La Crosse’s Johnny Davis scores in double figures final 7 games in rookie NBA season for Wizards
La Crosse native Johnny Davis ended his first NBA season Sunday with the highs and lows one would expect from a rookie.
Davis finished his Washington Wizards inaugural season with seven consecutive double-digit scoring games, including a career-high 20 on back-to-back nights at the New York Knicks and home against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Out of playoff contention, the Wizards ramped up Davis’ playing time down the stretch, especially the last nine games. Over that span, he averaged 13 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.4 blocks/steals and 1.2 turnovers in 29 minutes per game.
Davis’ shooting percentages are to be desired. In those final nine games, he shot just 39 percent from the field and 28.1 percent from deep.
Sunday, in his final game of the season, the No. 10 overall pick scored 13 points in a Wizards 114-109 loss to the Houston Rockets, while adding eight assists, six rebounds, two steals and just one turnover in 40 minutes — the most on the team.
The assists and minutes were career highs, as were the shot attempts both from the field and from deep, though he did not shoot well.
Davis was 4-for-20 from the field and 3 of 15 from deep. It was the second game in a row he put up 20 shots — he had 16 points Friday on 7-for-20 shooting against the Miami Heat.
Davis, who entered the draft after his sophomore year with the Wisconsin Badgers, didn’t play on the Wizards much of the season, spending most of that time in the G-League.
He was recalled on March 12 and began getting significant playing time, beginning March 14.
He played well in that contest with his first double-digit scoring effort — 11 points on 5-for-11 shooting in a 117-97 win over the NBA’s worst team, the Detroit Pistons — but Davis went silent over the next five games.
But on March 26, however, at the Toronto Raptors, it appears that Davis began to figure things out, as his minutes began hovering around 29 a game.