The news of Washington Wizards' star John Wall having five non-displaced fractures in his left wrist and hand comes at a devastating blow for the All-Star point guard and the team's playoff hopes. If we assume the fractures are going to keep him out of the rest of the playoffs because attempting to play through the pain would be too much or too dangerous for Wall, there isn't a pretty way to dress up the Wizards' chances for the rest of this second round series against the Atlanta Hawks.
Wall has been one of the best players in the NBA this season and one of the best point guards to boot. His play on both ends of the court has kept the Wizards in games they should've been a lock to lose and he's helped pull them through tough situations to help execute in the waning moments of tight contests. He's also put so much pressure on the opposing team when the Wizards were on the verge of a blowout victory that it was simply too much to overcome. On both ends of the floor, Wall is a suffocating presence.
Defensively, he's been nearly impossible to contend with throughout the season. His ability to hound opposing lead guards, apply defensive pressure that wastes precious seconds off the top of the shot clock, navigate pick-and-rolls like they're a slalom course, and provide help defense around the basket to swat shots away from anybody that gets inside have helped the Wizards' defense record the fifth best defensive rating in the NBA. He's even become one of the leading chasedown shot blockers in the NBA making every possession a potential highlight for him.
Offensively, he's just as suffocating to a defense because he shoves the ball down their collective throat in the blink of an eye. During the playoffs, 29 percent of his possessions have come in transition. While the Wizards have been in the bottom half of the league in pace all season long, Wall gives them the perfect amount of being opportunistic in transition with his ability to turn any long rebound into a shot at the rim within three seconds. In the half court, his nearly perfect execution of pick-and-roll sets makes the Wizards very hard to defend.
While a lot of this has to do with the way they dismantled a bad Toronto Raptors' defense in Round 1, Wall has helped the Wizards post the second best offense in this postseason. With Wall on the floor, they're scoring a ridiculous 115.7 points per 100 possessions and giving up just 100.1. When he leaves the playoff games, the Wizards get better defensively as they try to make the game grimy (95.5 points per 100) but their offense drops to an anemic 96.0 points per 100 possessions.
In Game 1 against the Hawks during the second round, that offensive rating stayed about the same with the Wizards posting a 115.5 with him on the floor. In the 57 minutes he hasn't been on the floor against the Hawks in this round, their offense falls to a 92.4. Replacing him with Ramon Sessions is the only real option the Wizards have, but it's not conducive to winning against a Hawks team that has their core together.
It's not a shock that the possible (or even probable) loss of Wall the rest of this postseason effectively ends the Wizards' chances of breaking through to the Eastern Conference finals. We saw them struggle through key stretches of Game 2 and unless Bradley Beal can turn into a great lead guard replicating the things Wall is able to do, we're going to look at a second straight year in which the Wizards are ousted in Round 2.
The hardest thing to swallow this time around is it looked like Wall had them in a position to truly compete toward advancing to the next round. Without him, the Wizards just have to wonder "What if?" as they wait for their star player to heal and start preparing for next season.
