Next Up - Celtics @ Wizards, Wednesday 12/12/2018 at 7 PM

Remember when the talking heads were hyping the Wizards?  Remember the MIB episode.

There are a lot of teams that Boston does not play nice with and this is one of them but they are now just another team on the schedule and it is hard to generate any excitement for the matchup.  The Wizards are horribly flawed.  Over the summer they had a mini makeover.  Gortat is gone and Howard is in along with Doc's son Austin and Jeff Green.  They recently picked up Sam Decker from Cleveland.  

The starting lineup includes a backcourt of Austin Rivers and Beal, Otto Porter is at SF, their rookie center Thomas Bryant mans the middle and Tomas Satoransky plays SG.

Wall did not suit up their last game because of bone spurs.

Rotation players include Oubre and Morris.  Dwight Howard has missed his last 11 games and will not play this year.  They were better with Gortat but word on the street indicates him and Wall did not like each other.  I could go into greater detail about how FU this team is but I do not want to depress you.  Let's just look at the numbers.

Washington is 11-16 and 5-5 over their past 10 games.  They average 111.6 PPG and surrender 116.4, a -4.8 differential.  You can already see where this is going.  This team cannot play defense.  Teams are shooting 37.3% from deep while they are god awful at only 32.5%.  They do not rebound the ball well.

So the key to winning this game will be to close them out on the perimeter (They take 32.8 3PA per game) and make your own 3PA )  Their weakness is out strength.

According to the injury report Horford and Hayward will be out (does anyone know what is ailing Hayward?)  Baynes is questionable but Irving is expected to play.  Yabusele is obviously out.

Our starting lineup should look something like this.  Theis C, Morris PF, Tatum, SF, KI PG and Smart at PG/SG.  If Baynes is not able to go then we are likely to see Williams play extended minutes again.  Brown, Rozier and Semi round out the rest of the rotation.  With Kyrie returning, Wannamaker may ride the bench all night.

Now it is next up - Atlanta as a once again injury/illness depleted Cs beat the Wizards.

Not an easy game, but the Wiz played one of their best games of the year last night.

When Wall gives up the ball on a regular (11 assists last night) basis he can score at the hoop on anyone, and the Wiz can be at least kind of tough on any team that does not have a big, bruising offensive guy at center.