John Wall had to be sitting on the sidelines thinking, “Hey I’ve seen this story before.” The Wizards summer league team looked eerily similar to the real Wizards team back in the doldrums of winter—they even followed the exact same blueprint.
Washington jumped out to an early lead, thanks to team defense, hot shooting and the leadership of the starting point guard (Scott Machado). And then, in the second half, the hot shooting cooled, the defense slipped a bit, and the backups played more minutes because of the lopsided game. Struggle. The starters returned without any real momentum, the opposing team’s confidence was sky-high, but, ultimately, the stars came through with big-game performances late in the game to bail out the Wizards.