Washington Wizards’ Defense LOCKS UP Pacers in WIN! Jamir Watkins SECRET WEAPON?

Washington Wizards’ Defense LOCKS UP Pacers in WIN! Jamir Watkins SECRET WEAPON?

How about that everybody? Some defense for a change. The most complete defensive performance of the entire season for the Washington Wizards and it leads to the fourth win of the year. How about that? Let’s break it all down here on Lockdown Wizards. You are Locked On Wizards, your daily Washington Wizards podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. DC family, you are locked on to the Washington Wizards where you’re part of our family. We thank you for making Locked On Wizards your first listen every single day. Hey, we’re part of the Lockdown podcast network where it’s your team every day. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season. Visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long alongside the DC sports content creating Savan Abdullah Yubie. I’m Ben Strober and I cover the Washington Wizards for Roundt IIO. How about that? 89 points allowed today AB by this Wizards team. It’s the first time since February 24th of last season that the Wizards allowed under 100 points in a game. In that game, they gave up 99 to the Brooklyn Nets. Complete defensive shift today than we’ve seen all year long. When was the last time the Washington Commanders and the Washington Wizards won a game, Ben? We have to look that up. Tonight, only giving up 89 points. And on top of that, you won by 19 points. only giving up 15 points in the second quarter, 19 in the third. I mean, this team defensively played amazing today. And just overall, Justin Champeny, Marvin Bagley combined for 28 rebounds and a good amount of them were offensive rebounds. Both of them with a double double. Love this. This is the the Wizards that we want to see. A team that we understand the Pacers, they’re just like us. They’re not winning a lot of games. However, you went out there and competed. You went into Indiana and won. And I I just love how this team played offensively. Trey Johnson bounced back 14 points. So many people out there are questioning the guy. He’s a rookie. Give it some time. I can’t stand some Wizards fans sometimes. Bub Carrington 11 points. Will Riley 12 points. People are going to talk about Kent Whitmore and I’m done with it. Not I’m done with him, but I’m done talking about the situation. He didn’t play today. We’re going to talk about the guys that did play today. And on top of that, the Wizards get a win. And not only a win, Ben, 19 points. I mean, you love to see it. And a big reason why they won this game as well is because of Marvin Bagley. and we got to commend him a ton for what he’s done off the bench for this Wizards team this year. But now with the injured Alex Sar, they’re being cautious with Sar right now. He hasn’t progressed to the point where you see him getting on the court to get some of that uh work in like Trey Johnson was when he was injured. They’re still letting him progress slowly. Marvin Baggley has filled in really nicely for this Wizards team. I love his effort. I love his energy. He was everywhere on the offensive glass today. a couple of those possessions where Drew Gooden at one point says it seemed like the guy is stat padding out there because he’s getting every offensive rebound going up with intensity and getting it done. You love to see how he has filled the role this year that he has and that’s been kind of a nice surprise for me because all offseason long we talk about this Wizards franchise and how they haven’t really prioritized getting that second big alongside Alex Sar, how they didn’t have much depth in the front court. But since SAR has gone down, I’ve been satisfied with the way Bagley has played, with the way Tristan Vukovich has played. And today with the defense locking down the way it did, it’s refreshing to see. This was a team that was supposed to be a better defensive team this year. You preached it the entire off season that you were going to be better defensively. You were going to lock in, make life hell for the opponent. And today was finally a resemblance of showing that you can do that. Uh just looking at the totals, Indiana shooting around 30% from the field in this game. came abysmal from three as well. They locked in. They were all over the place and Bagley was a big reason why a couple of other guys like Jir Watkins as well. We’ll get into that in a minute though. AB, I want to get your thoughts on Baggley and his performance this season so far. I mean, Ben, this is a guy Marvin Bagley where you traded him, the Memphis trade, bring him back, and people were making jokes about it, but with Alex Sar out 23 and 14, and there was a play down late in the game where he had like three offensive tippins in a row, and he just looked like he wanted it more. This is a Marvin Bagley that let’s be honest when he got drafted was drafted before Luca Donic and many people call him a bust but he has done a great job so far in his NBA career of still being a productive player and stepped up one assist one steal one block as well. I think man a lot of people want to talk about trade value. I think this is a guy that you keep especially in situ situations like this when you’re down without Bal without Alex. This is a guy who’s a veteran technically even though he’s like 26 27 years old, very young. He knows the system here in DC. I don’t think it would I don’t think it would make sense to trade him right now. And it just a guy is very productive and gives you those types of minutes. Ben is a big reason why you want to against the Indiana Pacers team. Like you mentioned, they are like us. We’re in the same category. Even though with a healthy Tyrese Halleorn, with a healthy team squad, they’re probably going to beat this Wizards team eight times out of 10. But tonight, that just wasn’t the case. This is a Wizard squad that understands that. We talked a lot in the offseason about being competitive, about playing team defense, about being a team that goes out there and hustles. And it didn’t look like that with that double digit game losing streak not too long ago that we had, but we’re trying to flip the script right now. CJ McCullum tonight, 18.6 rebounds. Keshan George, man, I mean, this is like a near triple double. Nine points, eight rebounds, nine assists. Just overall the Whiz Kids tonight on top of Bags. Justin Champagne, I can’t talk about him enough. It was It was great. It it was just amazing. I want to talk about one whiz kid specifically because he’s been getting more run as of late and I know he started a game a week ago and a lot of people were confused saying why would he be starting a game? What makes him deserve to even be in that spot? But coming off the bench, first of all, the bench unit overall today excellent uh for the Wizards in this game. You only had four guys that came off the bench. All of them I thought were super productive in Vukovich, Trey Johnson, Will Riley. But Jir Watkins stands out to me and he’s not going to be a guy that fills up the stat sheet like he did on Friday where he had 15 points, connected on three of his four shots from the outside. Tonight just two points. I’m one of one um attempts from the field, had a dunk I think at one point if I remember correctly. But this guy is impactful because of what he does in terms of his positioning defensively. And I know that seems like it should be simple, like a guy in the NBA should be able to position himself correctly where he’s there in the help side. He’s there to help if the man next to him gets beat and he’s able to see his man at the same time deny passing lanes. The Wizards haven’t done that throughout the entirety of the season, but Jir Watkins is a guy that instantly provides that ability. We saw the flashes of that throughout the summer league. his ability to be innate in terms of reading passing lanes to get in there and make impact defensively on a night in nightight out basis. We’re seeing that Jamir Watkins and every opportunity he’s been given for this team this season, he’s lived up to the billing. He’s stepped up. This is a guy that you used a second round pick on and now you’re finally getting some real meaningful production and he’s contributing to the def defense playing better right now. This was the best performance. This is definitely an outlier in terms of Wizards defense because you just held a team to under 41 points uh below your season average of what you typically give up on the defensive end. But Jir Watkins is a big reason why he got 15 minutes tonight. You can’t take him and Riley out of the rotation right now. Those guys are playing too meaningful of minutes. They’re helpful. They’re contributing well off the bench. I don’t even want to talk about guys right now that aren’t playing. I know Cam Whitmore hasn’t played in the last three games, but you can’t deny what Jamir Watkins and Will Riley are doing for this team right now. They’re helping you create impact on both sides of the basketball. Will Riley especially always finds himself in a good position. He crashes the offensive glass with purpose. Another good offensive performance for him as well. Four of seven from the field with 12 points, just one turnover. It’s awesome to see that our young guys are finally contributing. This is the first real sense of meritocracy we’ve seen this year in terms of earning minutes because Watkins and Riley, they’re earning their minutes right now. They’re making the most of it and I think they’re going to continue to play. And remember last time, Ben, when we got blown out by Indiana at Indiana, Pascal Seakum kept getting the ball. Drew Gooden and you emphasized, why are we not denying the ball? Why are we letting get him get him the ball? He just scores like that. Tonight, Pascal Seakum only 11 points, 412. That’s an adjustment. Andrew Nemhart only seven points. this Pacers team. Yeah, you can say they couldn’t buy a basket, but that’s in large part due to this Wizards defense tonight. Again, I I don’t remember the last time we allowed a team to only score 15 points in a quarter. That’s just amazing. At one point, you led this game by 22 points and people want to talk about tanking and you don’t want to you don’t want to lose that draft pick. I we’re going to be fine with the draft pick. But these are the types of games where you look at as Wizards fans and say this is what we’re going to see in the future. This is how we’re going to be optimistic. I I mean at some point we were concerned about the fact that we might break the Detroit Pistons losing streak record in NBA history. But now when you see wins like this you stack up a little bit and hopefully we’re hoping to see more of this in the second half of the season. But man Ben I I’ll just keep saying it. You’re doing this without Chris Militin, without Cory Kper, without Bal Kulabali, Alexar, Malachi Brain. I know he doesn’t provide much but he still goes out there and gives you some meaningful minutes. And like you mentioned but what’s the point of talking about guys who don’t play? It doesn’t matter at this point. It’s all it’s just it’s all it’s just it’s nothing at this point. It doesn’t add any value. You talk about Jir Watkins, a guy who can go out there and give you good defensive minutes. Will Riley, I mean, his game is coming along. And at one point, this kid’s maybe be a starter on this team and it goes back to the surplus of wings that you have. I just I I really love it. And I mean, again, Ben, I know I give this guy, he’s my favorite. Him and TV like they go neck and neck when it comes to my favorites, but Justin Champagne, again, a guy that’s 6’5, 66, 14 rebounds. How many guys in the NBA are like that? Only a handful. It’s a good point that you bring up. He’s been excellent and he’s he’s lived up to what he’s supposed to be as a player every single time he stepped on the floor. It’s insane that there were some games early in the season where this guy was getting DNPs or just getting garbage time minutes. I think uh Keith knows that was a big mistake early on in the season to not give him those minutes. Let’s take our first break. 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Go to lockdownwizards.com or lockdownwizards.supcast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. All right, we want to get back into reacting to this Washington Wizards win over the Indiana Pacers. It feels good. It’s refreshing because um we haven’t been able to say the Wizards actually won a game because of their defense. Heck, I think in the majority of the wins we’ve seen, it was like the CJ McCullum show every single night outside of that first win that we got over Dallas where Keshan George stole the show in Texas. But it feels good to finally see this team living up to what its mantras were in the offseason. It took some time. AB it took almost eight weeks into the season. We’re seeing forms of meritocracy with Watkins and Riley earning their minutes and we’re seeing them try to buy in more and more on the defensive side. I don’t think they have the horses to be a great team defensively, but tonight was a step in the right direction. That’s the bottom line. And it’ll look better when you have Bal back and Alex Hart, two guys defensively that can help you alongside a performance like this. Maybe you hold the paces under 80 points. I mean, I’m just spitballing out there. On average, Ben, this team gives up around 129 points a game and giving up 89 tonight against a Pacers team where not too long ago you got blown out by them in Indiana. Very much improvement to say the least. And Bub Carrington, Ben, I know a lot of people, there’s a lot of Bub haters out there, doubters saying that he should be signed to the Capital City Go. I think it was absurd. I talked about how his aunt was in the Wizard subreddit defending him and rightfully so. tonight. 11 points, three rebounds, five assists. You have to let the guy find his groove. Maybe he is not that pure point guard that we desperately need on this roster, but he can carve out a role here. And again, Ben, this is I’m not concerned about our draft pick. I think we’re still going to be contending hopefully for a top three pick in this draft. AJ Debonsza, I mean, every day, Ben, I’m just I’m I’m just dreaming about him being a wizard. I can see it. I can see it. And I think tonight, Tristan Vic, six points, three rebounds. and just like everyone even like even Jir Watkins two points the five rebounds like everyone came and and contributed in some form of fashion and again you have a Pacers team where I’ll keep mentioning it like you got destroyed by this and and you understand that right now this is a squad that you’re not competing or both teams but you want to go out there and say that we’re going to be a team that’s going to be competitive in the future with this Eastern Conference. I mean, right now the Knicks are probably the leader um the favorites to win the East. This Pacers team went to the finals not too long ago. So, with all that being factored, I think it was a good Sunday for our Whiz and our Commanders. I got to look it up. I actually don’t know when the last time both teams won. I remember the last time the Whiz, the Redskins, and the Capitals won. That was like in 2016, right? It was 2015, right? Yeah. I remember there was one time where like the Nats, the Redskins at the time, and the Wizards all won on the same night. And I think like the Wizards and Capitals, uh, no, then that wouldn’t make sense though because I I was going to say playoffs, but then that would be spring, so that wouldn’t that wouldn’t make any I don’t know. It feels good. And it’s funny, though, because there’s probably fans of both these teams that wanted to lose. Uh, and I’m I’m talking about the Wizards and the Commanders because I have a bunch of friends that were saying like, “We can’t do anything right. Like, we we should have lost the game. We need to get a top three pick.” Um, the Giants the Giants were were terrible today. It would have been tough to lo We tried. We did try. I thought we were about to try. And I’m I’m getting off off topic here with with the Commanders, but uh yeah, it’s good to see both the local teams win. We’ve seen so much losing this season in the fall, whether for me it’s like Maryland football, the Wizards, uh the Capitals had a really big losing streak at one point, the Commanders losing all those games. Um it’s fun to see a win and it’s fun to see the Wizards win a game like this because you had the key contributions from your young guys. That’s what makes this so much better. We finally win a game where we’re not saying like, “Okay, it’s just the C.J. Mcome scores 45 points.” Vintage CJ McComem, 34y old, who’s not going to be on the team anymore after February 5th. Look at him. He got us the W. Good job. No, we got key contributions for guys off the bench. I want to talk a little bit about Trey Johnson as well because he had a tough night in his return on Friday, just three points against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Uh today he looked a lot more comfortable. saw him trying to get in rhythm and take some really nice catch and shoot three opportunities. He went three of four from behind the arc. Only took one three in the second half, which is a little bit unfortunate to see, but he only played in 16 minutes. I think he’s still on a minutes restriction. Brian Keef told us he would be uh at least for Friday, but I think the minutes tonight that he played kind of reflective that he’s still on that minutes restriction as it stands right now. And we’ll see how long that continues. But hopefully you start to see him get unleashed a little bit because I see the flashes with the guy. I think he just needs the times, he needs the reps, and he needs the offense to be facilitated around him getting open looks. This guy can shoot the basketball better than almost anybody on this team right now. I mean, between Bob, Trey, George, and McCullum, you got good shooters on this team. The Wizards were top six in three-point percentage before yesterday. I’d have to double check where they are uh today after the performance. Let’s see. Today, they went 10 of 28, so 36%. So, not not awful. Not not too great though, I guess, for this Wizards team in terms of three-point percentage, but I think they’re around like 37 38% overall for the season. You have good three-point shooters on this team, and I know the Wizards want to be a team that takes advantage of that at times, but you don’t want to force stuff. You want to get good looks, and I’m happy that Trey maybe starting to find his footing. Let’s see how he continues to build on it next week. And you know what will help with that? Having a pure point guard here, which you’re hoping to get in the offseason or in the draft, maybe Darren Peterson. But yeah, a guy who can go out there and set a foundation for this team offensively, open up opportunities for guys like Keshan George who don’t have to have the duties of being on ball, Trey Johnson, Bub Carrington, maybe even Will Riley at some point. I love the emergence of Will Riley. Ben, I think going to being assigned to the capital city go into where he is now, you can see the growth, you can see the development. I remember during the that draft night, Wizards fans were complaining, why didn’t we why didn’t we trade back? Why do we we didn’t pick Walter Clayton? And a lot of they’re eating well is making those guys eat their words right now. He is a guy who can be versatile offensively, can score in all three levels and defensively that length like we mentioned 610 currently and I just think right now this is that this I know we have had four wins so far this season right four I’m pretty sure but this is a win like you mentioned CJ Mcome didn’t have to carry the load everyone contributed JC bags Trey Johnson got into the mix it wasn’t a game where you expected your vets to carry you and that’s more of the wins that we were looking forward to this season compared to the ones that we’ve had so far. I already see the comments coming in because we play WBY twice next week on Thursday on the road. I think that’s our next game. So, uh, a little bit more rest actually coming off the win. You played two games in three days after having six days off. So, a little bit of extra rest. I guess they’d probably stay on the road and then go out. I don’t think they’d come home beforehand. I’d have to double check, see if they’re practicing at home beforehand or not. Um, but you get WBY twice who’s just coming back from injury. Uh, it’s going to be fun to see him play at Capital One and Arena because like I know when I when I got this job and we started covering the team in person, I was like, “Oh, dang.” Like I’m going to see some of these NBA legends like LeBron and Steph Curry in the building. Giannis I got to see. But now we’re going to see the rise of Victor Webbyama who’s been an absolute freak at basketball this season. Just insane. That’ll be exciting to see. But I’m excited to see how we match up with him. How are we going to stand the test of Victor Webbyama? They’re going to have to be ready for it because uh the Spurs beat Oklahoma City yesterday, didn’t they? That Yep. That was crazy. I mean, the Thunder lost and the Wizards won the next day. Who saw that coming? Oh, man. That’s that is crazy to think about. But oh man, that’s going to be an exciting week next week for the Wizards. I’m I’m really looking forward to some good basketball. I hope we really start to see this defense lock in and buy in. Let’s continue to build on this thing. All right. When we come back, your favorite postgame segment on the Lockdown Wizard podcast. Win edition though, it’s your time to let it all out. Let’s be real, making excuses doesn’t solve anything. We’ve all heard them before. It’s just stress. I’m tired. Or it happens to everyone sometimes. When it comes to performance, sometimes your body needs a little extra support. And that’s where Rouette comes in. rouia.com offers fast acting doctor prescribed treatments for ED designed to help you stop making excuses and start making moves. Rouia makes it easy to get started. You just connect with a board-certified doctor 100% online. No awkward waiting rooms, no inerson appointments. If prescribed, your treatment ships discreetly straight to your door. The process is fast, simple, and private. It’s all handled by real doctors. It’s about confidence, connection, and getting back to the moments that matter. Visit rugit.com/locktonba to get 15% off your first order. That’s ruggit.comlockba. And don’t forget to use our code locked inmb so they know we sent you. Rouette, stop making excuses and start making moves. You know what time it is. It’s your favorite postgame segment. This time it’s a win. I don’t even know if you’re letting it all out. Maybe you’re just cheering with joy. Uh, we’re gonna rename the segment Cheering with Joy uh for today. I’m kind of just kidding about that, but AB, get us started. I gota we got to find a sound that we can use for this segment. Ben, I can definitely Yeah, I need I need to invest in like sounders for the for this pod. I’ll do that. Locked on Law, good to see you, buddy. Says, “Who can blow a 20point lead in seven minutes?” The Wizards can. So, I’m assuming he was doing this in the middle of the fourth quarter. Like Ben mentioned during the FanDuel ad, Reed, it would have been a smart idea, but tonight the Wizards, they held on. I mean, I know against that Cavs game, they blew that lead when they were in the late in the third, but that wasn’t the case tonight. DMV says, “Oh no.” Locked on los says, “You got to believe.” He also says, “Defense.” Wizards lead 1028. Oh, so you guys were here early. We’re all watching the same game, man. Did you expect the score to be different or Oh, so this is like way way early. So you guys were in here. Baltimore get up 9537. Bub earned his spot back. Good for him. Yeah. Again guys, like for as much slack that Bub Carrington was getting, I understand the plus minus, arguably the worst plus minus in NBA history. That kid’s only 20 years old. Why write him off? Why why affect his confidence by sending him to the capital city goal? We saw what he did last year as a rookie, played all 82 games. Just give it some time. Overall happy with the game, but I think Keef missed an opportunity to have Trey Will and Jir in garbage minutes. Yeah, the rotations is always going to be questionable with coach Brian Ke seems like every game almost whisk forever says bub and bags champenni is definitely a keeper. Well played team game like Ben mentioned earlier Justin Champeni should be playing every game at least 15 to 20 minutes. I don’t care if you’re losing by 50 or winning by 70 he should go out there because he makes an impact during the game. Lockdown law also says Pascal Seiak played like butt broken down. I mean again, how much can you contribute that to the Wizards defense or just Pascal? He says lol. Noah, that last bucket for Bub Cash my Okay. Okay. Yes sir. Yes sir. Chuck Best 3780 Newart or Nemhart was 0 for 13. I was like what they do to him in that first half. Yeah. Nemhart it just was not his night. You love to see it. DMV also said anyone else watched John Cena’s last game. Yeah, that was I don’t know if you’re a big WWE guy, Ben, but he tapped out and everyone was frustrated by that, but it was a So, so the script the script writers cooked up and and told him to tap. Is that what I get that John Cena is a legend though, so that was uh that was exciting that DC got to host his last ever WWE match, I guess. Yeah, that’s majority of our childhood right there. It was it was insane. Manager son says, “It’s crazy Vic had the same three-point attempts as Trey and more than CJ.” I’m assuming he’s talking about this game. If so, I mean, I can’t lie. Vu, I thought you can shoot it from outside, but if it’s not falling, I I agree. If take it inside, you’re seven foot. CJ really didn’t need to be in the game late, but I’m sure the people betting thought otherwise. Uptown Dre4000 says, “Yo, my brethren, the muscle emoji. Solid Sunday. Skins and Whiz Kids got a dub. 100%. It’s always a good day when both of our beloved teams win.” And Chuck Best 3780 also says, “I need a first cap half recap watching my 49ers. I’ll give you the first half recap. The Warriors only gave up 15 points the second quarter.” That’s all she wrote. Robin Walker 7428 says, “Last year we drafted three studs. This year we drafted three dogs.” Okay. Okay. I like that. I like that. Uptown. That’s I I want to make a point on that because I remember like right after the press conference from Will Dawkins after the draft, we made that video saying the Washington Wizards only drafted dogs so far. Like that’s it’s aging well. Like they did draft dogs. Like everybody is out there competing night in night out. Trey Johnson, he competes both ends of the floor. Will Riley is a dog, dude. He competes like a MF out there. Jir Watkins is a pest defensively. I love the energy those guys are bringing right now. That’s your youth competing. I’ll just skip this comment. Chuck also says, “Bags should not be traded. He needs to get Cory kiss for treatment. He can be a backup big on a winning team.” I don’t know, Ben. Like I mentioned it earlier. Do you think there’s a possibility where he might get shipped at the deadline? Oh, I don’t know. Like cuz if you let him go, it’s just TV and Alex and you’re already thin at the front court position. Yeah. Like I don’t I like Bagley right now. I just I I like what he’s doing. I like what he provides off the bench typically in that fashion. I don’t know. We’ll have to save that conversation for another day. Jack Taliano 5792. I think that’s your boy right there. Jack Toe. Yeah. Yes sir. Please keep giving Riley and Watkins minutes once we are healthy. That’s a good point. When everyone’s back, we expect those guys to get minutes because again, we are a meritocracy. Chuck also says they tried to take my boy Will Riley out. We got to get Will. I mean, you mentioned it, Ben. His mom follows you on X. It would be nice to have her on the the show. Yeah, we might make that happen at some point. That’d be interesting. You guys let us know if you’d want something like that. Baltimore Get Up also says, “Proud of Trey and Will Bub. Heck, really the whole lineup told today. Jir could have got more time.” Good point, but you got to ease Jir in and I expect Jir Watkins to play a lot also in the second half of the season. Cory Dancler 1290 says, “I like George, but he’s definitely slowed down by him running the point forward. It feels slow his game. It feels like it slows his game down, his limits to what he can really do.” We brought that up in a recent pod, Ben, not too long ago, how maybe giving him too much on ball duties could affect his play. And defenses are starting to figure him out a little bit, but even tonight on a night where he offensively only give you nine points, but eight rebounds, nine assists. That’s what I love about Keshan, he can still contribute in many ways outside of scoring. Yeah, he fills the stat sheet. seemingly every single night, even the nights where he doesn’t do a whole lot offensively. And I think I made that point in the summer league where he went I think three of 14 in a day. But how many steals did he have? Eight. You have eight steals in a game. Is that am I remembering? I think it was it it was a good amount. I’ll tell you that. I don’t I don’t remember if it was eight. He had like five or more steals. It might have been eight, but I was like that’s what he does. Like he will contribute in many different ways if he’s not scoring. And he’s lived up to that billing today. Baltimore also says, “Lock on Wizards. What’s this talk about Damonte Sabonis?” Trust me, guys, we go watch our video yesterday. Yeah, that’s all I want to say. We We put out a video, so check it out with Greg. It was awesome. Jir also picked up five fouls in those 15 minutes. I think that Do you think it’s just that idea of him being very aggressive defensively, Ben? We saw that with We see that theme with Keshan. You think that applies to Jira as well? Yeah, I think so. He’s going to be an aggressive guy on that side of the basketball. I asked Keef about Keshan and his aggressive play style. I said, “How do you guys kind of work with them without hovering without having his aggression waiver?” And Kee kind of threw the refs under the bus a little bit, which I thought was interesting, you know? I was like, “Okay.” Like, I I kind of agree with that sense. He said, “I don’t think the officials are used to the way like we play defense, the way we want to play defense, the way Keshan will play night in night out. I think they’re going to get used to it because we don’t want him uh to stop playing defense that way. We want him to be aggressive.” So, it’s good that they’re like preaching for him to be aggressive. Maybe there is like a form of coaching, a teaching moment you can have to get him to not foul as much, like pick and choose the spots. Uh, but at least they’re promoting him to have a really tenacious style of defense. So, that’s good to hear. I guess like Lenel said, at least they’re going out there and trying. It’s better than Yeah. to not try. Shout out Lenel. M Westside says, “Yeah, bring his mom on the pod.” I think it would it would be something. It would be something. Wow. Oh, we got to talk about Kelly Olen. I saw on subreddit, Ben, it was like the like the last second of the Spurs Thunder game and someone just pointed to Kelly Len and said, “This ruined this ruined my night just seeing Kelly Oolen on the bench.” And many Wizards fans, they know what’s up with him. Yeah, I think guys, I’m pretty sure that’s it. If I missed anything, let me know and comment next time. Here we go. Let’s go. John John is in here. John John in the stream. What’s good, John? Johnson is back. He looked good tonight. He shook off some of the rust. That was that was good to see. Is that Is that it, though? AB Chuck also says, “Hey, fellas, can y’all get Drew Gooden on the pod? I got questions for my guy.” Yeah. Yeah, we we could definitely get him on. I I talk to him all the time in the media room, like before the game. He’s a super cool dude. Um him and Chris Miller will will sit down and chat with me a lot. Uh love hearing Drew’s insight. He’s got a lot of great stories from when he played with these good Wizards teams years ago. So, we’ll work on that. We’ll definitely get him on the pod at some point. You guys also have to remember with a guy like Drew, uh he’s not he’s not going to throw anybody under the bus like he is a commentator for the team. So, don’t expect him to be telling you like so and so can’t play defense or whatever. He’s not going to he’s not going to say that stuff. But, he’ll be fun to have on here. Yeah. Un Yeah, Drew, he won’t be able to call someone out like that, but he definitely provides you great insight. Last one. Robin Walker 7428 says one more. We’ll be like OKC get the fouls called now and in future they won’t call it again. OKC I don’t know whe it was a 16game winning streak. I I still think man they’re going to break the record when it comes to wins in a regular season. I still think they’re have a very good chance of doing it. They they’ve seemed unstoppable. Uh but you know there there could be an injury. There could be a lot of different factors that lead to it not happening. So it’s hard to say but they do look like one of the best basketball teams ever right now. So it’ll be a fun story to follow. How about that? We got to talk about a win. It was a lot of fun. Thank you to all of you guys that chimed in that join these lives every single time. We recognize a lot of you guys by name. But every day of this channel, we appreciate you that much. You guys are fighting through what is the third year of a rebuild, third year of a tank. But on nights like this, we get to have a little bit of fun because the youth contributed to a win. The Wizards allow under 100 points for the first time since February of last season. and it felt good to do it and we thank you for making Lockdown Wizards your first listen every single day. Abdullah is dancing finally. It’s good to see that as well. For your second listen, check out the Lockdown NBA fantasy basketball podcast hosted by Josh Lloyd. All right everybody, that’ll do it for us for my coast of Dway. I’m Ben Strober DC family. Talk to you later.

The Washington Wizards put together their best defensive performance of the season, suffocating the Indiana Pacers all afternoon. Second-round pick Jamir Watkins showed some really great flashes, along with Marvin Bagley, who dominated!

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