the two solid shooting bigs. Usually, Wizards coach Scott Brooks counters this by going small, but he was without his small ball center Morris. Backup big man Jason Smith proved to be just as ineffective on defense, neither protecting the rim nor staying with the Celtics guards.
Although Markieff is set to return for game two, it’s unclear how healthy he will actually be. Washington needs him to be as effective as they can on the defensive end. Without him, Brooks may be forced to turn to Otto Porter Jr. as a super-small center. While this does allow the Wiz to switch all the screens that Boston runs, it leaves Al Horford with someone to feast on in the post. The other option is for the Wizards to change their scheme on that high screen and rolls. Scott Brooks could have Gortat hang back more, and try to goad Bradley and Thomas into more midrange jumpers.
Throughout the season the Wizards thrived in transition. For stretches they turned into a sports car with John Wall at the wheel, sprinting up the court at every opportunity and earning open threes as well as layups. In the first game, the Celtics smartly took that away, turning their nose up at offensive rebounds in order to have as many players back as they could. Look for Wall to push the tempo more and more as the series goes on. Wall is elite when the defense isn’t settled, and the Celtics lack a true shot-blocking presence to keep him away from the rim.
Whether Morris is healthy or not, and both teams subsequent adjustments may very well decide the winner of the series. Whether either of them can beat the Cavaliers is another question entirely.
