“We just kind of looked at film,” Wall said, “and said our defense in pick-and-rolls was some [crap] so we have to fix it, to be honest.”

Last week, Wall and Wizards forward Jared Dudley were adamant that Washington’s pick-and-roll coverage was a huge reason for their losses to the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets. So when the team returned from the road, the topic was tackled.

AD

“We kept saying our pick-and-roll defense was terrible,” said Wall, who recorded his third triple-double of the season in Washington’s 117-96 victory over the Bulls at Verizon Center Wednesday. “And just coming back in and being able to watch film and see it and talk about it, we looked at it like, ‘That’s not the way you can play defense.’ We all said this what we needed to do. It’s something that should’ve been done a long time ago but there’s got to be communication through the players and the coaches.”

AD

The Wizards’ adjustment, in plainest terms, is they’ve gone back to emphasizing protecting the paint over defending three-pointers. Last week, Jazz starting point guard Shelvin Mack (27 points) and Nuggets backup point guard D.J. Augustin (11 points and seven assists in a lopsided fourth quarter) torched a coverage that left the defender getting screened and the defender guarding the screener on an island without weak-side help.

The guard, often Wall, rarely recovered from the pick in time to impede the ballhandler’s penetration, which created two-on-one situations and easy baskets for trips to the free throw line. In the last two games, Washington’s coverage has called for more help from the other defenders, which relies on them to effectively close out to shooters, usually stationed behind the three-point line, if the ball gets kicked out.

AD

Defending the three-pointer was an immense problem for the Wizards for much of the first half of the season – they were ranked last in the league in that category for a bulk of the stretch – but the Pistons went 3 of 23 (13 percent) from behind the three-point line Monday and the Bulls shot 6 of 20 (30 percent) Wednesday. So far, the modifications are working.

AD

“We just simplified what the hell we were supposed to do defensively,” Wall said.

UP NEXT