– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WASHINGTON — Just over a month ago, Portland Trail Blazers head coach sent a message to his team’s second-leading scorer, Shaedon Sharpe, by benching third-year pro for his defensive frailties. On Wednesday evening, Sharpe had his best game as a professional, and, in doing so, sent his own emphatic message across the league of his emergence with a ferocious dunk that had to be seen to be believed.
Sharpe’s one-handed dunk over a defender was the punctuation mark of a career-high 36-point night, leading the Trail Blazers over the Washington Wizards 129-121 inside Capital One Arena. Seven players scored in double figures for Portland, who won its third straight contest.
Sharpe also added eight rebounds, five assists, a blocked shot and a steal, and it was that steal early in the second quarter that immediately led to one of the most electrifying plays of the NBA season. He intercepted a Justin Champagnie pass at the top of the key before taking one dribble and taking off, cocking the ball back above his head and flushed it over Champagnie and through the rim with such force he tumbled to the ground.
“My whole goal coming into the game was to try to defend,’ Sharpe said. “That was my whole focus for today. I think playing defense, it carries over to offense and that’s what happened today.”
That is the mindset that Billups hoped Sharpe would adopt when the former decided to move his young guard to a reserve role despite his undoubted status as one of the cornerstones of the youth movement in Portland. Billups pointed to those eight rebounds, some of them coming in key spots late in the game, as well as his aggressiveness on defense and attacking the basket in allowing Sharpe to be dominant.
“When you engage yourself defensively, it requires you to kind of get lost out there and focus in on what’s necessary,” Billups said. “And he’s just so gifted on the other end of the floor. The ball is going to come to him, whether it’s me calling a play for him or guys just finding him. And I thought he just kind of got lost in the game today, and he was the best player on the floor.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Wednesday evening’s game, with photos taken by DC-area photographer Terry Mayo Jr. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 25 pictures in total.
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