Last season, the Washington Wizards finished with a 22-19 home record, dropping multiple games at the Verizon Center that they simply shouldn’t have. This season, it’s clear that the Washington Wizards have emphasized the need to win more games at home. With that said, losing to teams like the Milwaukee Bucks at home is unacceptable. Behind John Wall, Otto Porter, Nene, and Marcin Gortat, the Washington Wizards took care of the home opener tonight against the Bucks, 108-97.

John Wall finished the game with his third straight double-double, scoring 19 points to go along side 10 assists. He started the game with a few sloppy turnovers, but once Washington’s shooters started to knock down shots from the perimeter, it opened up more space for John Wall to create his own shot. Wall controlled the game tonight and picked his spots extremely well. On the defensive side of the floor, he picked up the pressure and stole the ball five times. Milwaukee turned the ball over 27 times, and many of those were a result of John Wall’s pressure.

Garrett Temple scored 18 points tonight on 6-9 shooting. He worked on his jump shot all summer long and it’s really starting to pay off. With Bradley Beal out, the Washington Wizards need Temple to knock down open three point shots, and that’s exactly what he did tonight. He also stole the ball three times tonight, taking the ball coast to coast on multiple occasions.

Washington’s big men dominated the game, finishing with a combined 42 points on 19/24 shooting. Jason Kidd opted to start Jabari Parker at the power forward spot, and Nene was able to get anything he wanted. John Wall executed a few pick-and-pop plays with Nene, but most of his points game inside the paint. He scored 22 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, dished out 4 assists, and stole the ball 3 times.

Marcin Gortat was also spectacular tonight. Larry Sanders is one of the better defensive bigs in the NBA, but Gortat overpowered him tonight. He’s been finishing more dunks in traffic and he had two Sportscenter worthy ones tonight. He scored 20 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and blocked 3 shots. Gortat has been playing at an All-Star level thus far, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can keep it up.

And of course, we can’t forget about Otto Porter.

Tonight’s game was pretty physical and there were multiple questionable calls on both sides of the court. Paul Pierce wasn’t a fan of a clear path call he received, and was hit with two technical fouls. His home debut with the Washington Wizards finished in just 17 minutes before getting ejected. Luckily for the Wizards, Otto Porter had the best game of his career.

Porter scored a career high 21 points on 7-11 shooting, grabbed 5 rebounds, and had 3 steals on the night. It was interesting to see how well Porter would play with the starters and he fit in extremely well. Wall creates a lot of attention when driving to the basket, which creates open mid-range shots for Porter. He knocked down several midrange shots tonight, but mixed it up in the paint as well. His jump shot has clearly gotten better and he’s going to become a major contributor for the Washington Wizards this season. It’s almost as if Pierce knew Otto was going to have a career night…

The Washington Wizards will take on the New York Knicks on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.