Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis absent, the Wizards were deprived of their two best scorers against Dallas, but they were able to count on a great Kyle Kuzma to bring down Luka Doncic’s band.
“It’s a victory of character, it’s a victory of courage, however you want to characterize it”explained Washington coach Wes Unseld Jr. “It’s never ideal to be without a few players, especially when it comes to two guys who really do a lot for us offensively.”
Fortunately, Washington was able to count the contribution of his bench, with 23 points from Rui Hachimura, 14 points for Will Barton and a double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks) from Daniel Gafford. And so the big performance of Kyle Kuzma, who finished with 36 points at 14/26 shooting including 5/11 from afar, 11 rebounds and 7 assists.
“I just found a good rhythm from the start”explained the ex-Laker. “I just really showed my intentions for the night by trying to be aggressive, trying to score first and find my teammates later. »
Washington thus very often gave him the ball in the axis of the field to allow him to attack the defense of Dallas at will. Which he did effectively, before killing the game behind the 3-point line.
| Kyle Kuzma | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2017-18 | ALL | 77 | 31 | 45.0 | 36.6 | 70.7 | 1.1 | 5.1 | 6.3 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 0.4 | 16.1 |
| 2018-19 | ALL | 70 | 33 | 45.6 | 30.3 | 75.2 | 0.9 | 4.6 | 5.5 | 2.5 | 2.4 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 18.7 |
| 2019-20 | ALL | 61 | 25 | 43.6 | 31.6 | 73.5 | 0.9 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 12.8 |
| 2020-21 | ALL | 68 | 29 | 44.3 | 36.1 | 69.1 | 1.6 | 4.5 | 6.1 | 1.9 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 12.9 |
| 2021-22 | WAS | 66 | 33 | 45.2 | 34.1 | 71.2 | 1.1 | 7.4 | 8.5 | 3.5 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 17.1 |
| 2022-23 | WAS | 11 | 32 | 45.7 | 33.3 | 71.4 | 0.7 | 6.6 | 7.4 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 17.2 |
| Total | 353 | 31 | 44.9 | 33.9 | 72.3 | 1.1 | 5.1 | 6.2 | 2.2 | 2.1 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 15.7 | |
