How Alex Sarr Can Find His Place in Washington Wizards’ Offense

Third-year Washington Wizards starting center Alex Sarr needed the performance he had on Thursday night.

The third-year big posted 30 points and nine rebounds with the best efficiency of his career. Sarr converted on 12 of his 14 attempts from the field, including four out of six from three-point range. He didn’t miss a single two-point shot.

Most importantly, it was the first night he and his front court mate Anthony Davis both excelled on offense.

“I thought our bigs were dominant in their contributions to the game,” Wizards head coach Brian Keefe said after Thursday’s 144-140 double-overtime loss.

Sarr went a perfect 10-for-10 from the field in regulation before missing his only two shots in overtime. Washington also got 30 points from Davis and 37 from Young, becoming the franchise's first team with three 30-point scorers in the same game since 1969.

In the previous two games before Thursday, Sarr scored a combined nine points, and overall looked a bit out of place on offense. 

Go back in time to last Saturday, where Sarr made just one of nine shots from the perimeter in a 39-point loss. What made him so effective as an outside shooter on Thursday? It was combining efficient interior scoring with credible perimeter shooting.

Against Oklahoma City, 52.9% of his attempts came from three. Against Detroit, that fell to 42.9%, while he made every one of his two-point attempts.

Sarr said he didn’t feel like they schemed the offense necessarily around him, but he simply just succeeded in the role he’s been playing. 

Getting his offense going will be important for Washington. His game around the rim has been more efficient than it has ever been. He’s converting on 78.6% of his shots right around the rim. Shooting threes from above the break is the culprit for his efficiency dipping overall. He’s cashed in just six of his 24 attempts on those threes.

Sarr’s defense has been effective this season, and the combination of he and Davis is a strong one. The way they’ll coincide offensively has been a major storyline, though.

On Thursday, Washington ran solid high-to-low actions between the two bigs that allowed for Davis to throw Sarr a few lobs at the rim. It felt like the first real proof of concept for the double big lineup.

If Sarr can maintain a balanced shot-diet and keep his efficiency up on two-point attempts, it will likely open up his game outside. Asking him to make four threes every night isn’t realistic, but it’s evident if he can become slightly more effective from the outside, defenses won’t be able to clog the paint.

“I think I’m always confident shooting the ball,” Sarr said. “We can build off a game like that.”

If he and Davis both have to be respected spacing the floor, the cutting opportunities become important, and Sarr has been very effective as a cutter. He averages 1.56 cut points per possession, which puts him in the 93rd percentile.

It’s unlikely Davis and Sarr can both dominate the scoring sheet the way they did Thursday. However, finding a formula that allows them both to get easy attempts at the rim will help the team greatly moving forward.