Arenas Says Officials Bother Him on Road
Via Ivan Carter's Wizards Insider:At home, where they are 4-1, the Wiz are averaging 112.3 and on the road they are averaging 92.5. One key is Gilbert Arenas. For whatever reason, he's gotten way too caught up in the reffing on the road and has allowed that to affect his overall game. He had that odd opening night in Cleveland where he dished out 11 assists but otherwise looked passive and he was ice cold in New York.
"I've just got to carry over how I was tonight on the road and not worry about the calls and that other stuff. Sometimes, when I'm getting those charges on me and those ticky tack foulsI let that get me out of my rhythm."To me, this is an interesting way to think about it. Arenas has certainly not been himself on the road; that's unquestionable. He's only averaging 18.3 points per game, 28 percent field goal shooting, and 17 percent from three point range on the road this season. I also do agree that it semes like he's worrying too much about the officials. It's not that he's whining--he has no technical fouls this year--but it seems like he's broken down his moves in such a way that is designed to get officials to notice and call fouls. This is invariably leading to Arenas making moves that he isn't necessarily comfortable and good at making, which takes away a lot of his production.
The problem with this is that the Wizards have been a bad road team for some time even before this season. They were 15-26 on the road last season and 16-25 the year before, and Arenas wasn't worrying as much about the officials then. That means that there has to be something else that is holding Washington back. My guess is that the Wizards lack the defensive intensity to win tough road games, but road wins can often be flukish by nature. Sometimes, you end up catching the better teams on back-to-backs, which means they don't play as well. This doesn't mean we can denounce the Wizards' disturbing trend, but it makes you wonder whether the solution is as simple as it seems.
Do you agree that Arenas plays too much for the officials? What do you think is ultimately the Wizards problem in road games?
Labels: Gilbert Arenas, Ivan Carter, Officials, Player analysis, Washington Post
posted by Pradamaster @ 3:10 PM
To put it bluntly, they are not that good a team period. They play very poor team defense. (I love Antawn jamison but he could not guard a locked door.)Teams that don't play well on the road are usually mentally soft teams, and I suspect that is part of their problem. They lack grit and fire.
8:44 PM
Gilbert still does not get All Star calls on the road. Compare him to Dwade and Bron, its not even close. The player who gets screwed the most on calls is not Gil though but Butler. In Game 6 of the playoffs last season, he repeatedly was hacked in the 2nd half, no calls. Check the tape, unless you burnded it. I want to erase that game from my memory. I have seen the refs low respect of But carry over to this season. I would say Butler gets at least 3-5 no calls a game. Total BS since he always attacking the rim. Wiz need to go 3-2 in this next 5 game stretch.
9:22 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home