Brooklyn Nets vs. Washington Wizards 12-05-16
Time: Monday December 5, 2016, 7:30 PM ET
Venue: Barclay’s Center | Brooklyn, NY
TV: YES Network
Projected Starters:
Brooklyn: Isaiah Whitehead, Sean Kilpatrick, Bojan Bogdanovic, Trevor Booker, Brook Lopez
Washington: John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, Markieff Morris, Marcin Gortat
Absences:
Brooklyn: Jeremy Lin,Yogi Ferrell
Washington: Ian Mahinmi
The Brooklyn Nets are coming off of back-to-back losses against the Milwaukee Bucks as part of a home-and-home series. The Washington Wizards, meanwhile, are coming off of a heartbreaking two-point loss to the great San Antonio Spurs. Both teams are not doing great this season. Brooklyn was expected to be this bad, Washington, not so much.
The 6-12 Wizards are led by an NBA-elite point guard John Wall and a solid big man in Marcin Gortat. Without Jeremy Lin, there is no counter to John Wall. If Trevor Booker misses action again due to an illness, there will be no counter for Gortat either.
John Wall is averaging 22.3 points and 9.7 assists per game and will be a tough challenge for Brooklyn to slow down, especially with someone like Whitehead running the point. Gortat is averaging over 12 rebounds per game down low, an area Brooklyn has struggled mightily all season long.
The record is very misleading for Washington as many teams and players and experts take Washington to be a much better team than their 6-12 record indicates. This will be a very tough game for Brooklyn to steal away from Washington and it will all come down to slowing down John Wall and Bradley Beal.
If Brook Lopez and Trevor Booker can actually play like actual big men down low and get points in the paint and get some rebounds, Brooklyn could steal this one. If they allow John Wall to run all over them and allow Gortat to get board after board, it will be another long night for the Brooklyn Nets and their fans.