WASHINGTON — The history of D.C. sports is not a kind one, and on Wednesday another chapter was brewed after the Washington Capitals were booted out of the playoffs and the Wizards were manhandled by the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of their series.
Everyone knows the history. Nothing good happens here. It has been nearly three decades since this town has had a sports team that had some semblance of success.
The fanbase has been starving for years. Just a morsel — a sliver— of some sort of victory would be nice. But the well is dry and it’s been that way for as long as I can remember.
But on Friday night, with the entire world watching, John Wall hit a shot that washed all the anguish away, for one night, in a moment of radiance.
Wall’s three pointer to beat the Boston Celtics and force a decisive Game 7 was just the jolt Washington needed after years of ineptitude.
But to truly appreciate the moment, one must examine what came before. The Celtics had Washington dead to rights. With 1:34 left on the board, the Celtics took an 87-82 lead behind late game heroics from Isaiah Thomas.
Thomas darted away from a trap the Wizards were planning after Markieff Morris didn’t corral the ball quickly enough. Wall failed to get a hand up in time to stop Thomas from pulling up.
Thomas used that speed and quickness to destroy teams in the fourth quarter all season long, and for a moment it looked like the Wizards were going to be his next victim.
After that, a block call on Marcus Smart is reversed into a charge call on Wall after an official review. Celtics ball. The life is out of the building and in the hands of the Celtics. A small, but present, “Let’s go Celtics!” chant starts to rise up from the upper deck in the building.
“Their backs were against the wall,” Al Horford said.
How they turned it around
Like any animal threatened with its back against the wall, the Wizards scratched, clawed and fought to make it a game again. On the next offensive possession for Boston, the Celtics ran a high screen and roll play for Isaiah Thomas with Jae Crowder as his screener.
The Wizards blitz Thomas immediately with the ball and took away his easiest pass.
The plan, Bradley Beal said, was to “blitz him regardless” of what the play was when he got the ball. Thomas said he had “nowhere to go” on the play. There is a wide open man in the corner, but Thomas is far too small to get the ball to that spot on a single pass.
“They took away the next pass,” Thomas said. “They hadn’t really been doing that all game and we weren’t alert. I wasn’t alert. I’ve got to do a better job in that situation.”
The Wizards were able to push the ball down the floor for a good look at a Beal three the next play down. They weren’t able to get a good contest in transition and he drained it.
Then, the next possession down, Wall gets a block on Isaiah Thomas after a three point attempt late in the shot clock.
After that, Wall attacked Avery Bradley and Thomas at the rim. He got to the free throw line and knotted the game up at 87 with two free throw attempts.
Two huge defensive stands put the Wizards right back in the thick of things when all hope looked lost. After losing a five point lead, Horford said the Celtics felt they did not capitalize on the opportunity at hand. It was in their grasp, and they lost it. They blew the game.
“That was tough for us, after feeling we had the game in the wraps,” Al Horford said. “This is a learning experience for us.”