Bradley Beal and Otto Porter carry more weight without John Wall

John Wall is currently participating in a protocol called “active rest.” Perhaps he is rapidly twiddling his thumbs in a reclined position or dancing with only his upper body. Whatever his state, it means he is not on the playing floor and his team has two weeks to navigate without him.

The Wizards’ four-time All-Star point guard received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his stiff and achy left knee Saturday. He arrived at Capital One Arena that night on crutches, speeding through the locker room with his left foot raised. He spent the rest of the night walking around under his own power, before taking the elevator to his vehicle.

Wall will not be with the Wizards (10-9) for their road trip to Minnesota, then Philadelphia, which starts Tuesday night in the upper Midwest. That puts the team in the rare position of trying to figure out how survive multiple games without him. The most likely course is to rely more on Bradley Beal and Otto Porter.

“Sometimes when you’re down a man, you have that rally-for-one-another mentality, and we definitely have to have that,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “A couple of games coming up on this road trip that are tough places to play and are playing well.”

Beal took the final two shots, missing both, Saturday night in another how-did-this-happen loss. Washington has lost three times this season despite entering the fourth quarter with a lead of 10 points or more. It was up 15 points in the fourth quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday. The Wizards lost by three.

Without Wall, Beal took a large amount of the shots in the fourth quarter. In fact, he took more than the other four starters combined. Porter took just two despite having his typical efficient night (9-for-15, 24 points) and playing more than nine minutes in the quarter. Afterward, the idea that Porter needs to shoot more was put forth by Brooks and Beal. It was repeated Monday. However, this is trickier than it sounds.

Porter’s laid-back personality is not designed for him to be a me-first player. There will be no bench blowup at a coach or arguing with a teammate if he is not passed the ball. These are good attributes. They also run counter to the concept of the same player asking for more opportunities to score, especially for a player who averages 11.7 shots per game.

“I need to give him more opportunities,” Brooks said. “Early in the game, he does it well. He goes early post, and we want him to do that if he’s the first man down and doesn’t have an advantage spotting up for a wide open 3 and he feels like he has a good matchup, which he had early in the game. But, I can call some more plays.

“I think he’s gotten better on pick-and-roll play, especially when a five sets because a lot of times they don’t go over that coverage because we don’t run a lot with Otto. But, I need to do a better job, but Otto can also help in that process of demanding out of himself — not demanding the ball from others — just demanding out of himself of putting himself in position that he can get better looks.”

Two things distinctly change without Wall. Beal finds the paint thoroughly clogged when he is handling the ball, Porter sees a defender stuck to him more often since he has moved up in the pecking order. If Wall is on the floor and receiving a high pick from the center, then the opposition’s entire defense is measuring its reaction to that movement. Maybe a defender moves away from Porter or doesn’t end up in a position to help defend against Beal. With one less gigantic concern on the floor with them, a reduction in the math makes everything more complicated for Beal and Porter.

They have gone through this on occasion in the past, but rarely. Wall has averaged 79 games played per season the last four. Wall could miss eight consecutive games if he remains off the floor for two weeks. Six of those are road games. Even if he played every other game remaining, it will be his lowest total of games played since 2013.

Wall’s direct replacement is Tim Frazier. He has struggled defensively this season but also distributed the ball well. By any measure, he is a large drop-off from Wall, as to be expected. Frazier explained Saturday that “nothing” changes for him based on who he is surrounded by on the floor. He wants to push the pace and run the offense.

Bumping Frazier up a spot means the first steady minutes of the season for Tomas Satoransky. He has been sitting on the bench watching for most of the year. At times, Satoransky, who has always been marked a point guard on his European teams, has played small forward in the NBA. He will be in charge of the second unit now as its point guard.

“I think it will be like it was in previous games,” Satoransky said. “Coming into [Saturday] I knew I was going to have some time on the court at the point guard position, there with the team as a pure point guard. My job will be to try to make the second unit to play with a pace. I think we did that [Saturday]. Being aggressive and just having flow in the offense, I will try to be ready as much as I can.”

The first installment of life without Wall closed with a fourth-quarter collapse at home. The coming chapters include a West Coast trip, and a home game against the suddenly hot Detroit Pistons. As soon as possible, the Wizards need the “rest” part of Wall’s “active rest” to go away.