![\"Wizards](\"https:\/\/platform.bulletsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/01\/gettyimages-2254929154.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWizards forward Justin Champagnie swoops in for a dunk. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
It was an inauspicious beginning to the Trae Young Era, who watched in street clothes from the bench in his first game as a member of the Washington Wizards franchise. The Monumental broadcast was in peak educational form, informing viewers of Young\u2019s absolutely amazing, superlative, colossal leadership skills, and cited things like working on special handshakes with teammates, sitting in the middle of the bench instead of the end, combing his hair, and wearing a beige suit.<\/p>\n
I may have made the last two up \u2014 I was switching back and forth between the Pelicans and Wizards feeds throughout the game. New Orleans analyst Antonio Daniels is still very good, but Joel Meyers has lost a step or three on the play-by-play.<\/p>\n
Both Meyers and Daniels mispronounced Tristan Vukcevich\u2019s name \u2014 it\u2019s not VOOK-then a long pause-SEVich, it\u2019s Vooksevich kinda run all together. Like how the Wizards\u2019 public address announcer said the name at least a dozen times during last night\u2019s game. Meyers also misidentified players several times and got names wrong a few more.<\/p>\n
It was a rough night to watch.<\/p>\n
With CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert departed and Young not ready to play, the Wizards returned to tank mode. Last night, they replaced Marvin Bagley III \u2014 who\u2019d been playing well \u2014 with Vukcevic, who has not. Somewhat amusingly, it was the starters who contributed most to the tank. The Wizards were +10 in Vukcevic\u2019s minutes.<\/p>\n
The Pelicans got big output from their starting front court.<\/p>\n
Trey Murhpy III scored 35 points on 24 shots to go with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals.Zion Williamson scored 31 points on 12-14 shooting. The Wizards could do nothing to contend with his size and strength.Rookie Derik Queen posted the second triple-double of his career \u2014 14 points, 16 rebounds, 12 assists.Kyshawn George returned to action after missing a few games with a strained hip flexor. He shot decently but committed three turnovers and four fouls in 24 minutes.As I watched the game, it kinda felt like Khris Middleton was having a quiet but decent performance. I remembered the made shots and the assist. Then I looked at the stat sheet and realized I\u2019d memory-holed the misses and turnovers.Alex Sarr was ineffective on both ends \u2014 solidly outplayed by whoever was in the middle for New Orleans. The game underscored some areas where the 20-year-old will need to progress \u2014 maintaining mental focus and getting stronger.In the \u201cWeird Comments from Broadcasters\u201d category, there was Meyers noting in the second half that Tre Johnson had made 2-5 from three-point range, \u201c\u2026but I really like his stroke\u2026\u201d as if 2-5 (40%) was somehow bad.The Wizards tried to deploy Coulibaly on Williamson. He\u2019s been able to shut down or chip away at the efficiency of bigger and smaller players alike, but Williamson has a unique blend of speed and power. Once Williamson decided to attack (about 7 minutes into the game), he scored at will. At one point in the first quarter, he had a 9-0 run on the Wizards.Despite blowing a few layups in the first half, Justin Champagnie played well. Again. He had 12 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists. His night included three third-quarter dunks.By the numbers, AJ Johnson had his best game of the season \u2014 6 points, 6 rebounds. I wouldn\u2019t make too big a deal of it \u2014 the rebounds were a lot about the ball just bouncing his way.Malaki Branham hit a couple threes.Former Wizards great Jordan Poole played 12 minutes and got booed every time he touched the ball. The boos didn\u2019t make much sense to me, but the full Poole experience was on display \u2014 strange decisions, bizarre shots (and he took only two!), three turnovers, and four fouls. How bad has Poole been for New Orleans? On the Pelicans\u2019 broadcast, Daniels praised Poole for getting out of the way so Williamson would have room to drive.At one point in the third quarter, Sarr drove into the lane, spun on his left shoulder and hit a nifty jump hook. On the Pelicans broadcast, Daniels pointed out that Sarr used that exact move in pre-game warmup work. He said many players do different things in warmups than they do in games, but that Sarr\u2019s pre-game routine focuses on the shots he uses in the game.<\/p>\n
Below are the four factors that decide wins and losses in basketball \u2014 shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).<\/p>\n
The four factors are measured by:<\/p>\n
eFG% (effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the three-point shot)OREB% (offensive rebound percentage)TOV% (turnover percentage \u2014 turnovers divided by possessions)FTM\/FGA (free throws made divided by field goal attempts)FOUR FACTORSPELICANSWIZARDSLGAVGeFG%59.5%48.9%54.4%OREB%25.6%21.2%26.2%TOV%15.6%17.4%12.8%FTM\/FGA0.1580.2530.213PACE10999.8ORTG11798115.7<\/p>\n
PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls).<\/p>\n