Washington Wizards point guard John Wall has been carrying his team all season long — whether it is a clutch steal, back-to-back 15-assist games, or scoring in bunches — the man is doing everything in his power to win.
On Tuesday night, Wall exploded for a career-high 52 points in a 124-116 losing effort against the Orlando Magic, so it didn't come as a surprise to see his disappointment after such a dominant scoring output.
“Not even defensive effort, just playing hard,” he told reporters, as quoted by Chase Hughes of CSN.
“Our job is to wake up and just play hard. Before you made it to the NBA or got a college scholarship, you played hard every day to get to where you wanted to. To still be talking about playing hard, that's something that you should be able to do after just waking up. Everybody has a job and they have to go work hard.”
“Our job is to come here and play hard and compete. That's the easiest thing that you should do without any contracts or any money, just come in and play basketball.”
Wall's point is a strong one, the Wizards were entirely out-hustled by a much hungrier Magic team that racked up seven steals and 13 blocked shots, compared to his team's feeble five steals (three of them were Wall's) and two blocks.
The Kentucky product outscored the Magic's starting lineup all on his own, but the Wizards were unable to contain the bench, as four bench players combined for a whopping 73 points.
Besides coming out empty-handed, Wall's night was nothing short of magical, making 18-of-31 from the floor, including 5-of-8 from deep and 11-of-14 from the line in one of his finest career performances.
The Wizards (7-16) have lost four of their last six and will take on the Denver Nuggets at home on Thursday.
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