No Russell Westbrook, no problem. Starting in his place, Raul Neto lit up the Capital One Arena with 22 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. But, the Wizards gave up 43 points in the fourth quarter to blow a 17-point lead and lose, 120-113 and fall to 0-3 on the season.
The Wizards are a strange team, in part because of the odd decisions of head coach Scott Brooks. A coach’s most important job is setting lineups and apportioning minutes to the team’s best players. Once again, he cobbled together strange combinations that seemed designed to put players in position to fail while leaving productive, effective performers on the bench.