Watch Live: Brooklyn Nets vs. Washington Wizards, 7:30 PM EST on YES Network

Dec 1, 2022 - 12:00 AM

The Brooklyn Nets are off to a 2-0 start to their 7-game homestand. Not bad. On Wednesday night they’ll look to keep the momentum going against the Washington Wizards.

The Wiz are right there in the playoff hunt in the East at 11-10, just ahead of the Nets. They have gotten exceedingly great performances from Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma this season.

They’ve been similarly proficient on both sides of the ball, sitting at about league average in both offense and defense - but if we’re zooming in a little, over their last three games they have been the worst defensive team in that span. What’s been a major plus for them is limiting their turnovers. They’re 3rd in the NBA in AST/TO ratio.

Let’s hope that defense continues to falter, at least for tonight.

WHO: Brooklyn Nets (11-11) vs. Washington Wizards (11-10)

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. est

WHERE: YES Network (tv and app), WFAN-FM (radio)

Game preview.

Is it going to be that easy this time around? Probably not, but the stakes are still fairly high. Washington enters with an 11-10 record, Brooklyn at 11-11. This one’s for all the marbles (play-in position). But while Washington is firmly where they were projected and Brooklyn has disappointed, the month of November has seen different trendiness for these teams. The Wizards have been fiercely average, through and through. Nice and horizontal. Brooklyn is trending up, with, somehow, the 5th-best net rating in the league this month. Who knew? A win won’t be easy, but even with all the missing Nets, and the fact their record is currently inferior, this is a game Brooklyn expects to have.

To do so, they’ll have to shut down a near-mirror image of their own offense. The Wizards get to the rim almost as infrequently as Brooklyn (27th in rim frequency to Brooklyn’s 28th). But that’s what happens when your main scorer is Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis immediately fires up a 16-footer when he touches the ball inside the arc. Washington is one of five teams that takes more mid-range shots than the Fighting Kevin Durants, per Cleaning the Glass. They also take far fewer threes.

For more on the Wizards, check out Bullets Forever.