POSTGAME: Washington Wizards STUNNED Despite GRITTY Performance | CJ McCollum’s Heroics Spoiled

POSTGAME: Washington Wizards STUNNED Despite GRITTY Performance | CJ McCollum’s Heroics Spoiled

Where do we even begin here? One of the most wild Washington Wizards games I’ve seen in my entire life. CJ McCullum scores 42 points. Thought he had closed that one out. Detroit snatches defeat or the Wizards rather snatched defeat from the Jaws from victory. Just an unbelievable uh collapse there. But a lot of good things we got to get to today. This is Locked on 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’re locked on to the Washington Wizards where you’re part of our family. We thank you for making Lockdown Wizards your first listen every single day. Hey, we’re part of the Lockdown Podcast Network where it’s your team every day. The number one podcast network in the nation. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use code lockdown NBA for $20 off your first purchase alongside the DC Sports content creating Savannah Abdullah Aub. I’m Ben Strober. Man, Wizards drop at 137 135 in overtime. And the Wizards were seconds away from winning their second game, ending an eight-game losing streak. And Dannis Jenkins in the corner at the buzzer sends this one to overtime in a 42point performance by CJ McCullum. Ends up being for nothing in terms of wins and losses. Today was one of the grittiest performances I’d seen from this Wizards team in quite some time. There’s a lot of great things we have to get to. And I messed up in the intro there because like I’m just still trying to make sense of what happened at the end of the game there. This was an unreal game, AB. Like what the heck happened? Yeah, I’m still trying to process what we just watched and that was just gut-wrenching. I went through every emotion known to mankind those last couple minutes and even in that overtime. And I was telling you, Ben, I was texting you saying, “How are they going to find a way to blow this one?” And it looked like we got it in the bag, but Kate Cunningham 45 shots, Ben, and scoring 46 points. I mean, that is just unreal on a night where they’re this Pistons team. I didn’t realize about a lot of those their guys, key guys are out. Jayen Ivy was out. Isaiah Stewart, Tobias Harris, Sir Thompson, Carol Lever, but I mean K Cunningham was picking up the load. And Danish Jenkins before tonight, Ben, his careerhigh was nine points. Knight 24 points, eight rebounds, three assists, four steals, and hitting the game tying three, which we’ll get to in a second. But I mean, there was just so many takeaways from this, Ben. Vintage CJ McCullum. I mean, he has really turned it around, Ben, ever since that Boston Celtics performance. Ken Whitmore, 20 points, dunking on Jaylen Duran. You love to see that. Alex with 15 rebounds. Lots of things happen in this game, Ben, but it’s just frustrating because at the end of the day, this is a game where if you beat this Pistons team, they’re number number one seed in the Eastern Conference, and you just couldn’t close out the game. And I understand this team is so young, but you had that one, and that’s going to be a tough one to swallow. And now you have to move on to Houston. Yeah, it was honestly just insane all around. This Detroit team came in off a back-to-back. Got a really gritty win to get to six wins in a row against a Philadelphia team. So many guys out for this Detroit team. Jaden Ivy obviously who’s been out. Tobias Harris, Assar Thompson, the list goes on. They had a plethora of guys out. So, you know, albeit that the case for this Pistons team, this Wizards team fought throughout the entirety of this game and had a chance to win this game. Keshan George in the fourth quarter with two seconds left. He made the first free throw, didn’t make the second. Jaylen Dur got the rebound and they got to advance the ball in the timeout. And just a momentary lapse where Bub lost focus for just a second. Jenkins in the corner catches. Bub gets there to contest it. The heel nearly out of bounds and Jenkins, it was this close, Ben. I mean, this clo from one angle it looked like it was out his heel. Yeah. And you know, they showed the second angle and he he just barely had it in. And once he he nailed that, you go, “Wow, this feels like one that officially has gotten away from this Wizards team.” The Wizards were up by 13 with a few minutes to go in the fourth quarter. There was so many different moments in this game where you felt like it could become a turning point. First of all, I want to get into the grit and everything I saw from this Wizards team, everything I liked because there was a ton I liked about this performance. one, you just competed with the top team in the Eastern Conference, albeit they were down a bunch of guys coming off a back-to-back. They were competitive, they didn’t quit, and you could really tell how badly they wanted to get this win from the young guys on the floor. The emotion uh that you saw out of your young players, a vintage performance from CJ McCullum, who you thought had closed this thing out at one point, but at the end of the day, didn’t get it done. The wins and losses aren’t super important here. A game you would have loved to see this Wizards team get though, kind of give you that morale boost that you’d be looking for going forward. I want to get into Cam Whitmore as we go throughout the episode because I think he’s really starting to buy in uh to what this organization needs from him. He was great defensively tonight and we’re going to get into that uh as we roll throughout the show here. But speaking of Cam Whitmore, at one point in this game I felt like things really turned. Cunningham goes up for a layup. Whitmore fouled him pretty hard trying to go for the block. Just a tough basketball play. Whitmore stood over him for a second. Uh tempers flared momentarily. They reviewed it to see if it’d be a flagrant. They called it a common foul. Cunningham looked like he might leave the game and if he didn’t come out to shoot the free throws, he’d have to stay out of the game at that point. And there were still over five minutes left at that point. So if he didn’t come back into the game, they wouldn’t have had him for the remainder. And Kate Cunningham’s been one of the best fourth quarter overtime players in the league this year. He came up massive for this Pistons team and then Brian Keef ended up challenging it after to say that there wasn’t a foul there. So that was like seven, eight minutes, Ben, of just no basketball. And in my in my opinion, it kind of gave the Pistons time to rest and game plan, which I was a little frustrated about, but I didn’t think the foul was too hard. I thought it was a common foul. I can’t even speak right now. I’m speechless. Cam was trying to block the ball. He couldn’t do it. Good thing K. Cunningham was fine, but that seven, eight minutes, I mean, that was a lot of time at rest. And these guys looked tired as well. You just couldn’t give Detroit that life right there. And the fact that it got to overtime, of course, after the Jenkins buzzer beater, that’s where you really had the feeling that it would slip away because that’s a Detroit team that Yeah, they’re like kind of young in retrospect. They’ve developed that team. They went through the grind kind of this Wizards team is on right now, losing 28 games in a row at one point. Um, and this Pistons team, man, they have so much young talent on that squad right here. And they started to feel the energy in that building as it came alive. And you just couldn’t let that one slip away there. And I’m not mad at the end of the day because this team competed. That’s all I’ve been asking for at this point is this team to really compete. Show some grit. Show some guts. That’s what I tweeted out at one point. I said, “Who is the most guts right now on the floor?” Because both these teams, you’d almost hate to see them lose. I hate to see the Wizards lose this game because I’m trying to see this team avoid a double- digit losing streak. Now, one away from that. I didn’t want to see any of that this year. But the Wizards now a lost to Houston away from having a double-digit losing streak. And it it slips away. I want to stay with the positives though, and the grittiness from this team is something I want to highlight because at times throughout this losing streak, I I’ve questioned the effort of this Wizards team. I questioned them especially when they lost by 29 to Boston. It seemed like they weren’t even trying to be competitive to an extent uh when it got late in these games in the second half. That wasn’t the case today. And maybe the Wizards playing on the the national broadcast technically on Peacock, the one technical national broadcast the Wizards are going to get this year uh gave them a little bit of extra motivation to get it done on the biggest stage. They were doing so many things well. They were competing on the defensive side of the basketball trying to make life difficult on Kade Cunningham who was jacking up shots all over the place. I thought Alex Sar was phenomenal in terms of his switch defense. Multiple occasions where Sar switched on to Cade Cunningham as the primary ball handler and he got it done one specific play. Got it done with two blocks today as well. Ben, an emphatic blocks. That’s 10 games in a row for Alex Sar uh with two blocks or more. He also picked up his third double double of the season and a 15 rebound performance. Uh rebounding does continue to be an issue for this team. Abdullah, I want to get into the exact numbers here. I don’t want to pull it up here because I don’t want to misjudge it here. Let’s see. 28 offensive rebounds today for that. That’s that’s going to hurt you. And Jaylen Durant is a very talented player, Ben, and I kind of expected that tonight, but 28 in my opinion, it’s just unacceptable. It’s insane that Cunningham could shoot two for 11 from three and 14 of 45 from the field and the Wizards didn’t end up with the win in this game. Say it one more time. 45 shots. Oh my goodness. I mean, like, could you even imagine a Wizards player coming anywhere close to shooting 45 shots? Trey Johnson. CJ McComem shot maybe more shots than we’re going to see him take all season with 25 attempts. He made 14 of them. uh ended up missing the final shot there. Didn’t even get it off. So, I don’t think that one even that didn’t even count for his field goal percentage at the end. And CJ McCullum was like the oneman show backpacking this team in the fourth quarter. And I was like, you know, typically in a game late here with this Wizards young team. You don’t even really want to see CJ trying to take over and win the game because they were unsuccessful in doing so against Philadelphia. But this was a night where CJ clearly was playing his best basketball. He scored 25 plus in the past three games as well. So, you’re like, “All right, this this dude’s starting to showcase what he’s about, what we kind of expected him to be.” I didn’t really have any problem with C.J. McCullum trying to take over and win this Wizards team that game. Wanted to give the youth the experience they needed to try and close a game out in the fourth quarter. And I think ultimately inexperience there in overtime is what did this Wizards team in. Abdullah. Yeah. No, I agree, man. I I was like saying, let CJ Cook, he was he was on fire. And this is a CJ McCullum bend that Will Daw and this organization traded for a guy who’s going to come in and when this young team crunch time who’s going to be taking that shot. It’s CJ McCullum 42 points tonight and I’m hoping to see more of this throughout the season because again he’s very very talented and can easily drop 20 to 30 or even 40 point games 40 point games tonight. It’s and we’re it’s just it sucks that it’s a losing effort, but at the end of the day, Ben, you’re doing this against the number one team in the Eastern Conference, and it kind of gives you more glimpses of hope when it comes to being competitive every night because you don’t want to have that double digit game losing streak, which you’re very close to, but again, it’s about establishing culture here. And coach Brian Keefe, I mean, say what you want about him, but I think tonight there were some plays where I really liked Ben. There was a play where it was Alex Sar set a down screen for Keshan. Then he it was a cutting CJ and then CJ passed it to Trey in the corner for three. Small things like that is what I love to see as a Wizards fan. But again, in a losing effort, it was very competitive, but at the end of the day, Kate Cunningham showed why he’s a superstar. It’s so funny, AB. Yeah, I wanted to talk like primarily about grit in this first segment, but that game was so wild that I feel like it we wouldn’t be doing it justice as the host to like kind of break down what even happened there in the fourth quarter in overtime. Uh so let’s take our our first break here. When we come back, I want to talk about Cam Whitmore and how he’s starting to buy in to what this Wizards team needs out of him. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game more exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. 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Limited time new customer offer for 3 months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Tough that we didn’t get to see this Wizards team get to get the win snatched. Victory from the jaws of defeat is what the Pistons did to this Wizards team. I don’t know. I have such a hard time. I was ready, Ben, to say the bad boy whiz kids found a way to win tonight, but again, it was just gut-wrenching. I want to talk about Cam Whitmore because he’s replicated two of his best performances of the season, uh, back-to-back games. 19 points was a season high for him against Dallas where the Wizards lost their eighth straight. Tonight, he goes off for 20 points, a season high on six of 11 shooting, seven of eight from the line where he was efficient getting there. But that’s not why I want to talk about Cam Wilmer. I don’t want to just talk about the Jaylen Duran poster that got all of us leaping up off of our couches starting to say, “Man, look at this dude and the athleticism.” This is the type of stuff you wanted to see from Cam Whitmore. He bought into this game with his defense. He was out there competing in a way we had not seen him on that side of the basketball uh throughout the entirety of his tenure here in Washington, which has been obviously super short. Uh you’re now 11 games into the season, right? So short short tenure, but now that Cam Whitmore had that run of four games in a row where he saw his playing time go down and head coach Brian Keef said, “Hey, this isn’t about him. This is about looking getting other guys looks.” Jir Watkins, Justin Champeni, Whitmore the past two games when he got his opportunities, he became the microwave scorer this team was looking for. He scored 10 points in the first five minutes. He was out there tonight. But if you get defense out of this guy as well, the biggest question mark that you saw from the guy when he gets traded over from Houston, you have a legitimate player that can contribute for you, whether it’s off the bench or even a starting role at some point if there’s more injuries or whatever happens in terms of rotations. I have no idea at this point uh what’ll happen rotationally for this Wizards team as the season goes on. Cam Whitmore really showed me something. If he buys in to what this organization says they want to emulate, he can fit in. he can find a role. And I know it was a big question mark over the first eight games. People already saying, “Let’s end the Cam Whitmore experience.” It was way too early to make any kind of proclamation on like that just from the athleticism alone. But now that he can buy in on the defensive side, I think this guy’s going to be impactful for you going forward. Ben, you tweeted out a post of Kim Whitmore and and the back of it had the definition of microwave. And that’s what it is. That’s what he’s shown. A guy who can score from outside the arc, but also can take it in. I mean, he is so freaking athletic and so shifty and so bouncy. And defensively, I love how he was trying to get in front of Kate Cunningham. Even though Kate Cunningham had a great night, Ken Whitmore was still there saying, “I’m here.” And not too long ago, this guy had five minutes in a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. And now we’re seeing backtoback games where he’s very much involved in the rotation. And it’s it brings up the question, Ben, when do you think it’s time to have that conversation for him to be a starter on this Wizard squad? I don’t like rotationally everything is is all up in the air right now. So I I can’t even speculate on anything like that. There’s just too much going on with Kulabali who’s out right now and and the lineup has changed so many different times throughout the season. So I just I really can’t give you like a direct answer. But you agree, Ben, that he shouldn’t be playing less than 10 minutes a game, right? Well, I think he he proved that he needs more minutes in the right situation where he’s out there competing on both sides of the basketball. He’s an asset for this team. He can really help them compete. He was a big reason why they were in such a great position to win this game tonight. And it sucks at the end of the day that they weren’t able to get it done. There was so much grit on both sides of the basketball from so many different guys. Keshan got into foul trouble early in this game. He was still out there competing trying to get in the face of Kate Cunningham. It’s it’s tough when foul trouble just be continues to be an issue for a guy like Keshan George. Didn’t necessarily have a shot falling either, but made a couple uh big big plays for them as well down the stretch. Um, Keshan or Keonte, Ben, they said Keonte in the broadcast a couple times. So that that is funny as well. I thought Alex Sar did some really nice things as well throughout this game. You get a tough matchup when you get Jaylen Duran who’s just a a physical freak. Showcased it so many times like why he’s so good. Sar had 15 rebounds tonight. The Wizards team as a whole obviously did not rebound well enough. We we harped on it already. 28 offensive rebounds for this Pistons team today. I don’t know how much of that you’d exactly attribute to Alex Sar in this case. Like the dude had 13 defensive rebounds in 37 minutes tonight. So, I’d have to go back and and really rewatch the game to see what exactly the fault was for a lot of these guys. Um, it’s tough, man. It’s tough that they didn’t come away with the win, but I think there was a lot of grit showed by this team. Hard-nosed basketball. They were competing. They were trying to showcase out there that despite their despite their how youth how much youth there is on this team and how tough times have been losing eight games in a row beforehand, they were doing everything possible to stay in that game and try to get this one done. And it’s just disheartening that they didn’t. And shout out to our other big man, Ben Marvin Bagley, with nine points, three steals, three blocks. I mean, again, a guy who was picked up, let go, and then picked up again by Washington. and he’s contributing in a good way. I want to talk about Ben defensively up until the third fourth quarter. This Wizards team allowed Detroit to score 20 in the third, 31 in the second, 36 in the first. I think defensively this was their best game up until that fourth quarter. And it was just playing as a team, playing as a unit, and you’re doing it against the best team of the Eastern Conference record-wise. So, you’re hoping that you can build on that. But right now, it is it is frustrating cuz you’re losing nine games in a row. But if you can find a way to play with this grid against Houston, you have chance of upsetting Houston. Another thing I kind of wanted to touch on for this game, AB, is the fact that Detroit shot 38 free throws in this game, which is just a lot. 18 of those for Kate Cunningham. And you were saying maybe he’s going to get the SGA treatment at some point. I’m telling you, man, the amount of free throws he’s taking. I mean, if you take 45 shots in a game and you know, obviously the ones where you’re fouled and you get to the line don’t even count as shot attempts. So, that means he realistically took like 52 or 53 shots in this game, which is insane to think about. You’re going to get fouled on a lot of those because Cunningham’s a physical player. He does a really good job of using his body to initiate contact. He did on a lot of occasions, but I think Wizards fans definitely have a case to say. Uh maybe some of the whistles were a little bit light toward Kade Cunningham at times in this game, but I’m never going to use officiating as an excuse. Like this dude just had a 46-point triple double. 46 point triple double. I mean, he had this he did a couple times where he decelerated to the rim and I was just like, how do you guard that? At some point, I was like, isn’t that is that not a travel? But I know Luca Don does it a lot. But I mean, K Cunningham, going into the season, if you look back in some of the videos that we made, I was saying that he’s going to have an MVP type year. He’s so freaking gifted. And to be honest, like you mentioned, this Detroit Pistons squad not too long ago had the longest losing streak in NBA history. And it’s just now that they’re a winning organization. This is what you want the Wizards to build. This is what we’re hoping that Will Dawkins is building here. And again, you still found a way to be competitive. And you ultimately did come out with the loss. I know a lot of people aren’t big on moral victories, but how can you not when you see performances like that from Cam Whitmore, from Marvin Bagley with six stocks and Alexar with 15 rebounds, CJ McCullum going back to vintage CJ McCullum. You’re just hoping that you can figure out this you fig you hope that this is going to be the common theme for the rest of the season being competitive in every single freaking game. I think now that they got this experience here tonight where you get to overtime after you kind of just let it get away in the fourth quarter, you can’t sugarcoat it. Bub Carrington got caught asleep for just a second and that was all it took really for the Wizards to end up losing this game. You get to overtime uh and things got out of sorts for sure. You know, the inexperience really showed for this Wizards team, but I think it was a valuable lesson that this Wizards team could take away playing in that type of situation. I know you still had McCullum who was calling his own number for a lot of that overtime session, but you know, things just were a little bit loosey goosey for this Wizards team to say the least in overtime. There was, you know, some questionable shots to say the least from, you know, everyone that was out there at the time. Still competing, still fighting on the defensive side. And both those teams were just gassed by the end of the game. Detroit especially because you’re playing on a back to back and you get to overtime in this game and Cunningham’s out there playing with a you know kind of a hurt tailbone or whatever was bothering him at that point in the game and he stuck it out. He he he had a heating pad like mid before like I think what 2 minutes left and I was like bro he’s really putting the whole city of Detroit on his back. There was just guts like on full display both sides here and it’s just a shame we didn’t come away with the win. That’s all I can really say right now. I was going to say, Ben, before we head to another break, that play that Jenkins hit the game time three, could Bud Bub would have fouled there and gotten, you know, the the method of two free throws and then getting the ball back or was that Well, I think it’s it’s way too risky of a play when the guy play. He was going to he was going to go up as soon as he caught the ball, which he did. So, like Bob’s not going to foul in that situation. That makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. All right, let’s take our last break. When we come back, uh, we’ll just continue to finish up our thoughts from this insane 137 135 win for the Detroit Pistons over the Wizards and we’ll read some of your comments. Basketball season is officially here and nothing beats being in the arena for those opening games. But let’s be real, getting tickets can be a total headache. Between waiting in queues, surprise fees, and prices that jump right before checkout, it’s easy to get frustrated when all you want to do is cheer on your team. That’s where Game Time comes in. The app that gives fans the advantage. It’s your ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NBA tickets fast, easy, and stress-free. I recently used Game Time to grab seats for a couple of games, and I had great seats within minutes. I love that what you see is what you pay. No hidden fees at checkout. Plus, I could see exactly what my view looked like before I bought tickets with their inapp seat view feature. Their zone deals are a game changer. 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Get started today at robinhood.com/yyourmoney. Again, that’s robinhood.com/yyourmoney. your money, your move. Oh, just feel like that game took years off my life, Abdul. And I was saying it in the chat. It took decades off mine. Ben, I’m shaking my head because we’re a team that’s not even supposed to win basketball games right now. So, what’s going to happen three years from now? Hopefully, this team is competing to be like in the position the Pistons are in right now. I don’t know how I’m going to handle games like this. It’s It’s been so long since the Wizards have been competitive to a point where like you really got to stress winning or losing the game. That’s where I can kind of like chill out right now because the wins and losses aren’t everything at the end of the day. This team needs to ensure that can it can pick in the first round. Need to find another star player in this upcoming draft in the top eight protected pick. You got to finish in the bottom four to guarantee it. Uh so, you know, losing the game isn’t the end of the world. I would have liked to see the team win it though. Just a morale booster. to give you some confidence, give your young guys some belief in themselves. Say, “Hey, look at us. We just took down the number one team in the Eastern Conference in their house as well.” Yeah, you could say something like that. They were the hottest team in the NBA coming into the game and ultimately you don’t get that experience, but you get a valuable lesson at the end of the day. Yeah, I’m I’m looking at these comments. This is It’s only right if I start off with this. DC Onion, we were literally thinking about you during the Cam Whitmore. great game and poster that he had today on Jaylen Dur. He says, “Cam Wmore haters are quiet as hey I mean right now the Ken Wmore stock is very very high and it was very very low a couple games ago. But again, I’m happy that this is working out so far for him right now. This is a guy who you trade two second round picks for who I wanted to see him carve a role here in Washington and he’s just so freaking explosive, athletic. He checks off a lot of boxes and defensively guarding Kate Cunningham. I love that he was getting in his face and you’re hoping that he can build on it and tomorrow or sorry not tomorrow the next game whenever it is against Houston it’s against his former team so maybe he even has some a chip on his shoulder and says hey I’m going to go out there and ball against my former team I want to put this one up here and is that is that exactly the case like sometime they change the lottery I have no of course they’ll change it for us when we’re like contention for a top three pick right Ben yeah well I remember last year we had the 14% odds to be uh the number one overall pick. So, I’d have to double check on this, but it it is right. If you finish with the worst record, you’re giving yourself the best chance because this seems like a draft that’s going to be so topheavy in the top three between Peterson, Debbansza, uh, and then of course Boozer as well. And you feel like you can be comfortable if you get a top three pick in this draft. You get a chance to land one of those guys and see how they can help out your team going forward here. So, you know, eyes on the prize, as I like to say, as we will throughout the season here. The Wizards are now one and 10. And obviously you’ve lost nine games in a row and I really was begging the whole summer that we wouldn’t see another double-digit losing streak, but we’re a game away from that. You’re playing a really good Houston team as well on the road. So, um that’s tough. That’s tough. It looks like uh the one thing I envisioned in nightmares this year looks like there’s a good chance it could happen, but this team just competed with the number one team in the Eastern Conference. Albeit they were injured and on a backtoback, but they competed out there tonight. They definitely showed me some things that were positive going forward. I hope they can find a way to do that 50 more times or more this year. Please, if we can replicate close losses like that throughout the majority of the year where you have your young guys flash, I will live with that every single day through this season. If you play like that every night, I like this comment there. Thank you, Stuart. You beat a majority of teams in the NBA, Ben. So you you love to see a night like this where everyone’s competing but again also I was thinking about it been it would have been nice to have beli out there because having him guard Kade I mean I don’t know if it would have shut him shut Kade down but it definitely would have slowed him down a little bit. I think there’s a lot of comments here. I just want rebounds. Yeah, Alexander it was it was tough but that’s what I was expecting. Jaylen Duran I mean he’s just a beast in the paint but Alexar having 15 rebounds. I was asking, I don’t know if it’s a career high, but again, at one point this season, we were talking about we wanted Sar to get at at at best like eight to nine rebounds, but 15 tonight against a Detroit team. It’s very physical. You love to see that. Kade shot almost 50. I mean, that is I that’s just insane. I I don’t know how else to explain it. That was not a foul either. And when Cam dunked under Durham was a foul. Uh I fact checked it. Today was a careerhigh in rebounds for Alex Sar. Let’s go. He’s having a great sophomore year, Ben. And not many people are talking about him. His previous career high was 14 against Toronto last year. He had 14 in another contest against Indiana back in November of last year. The one against Toronto came in March. Uh so good to get a career best performance. He got that double double pretty early in the game. So I think he quieted down a little bit on the boards in the fourth quarter/overtime. ended up getting to 15. Um, but yeah, we got some decent minutes from Marvin Baggley as well as you’ve touched on. Uh, he had a couple key turnovers I think as well that allowed a little momentum to swing back in Detroit’s favor. There were so many momentum shifts in this game. I got to pull 30 lead changes in this game. Abdullah, the Wizards largest. Look at that, Ben. You see like the chart on the real I mean, it’s going back and forth, back and forth, man. It was it was crazy. 13 was the largest lead for the Wizards in this one. And I mean, if you look at it this way, the Pistons largest lead in this game was seven points uh with a minute 57 to go in the second quarter. So, the Wizards were never even in contention of getting blown out in this game, which was a nice thing to see after how some of these games have gone over the past two weeks or so. Abdullah. Yeah. And Bob Carrington tonight, Ben. 11 points, seven rebounds, five assists. I know a lot of people have been giving him smoke for not having the best start to his sophomore year, but we have to realize that the kid is young and I think he’s going to get better. This is the same Bub Carrington that played all 82 games last season. Hit a buzzer beater on game 82 and all rookie second team. We’re hoping that he figure out figures it out. I think it’s just a a confidence thing in my opinion. Defensively, Ben, I love the effort he’s giving out there. If he’s a shots not going, he’s going to impact the game one way or another. Justin Champany only three minutes tonight. I was a little concerned about that, but again, I think the minutes of Cam Whitmore kind of took away and diluted Justin’s minutes. So, we’ll see if that’s a common theme throughout the season. Trey Johnson had 10 points, four rebounds, three assists. So, uh a little quiet night for Trey, but we’re hoping that he’ll have a explosive game because I’m I’m telling you, Ben, there’s going to be a game where he drops 30. It’s just a matter of time. Yeah, it’s it’s honestly wild because if you look through the plus minuses in this game, almost everyone was positive except for Sar who was a minus4. Bub was a minus 11 to lead the team along with Champenny and Middleton a minus 10. Uh Middleton has just not been very good for this Wizards team to say the least in the time. I know he’s battled some some injury the past couple games. He’s missed a couple as well, but it was a tough night for Chris Middleton. Uh tough night for Bub in terms of the plus minus because of some miscues uh defensively. Couple of turnovers as well. Bub ended up with three of them, but he did look quite a bit more comfortable on the offensive side of the basketball today than he did compared to the first 10 games of the season. So I will give Carrington his flowers for that today. Uh AB, anything else before we get out of here, man? Yeah, I understand Wizards fans, this game would have been nice to win to upset the number one seed in the Eastern Conference at in their house, but we just have to realize the bigger picture. What truly matters is trying to acquire that top four pick with that loaded talent in the next draft class. And the positives is CJ McCullum looked amazing and the people that want to trade him, I mean, his trade value has been going up up and up these past couple of games. Alex with 15 rebounds. the Cam Whitmore stands. I mean, I think he’s gonna definitely or I I think he’s eventually gonna carve a role here in Washington where he’s getting 20 to 25 minutes a game, but we’ll just have to see. And tonight is a night where you’re hoping that once this team starts competing, they learn, especially from the young guys, they learn from his experience and they figure out a way to close out games like this. But the one thing that I love, like you mentioned a little earlier, Ben, is that this whole game, you were in it. You were never down by 2015. The largest league for Detroit was seven at one point. So, capital C being competitive. That’s what we like to see. Absolutely. They competed and that was the bottom line for me today. There was guts. There was grit. Things to build on. Should have got the win. It didn’t happen. Uh, let’s move on. We’re on to Houston. We continue to roll things along here on Lockdown Wizards. I know we were kind of all over the place in this episode, but that game was all over the place. So, uh, bear with us here. But we thank you for making Lockdown Wizards your first listen every single day. part of the Lockdown Podcast Network where it’s the number one sports podcast network in the world. It’s your team, the Washington Wizards, every single day. For your second listen, check out the Lockdown NBA fantasy basketball podcast hosted by Josh Lloyd. He’ll get you right. He’ll probably tell you to pick up Kade Cunningham because he gets to the line that much. 18 free throws today. 45 shots. Are you freaking kidding me? Insane. All right, for Abdullah UB, I’m Ben Strober DC family. We’re out of here.

Unreal game in Detroit. The Wizards are stunned in overtime by the Pistons after Detroit’s game-tying buzzer beater in regulation. Ben Strober and Abdullah Ayubi react, weighing in on the Wizards putting up one of the biggest fights they’ve had in years.

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