After it looked for a time like Bradley Beal might just threaten Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard for 2013 NBA rookie of the year, the Wizards shooting guard ultimately finished third after the latter portion of his season was racked by injuries.

Lillard, meanwhile, was a unanimous choice for the first-year player honor, which was announced on Wednesday, finishing well ahead of New Orleans forward Anthony Davis, the first overall pick in last year’s draft.

From the league’s release: “Among first-year players, Lillard ranked first in scoring (19.0 ppg), assists (6.5 apg) and minutes (38.6 mpg). According to NBA.com/Stats, the Trail Blazers had an offensive rating of 105.0 points (per 100 possessions) when Lillard was on the court compared with 93.5 points (per 100 possessions) when the first-year player was on the bench. When on the court, Lillard assisted on 36.5 percent of Portland’s field goals while scoring 23.9 percent of his team’s points.

Lillard, the sixth overall selection in the 2012 NBA Draft, made a clean sweep of the Kia NBA Rookie of the Month Award in the Western Conference this season.”

The final voting totals:

2012-13 KIA NBA ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD VOTING RESULTS

Rookie, Team                                     1st               2nd              3rd               Total

Damian Lillard, Portland           121             –                 –                 605

Anthony Davis, New Orleans              –                 96               18               306

Bradley Beal, Washington                   –                 14               52               94

Andre Drummond, Detroit                  –                 5                  21               36

Dion Waiters, Cleveland                      –                 2                  15               21

Harrison Barnes, Golden State           –                 1                  5                  8

Chris Copeland, New York                   –                 2                  2                  8

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Charlotte     –                 –                 3                  3

Jonas Valanciunas, Toronto                –                 –                 2                  2

John Jenkins, Atlanta                             –                 –                 1                  1

Bradley Beal wasn’t going to let some discomfort in his ankles keep him off the court. But that determination to play through the pain probably helped to end his rookie season prematurely.

Two days after the Wizards announced that he would miss the remainder of the season, Beal played blamed only himself for the accumulated effects that led to a stress injury in his right fibula.

“Should I have [kept on playing]? No,” Beal said. “But I was going to play regardless. Because I’m a hard-headed kid. But that’s how I am. I’m always competitive. If I feel as if it’s to a point that I can play through it, I’m going to play regardless of what the injury is, but this is something that me and the trainers agreed on, that you can’t just take the risk on it, making it worse.”

Beal said the injury is about halfway up his right calf. It was clear after a tough outing in Tuesday’s 90-86 win over Chicago that he wouldn’t play the next game. But after an MRI revealed more than what similar scans earlier in the year hadn’t, his second game back after missing 11 of the previous 14 games with a sprained right ankle turned out to be his last.

“I’m glad it’s just a stress reaction rather than fractured or possibly broken,” Beal said. “It’s been heckling me all year and that was the worst it ever felt, honestly. I was like, it’s no point in me continuing to pound it and pound it, and making it worse.”

Wizards coach Randy Wittman shared in the relief, and both said it was always up to the player to determine his availability. Wittman said the Wizards are considering whether or not to sign an additional player for the final stretch.

“I think it’s important for young guys like him to play as many games as you can early on,” Wittman said. “But the reality of it is that we need to shut him down. I think he had a solid campaign. I think we saw progress, and that’s the main thing. Where was he Oct. 2, and where is he today and how much growth we saw, kind of a steady climb and that’s always encouraging to see.”

With 56 games under his belt, the third overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft finished the year averaging 13.9 points on 41.0 percent shooting (38.6 from 3-point range), 3.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists, but his numbers improved dramatically after the New Year. He also nailed a game-winning shot against Oklahoma City, pulled down a game-winning rebound against Houston, hit six 3-pointers twice and put up a season-high 29 points against the New York Knicks. The Wizards were 7-12 without Beal in the lineup, including 1-10 away from home.

Wittman surmised that Beal’s welcome-to-the-NBA moment came during the preseason against Miami in Kansas City, his first game against Dwyane Wade, where he picked up three fouls and two turnovers in the first half and didn’t score.

“We got a full blast of Miami,” Wittman said. “I think that’s where his eyes really kind of were opened because in 30 seconds he had two fouls right away. He wasn’t getting any fouls called for him, and he saw what it was. I think that was an eye opener for him, ‘Holy [expletive], this is going to be tough.’”

Beal improved steadily, but the only way to adequately prepare for an 82-game season at the highest level is to experience it. The 19-year-old, who started all 37 games during his one year at Florida, also endured a sprained wrist and a sore back, and he said he was planning to rest anyway after the year. Now that rest will just start a little bit earlier than expected. Beal said he wouldn’t mind playing for the Wizards in the Las Vegas Summer League, probably not the full schedule, if that’s what the coaching staff has in mind.

“I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish, the strides I’ve made,” Beal said. “I’ve continued to get better since October 2, when we first came in. it’s something I’ve just progressed and got better and better and I’m definitely satisfied with where I am now. But I still have a lot of work to do. Can’t wait until the summer to get better.”

Bradley Beal looked like himself again in his first minutes back on the court in a 127-105 victory over Phoenix on Saturday following six missed games with a sprained left ankle.

While it was curious that he was listed as day-to-day by the Wizards for an injury that kept him out for two weeks, the prescribed rest appeared to be the right treatment. Beal had 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting (3-for-4 from 3-point) along with six rebounds in a well-rounded contribution during just under 21 minutes of playing time.

“I got mad when Witt [coach Randy Wittman] took me out,” Beal said. “I already knew that was going to happen, but it was for my own benefit so I wasn’t really too mad.”

Wittman said Beal went through a spirited warmup on the practice court before the decision was made to play, and Beal’s teammates saw their rookie teammate’s excitement about getting back on the floor before the game.

“When he made his decision, he was happy. He was cheesing the whole time with his Afro and stuff. It was good to have him back,” point guard John Wall said. “He wanted to play more minutes, but you know coming off an injury, you got to take your time. But he came in and made shots. I told him it seemed like he didn’t lose his rhythm.”

The decision to play was also a test. The true measure of whether’s Beal is back for good will come against Charlotte tonight. Beal said the Suns game was the first time he’d really been able to consider playing. With the level of his recent contributions – 19.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 49.1 percent shooting since the All-Star break – there better be good reasons for him not to play.

“Just healing, just sitting down, that’s the worst part,” Beal said. “Actually having to listen. Listen to trainers just tell you when it’s time to sit down, it’s time to sit down. So that’s all I have to do and it actually felt good today so I just wanted to give it a go to see where I was at.”

Before the game Beal wore heat wraps on both ankles to help get them warm.

“A few times where I felt like it just stopped on me and I really couldn’t do anything about it,” he said. “Other than that, I didn’t really have too many problems. I was able to move and cut, and chase guys off screens as well.”

After playing 41 and 45 minutes, respectively, in the previous two games with A.J. Price also out due to a groin injury, Garrett Temple was relieved to have Beal back.

“When he hit that first three, I knew he was back, almost back to his old self,” Temple said. “It’s going to take a little time for him to get back to game shape. He told me on the bench how he was a little tired. We really need his scoring, his play-making ability.”

There’ll be no more teasing with the standings after the Wizards lost, 96-95, to the Detroit Pistons. I’ll get to that in a sec, but first:

*The John Wall crisis is real. Whatever the reason – the emergence of Bradley Beal, the upcoming contract extension negotiation (or lack thereof), just a simple post All-Star break funk, something – the Wizards third-year point guard is not himself.

Seven turnovers is a lot. At least six turnovers five times in the last nine games is a disturbing trend of a lot. It reached a new low against the Pistons, where he was unrecoverable after four turnovers in the first quarter. His body language revealed his frustration.

When he came back in the game late in the fourth quarter – having split his minutes for the second straight contest with A.J. Price – Wall took off for a layup on his first possession, trying to get himself going rather than the Wizards offense. He missed.

The only thing worse than his timing and tipped, errant, misplaced and poor passes was his demeanor afterward.

“Nope. Just not making shots. That’s all I can say,” Wall said when asked about his recent struggles.

“I don’t know. I think you’re seeing the same thing I’m seeing, so I can’t really call it,” Wall said when asked specifically about the turnovers.

Wall helped turn the Wizards around when he got back on the court in January. But less than two months later, with a number of players around him improving, he’s hit a wall, no pun intended. While it’s not fair to judge him as a player, this is a serious challenge to what he’s going to become in the future.

“He is going through a rough stretch,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. “You can’t – whether it’s a game, a stretch, a week, two weeks, 10 days, you gotta fight through it. You can’t succumb to it. You can’t feel sorry for yourself about it.”

*Wittman had quite a bit else to say, and all of it wasn’t directed at Wall. At some level, Nene’s absence with a sore right shoulder might’ve been partly to blame; it had a domino effect on the Wizards’ frontcourt. Trevor Booker, who started in his place, and Kevin Seraphin were both desperate to get their games going. Even Emeka Okafor had more on his plate than usual. But Beal also missed all five of his 3-point attempts, and Martell Webster never got into a rhythm.

In the end, the theme was familiar, as it has been in recent Wizards losses: the current formula for success – which requires particular unselfishness – is a fragile one.

“We got guys that haven’t been in the rotation complaining,” Wittman said. “The older guys trying to help them, they won’t listen. That just tells me I’m just worried about myself, I’m not worried about winning this game. You have a tough game, it’s my job to coach you. It’s my job to coach you. Right now tonight for whatever reason, I don’t know, it’s bizarre to me because it hasn’t been. They didn’t want to be coached. It was more about playing time, shots rather than, ‘What are we doing as a team and how am I playing while I’m out there?’ ‘Do I deserve that?’ It’s my job to decide who is deserving of playing out there, and that’s what I’ll continue to do. That’s the only way I believe, and if you can’t handle that, you don’t agree with it, that’s what you get, a game like tonight. That’s what you get.”

*No more looking at the standings. Promise. The Wizards are back to 10 games out from eighth – Monta Ellis gave the Bucks a crazy game-winner at Houston – with 26 games remaining. The plan is to win as many as possible, play spoiler when the opportunity presents itself, and begin to think about the offseason and next year. That means Wall’s future. That means what happens next with Webster. That means, where do the Wizards go from here? They know what they do well and how they’ve won games of late. But it’s just not that easy to replicate on a nightly basis. Players are up, players are down, players are happy and unhappy. Right now, Wall is at the top of the struggling list, a place neither he nor the team is accustomed to.

With their 90-84 win at Air Canada Centre on Monday, the Wizards sort of vindicated the notion that who they are now is a team that’s better on the road than their record (5-22) would indicate. I say “sort of” because that was the epitome of ugly. But it was also a game in which the Wizards never trailed by more than three points. As bad as they looked offensively at times (20 turnovers), they still had 23 assists on 34 field goals and made the Raptors, who shot 36.7 percent, look even worse.

Bradley Beal (20 points, 6 rebounds) was dependable and clutch, as he has been since the All-Star break, and A.J. Price (12 points) gave a nice lift off the bench even though Wizards coach Randy Wittman may have kept him in the game a couple possessions too long in the fourth quarter. Even if John Wall struggled to shoot, going 3-for-11 from the field, he had seven assists and he can still change the tempo of the game in ways that Price can’t.

*While beating Toronto gave the Wizards a rare win over a team with a losing record, the Raptors (23-34) are very much like Washington – they’ve been better than their place in the standings would indicate. They came into Monday having won six out of seven games. They’re also still four games ahead of Wizards (18-37), who have competition for the role of spoiler and unlikely postseason party crasher. The teams still meet twice more this season, and it’ll be curious to see if there’s more at stake each time.

*So, about those standings and the state of the team. The Wizards, who have clinched a winning record in February, are now 12th in the Eastern Conference and have the 26th best record in the NBA overall. At 8.5 games out of eighth place with 27 games remaining, they still need a miracle to challenge for the postseason. What they’ve done already since Jan. 7 is an achievement and proof that they’re headed in the right direction.

But David Aldridge’s NBA.com report that they had a trade in place to bring Caron Butler back to Washington and send Trevor Ariza to the Los Angeles Clippers is a tad disconcerting. While Butler might’ve helped offensively, the Wizards’ current identity is very much in line with Ariza – a hard-nosed defensive player that doesn’t need to care about anything but frustrating opponents and getting wins. Getting rid of him could very well have disrupted that chemistry. While Butler had great success in Washington and still has a home and connections here, the idea that he’d be the same force he was before feels like a reach. There would’ve been plenty of risk that he’d rest easy in familiar confines, and the Wizards really need to keep their edge. Might they also be better served to try and convince Ariza, who has a player option for 2013-14, that he could possibly win sixth man of the year next season if he stuck around?

Wizards 105, Rockets 103: Three observations

Craig Stouffer

February 24, 12:00 AM February 24, 01:05 AM

*Whatever the trade deadline and All-Star break did to disrupt the flow of the resurgent Wizards, they’re back. The idea of home wins over legitimate Western Conference teams Denver and Houston on back-to-back nights appeared daunting after the Wizards looked lethargic in their loss to Toronto earlier in the week. Instead, they proved they can still dictate how they want to play defensively over the course of 48 minutes against two teams with different kinds of significant offensive punch.

On Saturday, they found a way to not just endure the Rockets’ 3-point onslaught but to make them react (or not) in a 105-103 victory.

Yes, I admit to looking at the standings and noticing immediately that there are now nine games between the Wizards and the Milwaukee Bucks, who also lost tonight. There are 28 games remaining. Let’s not get crazy, but then, why do I keep looking at the standings? It can’t be any crazier than going 11-4 against teams with winning records and 2-5 against losing squads.

The Wizards’ ridiculous road woes do continue to stare them in the face. Now, I’m inclined to believe they’re not as bad as they seem. The record (4-22) speaks for itself, but there are a lot of ways to try and explain away their struggles away from Verizon Center, even with Wall back in the lineup.

They lost a nail-biter by one at Sacramento, had legit losses at the Clippers and Jazz. They were bad in three straight defeats at Philadelphia, Memphis and San Antonio, but the Spurs are essentially unbeatable and that road trip took place as Jordan Crawford was unraveling. The Detroit loss before the All-Star break was a case of checking out before it was time.

The fact is, the Wizards have become solid and tough at home against good teams. Until they prove they can be the same on the road, they can’t be described that way.

*Anyone still think they can do Randy Wittman’s job better than him? That’s a joke. Wittman showed just how much credibility he has with his guys on the game-winning call late against Houston, choosing whatever mismatch appeared over giving the ball to one player.

(Okay, two points to make here. One, it goes two ways. To be fair, the guys on the roster right now not only respect Wittman, but they’re sharp enough to execute what he asks. Trust is a two-way street. Second, John Wall only had two turnovers against the Rockets, but one came down the stretch. That’s as good a reason as any to keep the ball moving.)

Certainly, Emeka Okafor is proving his worth every night, but who would choose him first for a game-winning bucket?

“I’m a firm believer in going at mistmatches,” Wittman said. “I’m a firm believer in the feel of the game, how a guy is going. I thought Emeka played outstanding tonight for us, again. He was doing a job down there when he was getting the ball down there. I coach by feel. I don’t have set thing we’re going to go to every time. We’re going to see John in a spread a little bit, like we did a little bit in the last couple minutes, but t.hey did it all game long, and I thought that they would stay small. I said, ‘Screw it, let’s go big.’ It could’ve been Nene. Actually, it was for either one. Whoever they wanted to put the little guy on, we were going to.”

*Bradley Beal is in take-over mode. More will be said about this with every game, but something happened to the rookie in Houston during All-Star Weekend. It’s not as if the light got turned on – that actually happened with the changing of the calendar to 2013. But he’s gone from not just knowing he has the game to make it to carrying himself like the Wizards’ most important player.

That was a veteran move to steal a rebound that had no business being his at the end of the win over the Rockets. But it wasn’t his only play. He made clutch shots, was composed in transition, even converted a mini alley-oop to Okafor. He doesn’t get rattled, even when he’s guarding the other team’s best player.

“Crazy confidence,” Wizards forward Trevor Booker said. “If you ask me, he’s playing like an All-Star right now.”

Now, this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. I wrote earlier this week about how what Beal brought home with him from Houston was different than Wall. It will really be interesting down the stretch to see the two handle each other and sharing a spotlight that used to be reserved solely for Wall.

I’m going to start one more post with Jordan Crawford even though he’s gone because there are some things about his departure that are applicable to the rest of the Wizards roster. If nothing else, he’s not the Washington player who has bounced in and out of coach Randy Wittman’s rotation this season.

Only a few weeks ago Chris Singleton seemed destined to spend the rest of the winter in purgatory. Trevor Booker has had ups and downs and, as of the Toronto game, could be back up again. Jan Vesely, well, okay so he’s mostly been down. But he hasn’t been joined there by Kevin Seraphin until recently.

After averaging 10.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 44.7 shooting and 24.6 minutes per game in November, December and January, the third-year big man has had a precipitous fall in production in February, averaging just 4.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 39.4 percent shooting and 15.1 minutes. Against Toronto on Tuesday, he committed two turnovers in less than four minutes and never saw the floor again.

But rather than sulking and blowing off the media, Seraphin readily admits he’s in a funk and the only one responsible for it.

“It’s really tough, but for me, I think I have to be more focused in the game,” Seraphin said. “I don’t really know. Right now I’m just in a struggle right now so I need to get back, just keeping working more. I’m working more, trying to get my confidence during the practice, working on one-on-one drills, work out every time we have practice, be aggressive, keep going to the boards, that sort of thing. I need to do it to get it back.”

It’s also important to recognize that the Wizards are desperate to get out of the perpetual cycle of development, a scenario in which Seraphin might be allowed to play his way back into form. Like it or not, the fully healthy roster the team has now is the one that team president Ernie Grunfeld built. Wittman’s task is no longer to give young guys minutes; it’s to try and win games.

The upshot for guys like Seraphin, Booker, Singleton and Vesely is that the leash is shorter than it used to be and the improvement has to show in practice first and immediately in the games.

“They understand that,” Wittman said. “They see that. I think everybody does. And it is different; we want it to be different. I don’t want to be coaching a team that, putting out players that don’t deserve to be out there. I think that’s important for anybody’s growth, to understand that you get what you deserve, and cherish that. I think you understand that a little bit more, and it makes you work a little bit harder to understand that if I don’t, just because I’m young they’re going to have to play me. I think this year our guys understand that.”

In Seraphin’s case, disappointing performances often end with heart-to-heart sessions afterward in the locker room, where his locker is next to Nene’s. But there’s only so much that the veteran Brazilian can say to the young protégé who wants to be just like him, and he prefers at times to lead by example.

“It’s hard to put on his mind the way I prepare myself,” Nene said. “It’s how I say, I saw the [next opponent's] last game. I know how they are going to play. I know what I going to do. I know my opening. That is the way he should think. See video and understand how to prepare himself for the game.”

While Seraphin isn’t shy about his frustration, he hasn’t let it get him down. No, I’m not referring to his Harlem Shake video. He has a positive attitude and knows he’s played well in the past – particularly against some of the better big men in the NBA. (He’s sure to be up for going against JaVale McGee tonight.) He also understands that the stakes are higher and more is expected because the Wizards have improved.

“Of course because now the team step up so everybody has to step up, too,” Seraphin said. “I have to step my game up because the team step up. For sure, but I think so, I can. I already prove I can play in a good team so now I just have to get it back. But I think we’re coming back. I do everything for that, been working out. It’s not my first time. I’m a young player so I just come with the time, but now I will do everything for coming back.”

I caught up with Wizards coach Randy Wittman prior to shootaround this morning ahead of facing the Denver Nuggets tonight. Here’s what he had to say about trading away Jordan Crawford:

“It’s just a situation, with John [Wall] coming back, the development of Bradley [Beal], the emergence of Martell [Webster], and Trevor [Ariza] playing and giving us what he is, it was a situation from a minutes standpoint that wasn’t satisfactory for him. I felt we had a good thing going from our rhythm and playing and winning and doing things the right way and defending, that his role changed a little bit, and the minutes weren’t going to quite be the same. I think he had a hard time with that. We felt this was the best thing to do moving forward.”

Isn’t it especially disappointing how things changed given when Bradley was drafted, Crawford said and did all the right things?

“It’s always disappointing when you have to make moves. It doesn’t matter. In a perfect world, you’d like to have a perfect team, but those are things that, hey, we’re in the real world. Then you have to make decisions that are best for the team. That’s what you try to do. Is it disappointing? Yeah.”

Was it surprising how quickly Crawford went from carrying a huge offensive load to being unhappy about his role?

“There was still a situation for him to play and be a part. It wasn’t going be probably the significant minutes that he wanted.”

With the Jordan Crawford situation taken care of, the Wizards can turn their attention back to the court, where Bradley Beal and Cartier Martin both aren’t expected to miss any time following a yucky face-to-face collision during Thursday’s practice.

Beal had to head straight to the dentist after chipping both of his front teeth, and Martin left the practice court with a towel pressed to his face and later visited the doctor for stitches to close a laceration to his forehead, where he’d connected with Beal.

Wizards coach Randy Wittman had a cabinet full of one-liners ready afterward. “We’ve got a hockey player it looks like now,” Wittman said of Beal. “We’re in the same building with our hockey team so we might as well look like them. I don’t know if you guys looked at him. He’s got a pretty smile. He could squirt some water out of that mouth now I bet.”

Beal jogged into Friday’s shootaround with a mouth guard and said he was good. Martin wore a blue headband that masked the repair to his injury. Asked how many stitches he received, Martin guessed about 15. Both are expected to be available against the Nuggets.

“I told them they know how to end a practice,” Wittman said.

That was some glorious return from the All-Star break for the Wizards, now wasn’t it? From the scoreboard that didn’t work, including the time and shot clock normally kept above the backboards, to Wale getting in a feud with the Toronto Raptors broadcasters, who called him a local rapper and said he was ‘no Drake,’ to the random “Jor-dan Craw-ford!” chant that sprang to life late as the Wizards failed to generate any consistent offensive flow and as Crawford himself remained reclined at the end of the bench throughout the game.

Yes, the 96-88 loss set a couple key storylines in motion for the final part of the season:

*Something has to happen with Crawford. But he’s sabotaging his own trade value. His demeanor on the bench may or may not have gone unnoticed by Wizards coach Randy Wittman during the game. But it won’t be overlooked, and more importantly, his jersey toss into the stands as he exited the game won’t be forgotten. At some level, that was a signal that Crawford is done with a team that currently doesn’t have any minutes for him. The trade deadline is less than two days away.

Crawford is a player that on the court has value as a scorer off the bench. He could have that with the Wizards, maybe, but he’s not getting back his old role – the one where he started and played significant minutes – in Washington. The question is what team, if any, will offer the Wizards something decent in return to take him? His behavior doesn’t help in that respect, and it’s not going to get him back into Wittman’s good graces either. If he stays, do we have an Andray Blatche situation here?

*Bradley Beal and John Wall were both in Houston for All-Star weekend. That’s about the only thing they had in common tonight. Beal finished with 25 points and took his teammates to task afterward. Wall had 11 missed shots, nine points, seven turnovers and six assists in one of the worst nights of his NBA career and had little to blame but Raptors players getting their hands in passing lanes.

“I think as a team and as an individual, you have to be mentally tough to be able to say, ‘Okay, what else can I do to impact the game,’” Beal said. “I think that’s what I learned early in the year. I did the same thing. When I have bad games now, I still get frustrated, but I just play. If I’m not making shots, I’ll just play good defense. There’s always things in a game that you can do.”

Wall has a contract extension to play for over the final 30 games, and he didn’t get off to a good start. Despite his positive influence on the team since his return, Wall has work to do if he wants to be considered one of the NBA’s elite point guards. Every poor showing he has cuts into that effort and hurts his argument for a maximum deal.

Meanwhile, Beal is emerging not just as Wall’s running mate in the backcourt but his equal and potentially even more. He was angry and frustrated at the end of the game and wasn’t afraid to say so afterward. That speaks as loud as his scoring.

*The delicate balance of the currently constructed Wizards roster is again proving itself hard to maintain. That, or the Wizards just coasted into the All-Star break and right back out of it – which is partly to be expected for a team that is still learning how to win consistently and must stick with dreaming of the playoffs since they can’t expect them to be a reality. Either way, the next two days should be as interesting as a spat between a rapper and a visiting team broadcaster during an NBA game.