Losing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, as the Washington Wizards did last night, can put an unwarranted coat of gloomy paint on a bright season. The Wizards won their first division title in 38 years and were one win away from their first conference finals since 1979. As the Wizards recover from their loss to the Boston Celtics, Jerry Brewer of The Washington Post assesses the season and what needs to happen next:
When their season ended, the Washington Wizards walked over to the Boston Celtics with white towels draped over their shoulders. The players from both teams hugged, their new bitter rivalry deferring to mutual respect. They had beat up each other enough, at least for one year.
In Game 7, the Celtics triumphed at TD Garden, 115-105, outlasting a Wizards team that didn’t have enough defense or balanced scoring when it mattered. And so the Wizards, who lived by the comeback this season, finally fell into a hole they couldn’t claw and climb out of. It was another one of those nights for a D.C. pro sports team — close, but only close enough to feel the blade slashing at the wound once more.
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When the Wizards are able to look back, they’ll realize they didn’t really lose the series in Game 7. They were defeated amid all their lapses in focus and herky-jerky play in the other three games they lost. Having to win a series clincher here, where the Celtics are now 19-4 all time in home Game 7s, was a predicament they could have avoided if they didn’t leave so much on the court so often. If the core of this team wants to advance past the second round, it must continue to mature and gain the missing consistency or grit or depth or whatever that has created this wall the Wizards haven’t penetrated during three postseason appearances over the past four years.
For the city, the 19-year curse continues. The Wizards joined the Capitals, who lost in Game 7 last week, as the latest D.C. teams to come up short of a conference finals appearance. For just the Wizards, this marked the closest they had come to a conference finals berth since 1979, but their 38-year drought remains. This setback comes with several harsh facts attached, none worse than this reality: In the final 19 minutes, John Wall didn’t score, but Celtics reserve forward Kelly Olynyk had 14 points.
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You could consider this the beginning of a fresh Wizards run, but it’s hard to be certain. They know better than any team how stingy life is with guarantees. Yes, most of their core is young. They are years from their prime, in fact. Yes, this was the first season under Brooks, and he resurrected an underachiever and led perhaps the greatest in-season comeback in NBA history, turning a team that started 2-8 into a 49-33 squad that came about one quarter shy of the Eastern Conference finals.
But right now, there is disappointment. There is disappointment because the Wizards’ season didn’t have to end. Not here. Not on this night. But they’re still a little too unstable in some areas to pull through and play to the level of their talent.
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So after 11 games against each other — four in the regular season and this seven-game test of mettle — the Celtics proved better by the slimmest of margins. They won the Eastern Conference semifinals, 4-3, and the season, 6-5. In a matchup in which the home team won every time, the Celtics played one more home game. And they made it count.
