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WASHINGTON -- John Wall remembers how good of a defensive team the Washington Wizards were when they made the playoffs in 2014 and 2015 and wants defense to be the foundation they use to get back to the postseason.With new coach Scott Brooks preaching a defense-first mentality, Wall, backcourt mate Bradley Beal and the Wizards appear ready to buy in. As much as Washington can light up the scoreboard, the path to the playoffs starts with being more consistent defensively.Some nights youre not going to make shots, but your defense has got to win you games sometimes, Wall said. If were a great defensive team, well be fine. But if not well go through the same problems we went through last year.A bevy of injuries and defensive off nights contributed to the Wizards missing the playoffs and led to them not renewing the contract of coach Randy Wittman. Enter Brooks, who hopes to make the Wizards an even better defensive team than he had with the Oklahoma City Thunder for seven seasons.Brooks believes the Wizards have the athleticism and depth to be one of the best two-way teams in the league and hed like that to be their identity.Defensive basketball, toughness: We want to be known as a defensive team that can score, not a scoring team that only wants to play defense if it has a scoring night, Brooks said.Wall and Beal each set career highs in points, but that only led to a disappointing 41-41 finish.Beal said they have matching goals to be on one of the NBAs all-defensive teams and want to lead the charge of keeping points off the board.Wall believes this is the most complete team the Wizards have had during his career and knows the burden is on him to get them back to the playoffs. But he must be on the floor to do that.I dont want to talk about all the playoffs and stuff, Wall said. The most important thing is if we just stay healthy, we give ourselves a great chance.---Some other things to watch as the Wizards try to get back to the playoffs:NEW FACES: The starting five of Wall, Beal, Otto Porter, Markieff Morris and Marcin Gortat are back along with young Kelly Oubre Jr., but there were plenty of changes on the bench. Washington acquired guard Trey Burke, signed big men Ian Mahinmi, Jason Smith and Andrew Nicholson and brought over 2012 draft pick Tomas Satoransky. Wall believes the key is players having and understanding clear roles. I think in the past we kind of didnt know what our roles were, he said. When we did, we were a good team. When we didnt, we looked (like) a bad team.HOME COURT DISADVANTAGE: The Wizards were just 22-19 at Verizon Center last season, and Wall has made comments about the crowd there not being as enthusiastic as elsewhere in the league. Brooks said his team will have a no-excuse mentality but also acknowledged there will be nights players need fans to pick them up. Its a two-way street. If we leave everything on the floor each and every night, our fans will continue to support us and back us and be excited about us, Brooks said.MINUTES WATCH: Brooks already knows hell set aside rest games for Wall, Beal and others to make sure theyre not worn down. Thats particularly important given the Wizards injury woes last season, and Brooks is prepared and plans to hold players out of practice and do other things to keep them fresh.BEALS BIG MONEY: After signing a $128 million, five-year deal, Beal has big expectations for himself -- he wants to produce, lead and defend better than ever before at age 23. Brooks challenged Beal to make his teammates better as the next step of his career evolution. 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CLEVELAND -- Trevor Bauers stitched finger has improved, but the Indians wont be certain of his effectiveness until he pitches.And even that is somewhat up in the air.Bauer sliced open his right pinkie while repairing a drone Thursday night, an odd-as-it-gets October injury that has thrown Clevelands pitching plan -- already jumbled after the team lost two starters in the seasons final months -- into more confusion.Bauer, who needed 11 stitches to close the wound, had been scheduled to pitch Game 2 on Saturday, but is now slated to pitch Game 3 on Monday in Toronto. At least thats plan for now as manager Terry Francona indicated the team is literally moving forward on an inning-by-inning basis.Francona said the Indians remain confident Bauer will make his now-delayed start.You hope that it wouldnt interfere with his touch and feel, he said before Game 2. I dont think thats an issue. Hes already thrown twice. Then, we just have to make sure that that thing doesnt open up where its bleeding, because then they wont let him pitch. It needs to close. So, while hes doing his throwing and things, he needs to make sure he keeps this thing not aggravated or pulling the stitches away. So far, hes done a good job. The thing is healing nice.Francona said Bauer has played catch and reported no problems. Doctors considered putting more stitches in Bauers finger, but backed off after it appeared to be healing well.Another issue for Bauer is he wont be permitted to have any salve or gel on his hand as foreign substances are not permitted.The Indians have been scrambling with their starting rotation, but Bauers injury has provided a new layer of problems. Mike Clevinger is scheduled to start Game 4, but because the Indians didnt stretch out his innings, its unlikely they would have him pitch more than four innings.ddddddddddddThey also have no idea if Bauer will be able to pitch with his injury.Francona said its possible he could bring ace Corey Kluber back on short rest to pitch Game 4. Kluber pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings in Clevelands 2-0 win in Game 1 and the Cy Young contender has pitched 13 1/3 scoreless innings in his first postseason.I dont think well rule out anything, Francona said. If it works say for him, it cant just work for him. Theres always trickle down. Youve got to have answers other places, too. I fall back on, whatever we think is in our best interest, well do. And I dont know if we really know that yet because theres so many unknowns still. One, I think wed like to watch Trevor. Common sense says see how he does.Because, if hes struggling with it, thats part of it, too. Well see. All the pitchers kind of understand. Its not like the day before they pitch they have to know when theyre pitching the next time. This is a pretty easy group to work with anyway.Francona said he did not have much conversation with Bauer, who has built and flown drones as a hobby, following his strange mishap.The guys who were in here before me said he was extremely remorseful, like he felt really, really bad, Francona said. You know what? It was an accident. He wasnt doing something he shouldnt have been doing. He couldve been doing a model airplane. He just cut his finger. It wasnt like he fell off a motorcycle or he was drunk at 3 a.m. and got cut on a beer bottle. It happens. ' ' '