Rockets 114, Wizards 109: Can I write a check?

When Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison combine for 70 points, it's usually enough to get the Wizards the win. Tonight, however, it simply wasn't the case, as the Wizards fell to the Houston Rockets 114-109 at home.

In the game preview, I suggested that the Wizards let Yao and T-Mac get theirs and focus on stopping the rest of the team. Quite simply, it was a silly suggestion. Yao was unstoppable last night, as he constantly used his size and length to dominate Etan Thomas and the other Wizards centers. When he didn't score, he was fouled, and he hit 12 of 14 from the line. The Wizards had no chance against him last night. Before McGrady left the game with back spasims (be concerned, Rockets fans!), he was dominating on the perimeter with 28 points on 10 of 21 from the field. Finally, even with all of that, the Wizards still allowed 4 other guys to score in double figures. It was simply a dreadful defensive performance.

On the other end, the Big 3 played their game, but nobody else showed up. DeShawn Stevenson was 2 for 9, Etan Thomas 1 for 5, and Antonio Daniels 0 for 1. How in the world is Daniels only shooting one shot? That simply can't happen again. As good as Arenas, Butler, and Jamison are, they need a fourth scorer to do anything.

The defensive performance in particular is somewhat troubling. It's true that no other team has a guy like Yao, and the Wizards simply never have a chance to stop him. However, T-Mac should not be getting 28 points in such a short amount of time. The Wizards surrendered too many open jumpers to Shane Battier, Luther Head, and Juwan Howard. Once again, the Wizards struggled defensively to guard teams that play a half-court style. It happened in Chicago and it happened again last night.



I did see three encouraging signs, however. 38 free throws is really good, even if they gave up 38 to the Rockets. Jamison had a big game yesterday, and his production continues to be a major key for the team. Finally, Eddie opened up the bench, as Roger Mason, Calvin Booth, and even James Lang got into the game yesterday. I've been begging for this the entire season, and it finally seems like Jordan is getting the message. True, Booth and Lang probably only played because of Haywood's injury, but at least Jordan is making the effort.

All in all, it's been 20 games, and the Wizards are 9-11. They've proven they can beat bad teams and even a couple good ones. However, they have to beat good teams at home more consistently to reach the next level. They have two of those types of games next week against Denver and Miami. A sweep of those two teams will signal the Wizards are really back.

Postgame thoughts? What did you take away from the loss?

Wizards 113, Sixers 98: They did play the game, you know

The big news of the game may have been Allen Iverson, but the Wizards and the Sixers did in fact play a game last night. After falling way behind early on, the Wizards turned things around emphatically and got a pretty easy 15 point win. Gilbert Arenas has another big game, and guys like Brendan Haywood and Roger Mason stepped up with big contributions off the bench.
Early on, the Sixers were playing with much more energy than the Wizards. Guys like Kyle Korver, Willie Greene, and Andre Iguodala were playing as if they had something to prove. Finally freed from the AI shadow, these guys had Phily up 46-26 midway through the second quarter. Then, the Wizards started to hit shots. Gilbert Arenas and DeShawn Stevenson hit key shots, and after Arenas’ buzzer-beating halftime three, the Wizards were only down by 4. It got better in the third quarter, as the Wizards finally got some easy hoops and took control of the game. Phily had nothing left in the fourth and the Wizards got their second road win of the year.

It took time, but the more talented team won. The 76ers simply were overmatched tonight in the talent department. When your best player can barely jump, you know you’re in trouble. The Sixers couldn’t stop the Wizards offensively once the Wizards pulled themselves together. All in all, the Wizards didn’t play their best game by any means. The Sixers shot nearly 50 percent from the field and didn’t turn the ball over. The Wizards won because they got to the line, shooting 30 free throws compared to 19 for the Sixers. Other than that, the Wizards didn’t really do anything crazy well. They had significantly more talent than the Sixers, and their offense ran circles around Phily’s porous half-court defense the entire game.

Without AI, the Sixers are a mess. Chris Webber is too old and everyone else is too one-dimensional and inexperienced. None of those young guys impressed me at all, and this team needs a major makeover fast. Life without Iverson simply isn’t going to be fun for Sixers fans.

Three plays in particular showed how bad the Sixers are during the third quarter.

• With the score tied at 65, Caron Butler had the ball on the wing and dribbled aimlessly towards the middle, with Kyle Korver staying right with him. Despite this, Rodney Carney, who was guarding DeShawn Stevenson on the wing, takes his eye off his man and commits slightly towards Butler. Stevenson goes backdoor and Butler hits him for the easy jam as Carney just stood there helplessly. Probably the worst man defense I’ve ever seen.
• Off a Sixers miss, Gilbert Arenas sees the Sixers getting back slowly and throws a long pass ahead to Stevenson. Carney and Steven Hunter are slow to get back, and Kevin Ollie is standing aimlessly in the middle of the court staring at the flight of the ball. Stevenson makes the catch and both Kyle Korver and Chris Webber run at him. Meanwhile, Brendan Haywood sneaks behind Ollie and is wide open on the other side. Easy alley oop, easy slam for Haywood. 71-65 Wizards.
• 78-73, final minute of the quarter. Haywood comes out and sets a high screen for Arenas at the top of the key. Steven Hunter and Kevin Ollie attempt to trap Arenas, but Ollie is easily picked off and Hunter cheats left when trying to hedge. Arenas splits the two and comes right down the lane. Korver and Webber both come to greet him, leaving Caron Butler wide open on the right side. Butler takes the pass and goes right to the rim. Carney, who had been guarding Stevenson on the other side, comes to meet him, but instead of holding his ground, Carney jumps in a feigned attempt to block the shot. Butler easily maneuvers around Carney in the air for the huge two-handed jam.

Three horrible defensive sequences helped to bring the Sixers down last night. The Wizards weren’t doing anything fancy, but the Sixers still had no idea how to rotate as a team. Phily is just a downright terrible defensive team.

As for the bigger news, I’ve heard Denver, Minnesota, the Clippers, Golden State, Seattle, Indiana, and even Boston mentioned as potential Iverson destinations. It appears the Sixers don’t want to deal him to an Eastern Conference club, so I doubt he ends up with Indy or Boston. Denver and Minnesota both sound good, but both break down in a hurry. A KG/Iverson or Melo/Iverson combo sounds great, but Minnesota would be even further in salary cap hell and Denver isn’t looking to add another scorer. Seattle and the Clippers sound the most intriguing to me. The Clippers could do it with Shaun Livingston or they could put together a Maggette/Mobley/Singelton/Sofoklis Schortsianitis package. Iverson and Elton Brand would get along really well together, and if Livingston stays, the Clippers would be right up there with the best in the West. Seattle also may work, possibly something like Rashard Lewis/Luke Ridnour/one of the young centers. Iverson and Ray Allen may be able to put Seattle back near the top again. Also, don’t rule out teams like Sacramento and Chicago. Both teams have imaginative GMs and interesting trade pieces. A Mike Bibby/Kevin Martin package is intriguing, and the Bulls could do it with a Ben Gordon/Luol Deng/P.J. Brown/ offer. Either way, expect the unexpected with an Iverson trade.

As for the Wizards, last night was a good win, and with Houston coming into town tonight, another victory would be huge.

Postgame thoughts? What did you think about the win?

Wizards 113, Knicks 102: No more monkey on our backs!

The Wizards finally got their first win on the road tonight against the Knicks in the place where the road funk really started. They didn't even play well except for some insane shooting, so it's nice that they got a win not playing their best. The Knicks outrebounded the Wizards again and got to the line more, but Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison simply were hitting everything.

Of course, for the Knicks, playing at home usually is akin to playing a road game, so if you really want to be facetious, you could say the Wizards still haven't really won on the road. Whatever. At least they won away from the Verizon Center.

For more, I'm going to turn it over to Seth from Your New York Knicks, who attended the game and was kind enough to drop me an e-mail with his thoughts. Even though Seth's an enemy blogger, it's great to hear thoughts from someone who attended the game, and I really hope this can become a common practice in future games. Thanks, Seth!

Yo, here's a few thoughts on the Wiz from tonight's game:

- The Wiz as a team really seem to be an extension of Arenas. In the last Knicks-Wizards game, Arenas couldn't buy a bucket, and the team followed suit. Tonight, Gilbert hit just about everything (including a casual 40 footer after a whistle), and the Wizards followed suit. Streakiest team I've seen in a while.

- Speaking of Arenas, one of things that makes him so amazing, in my opinion, is that he's completely predictable. When he's hot, you can tell very early on in a play when and where's he gonna shoot. The entire crowd knows, his teammates know, and even the defender knows. But when he's hot like he was tonight, it just doesn't matter.

- I don't remember Antawn Jamison ever being anything more than an occasional three-point shooter, but he was ridiculous (6-8) tonight. Now that I look, he's been raining threes for most of the season.

- Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood are both total stiffs on offense (which makes Curry's performance look much worse.)

- Songaila and Ruffin are hurt, but even still, the Wiz are not a very deep team.

- Apparently, the Wizards shot 41 of 84, but off the top of my head I can remember about 3 or 4 misses. They were unbelievable.

Anyway, the Wizards looked quite fluid, and they are due much credit for completely sucking the life out of the Garden. It was impossible for them to lose when Jamison and Arenas were so damn perfect from the field. Congrats.

Thanks again Seth, and tell your team that the Wizards thank them for making it possible to finally get the monkey off our backs!

As a sidenote, I'm probably out of commission tomorrow due to finals, so I will probably see you Friday when the Wizards take on Phily. If anyone has anything long to say, send me an e-mail and I'll put it up tomorrow.

Postgame thoughts? What stood out during this game?

Wizards 106, Mavericks 97: HIBACHI!

For three quarters, the Wizards played possibly the best game they played in the last two years. A subpar fourth quarter made the Wizards’ performance look a lot worse than it really was.

The Wizards did two things very well. First, they really moved the ball well offensively. When the Wizards struggle offensively, it’s because there is too much one-on-one play. With Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, the Wizards have two fantastic one-on-one guys they can depend on when the shot clock goes down, but it’s dangerous to think they can just go one-on-one every single possession. It really wasn’t surprising to see than Antawn Jamison, a guy whose production rises when he’s in the flow of the offense, had his best game of the season last night. Dallas is a tough defensive team, especially inside, so to get all those open looks was really encouraging.

The other thing the Wizards did unbelievably well was they pounded Dallas on the glass. That really shocked me when I looked at the numbers. The Wizards outrebounded a very good Dallas rebounding team 53-39! That’s really solid, especially considering Dallas’ incredible offensive rebounding ability. Etan Thomas was an absolute monster last night with 10 points, 11 boards, and that one block on Devin Harris. That block was a play that really set the tone for the entire game. The Wizards showed tons of energy on defense and locked down on a really explosive Dallas team. Jason Terry, Josh Howard, and Devin Harris shot a combined 5 for 23. If you do that, you’ll beat Dallas.

While Arenas was huge with 38 points and 8 assists, (you listening, Michael Redd! You can score a shitload of points and be a good playmaker. It’s possible) the key to this game was Jamison. Unsilent pointed out a couple days ago that the Wizards are a completely different team when Jamison is playing well, and tonight showed it. Jamison’s the one guy that really needs to get his points in the flow of the offense. If the offense becomes too much based on one-on-one play, Jamison ends up trying to overcompensate and jacks up bad 19 foot jumpers. This also prevents him from getting inside for rebounds. When the offense is moving the ball well, Jamison is much more successful, and when Jamison is successful offensively, he’ll get in there and grab key rebounds. The play he made to seal the game at the end was a prime example of this.

However, I hate to say it again, but this game didn’t really prove all that much. The Wizards are 7-2 at home and could very easily be 9-0. We know they can play up to their potential against anyone in the Verizon Center. Now, they have to prove it and play well on the road. The offense needs to keep moving the ball well instead of stagnating and watching Arenas or Butler go 1 on 5. With road games against the Knicks and the Sixers on the docket this week, the Wizards have a great chance to finally get a road win.

In other news, Gilbert Arenas is going to be signing autographs/discussing his new shoe over at the NBA store in New York City. This wouldn’t ordinarily be newsworthy, but, apparently, Dan Steinberg, Unsilent Majority, Will Leitch, SLAM, and With Leather are all going to be there. Steinberg is calling this event a “Blogocalypse.” If anyone else is planning on being there, I’d really like to hear about it.

Also, Steinberg pops the “what if you could pretend you guys are at home when you’re on the road” question, and gets a ton of player responses. In an earlier Bog entry, Post Wizards beat writer Ivan Carter wondered aloud, "Is there a Shakespeare tragedy about an army that was great on its own soil but couldn't win on the road?" Clearly, this road thing is getting old and the players really have to find a way to break through. It better come this week with the Knicks and Sixers on the docket.

Finally, if you were at the game yesterday, let me know and send me your postgame thoughts. I’ll put them up here on the blog when I get them. E-mail me at pradam@brandeis.edu.

Postgame thoughts? Please someone be positive for now!

Bulls 112, Wizards 94: At the risk of sounding like a broken record...

Admittedly, I didn’t follow one second of this game in any way. I guess it’s a good thing that happened.

112 points to the Bulls? Are you serious? The same Bulls that scored 72 points against a mediocre Lakers defense earlier this year? Quite simply, that’s about as bad as it gets.

I actually felt there have been times this season where the Wizards were on the verge of turning a corner defensively. Even on their horrendous recent road trip, they had a couple games where they held teams to around 40 percent from the field. These games coincided with horrendous offensive performances, but you had to think the offense would come around.

Now, the Wizards come back and throw up two defensive performances like this? I really don’t get it. Chicago doesn’t have much offensive talent at all. They rely simply on looking for holes to drive and kick outside for open jumpers. They have nobody who can score consistently in the post, and they have nobody (save for Ben Gordon at times) that can consistently break down a defense off the dribble. As a defense, all you really need to do against the Bulls is adhere to the basic defensive fundamentals of contesting shots, moving your feet, and rotating quickly as a unit.

If the Bulls are shooting 60 percent for the first half and 50 percent for the game, then the Wizards screwed up the most basic defensive elements. It seems like any team can get an open shot on this defense if they just make 3 or 4 passes. This would make sense if the Wizards had a ton of slow plodders on their team, but the only person that really fits this description is Antawn Jamison.

The problem then has to be coaching. I’ve usually been an Eddie Jordan supporter because he’s been the guy to take the Wizards to the playoffs the past two years. But this whole situation feels like the Don Nelson situation in Dallas. Nelson was a fantastic coach and did great things to pull Dallas up from the bottom of the Western Conference, but his teams never played defense and only significantly improved once Avery Johnson took his place. Jordan is a great offensive mind, but I'm not sure he’s the type of guy that can get the Wizards better defensively. Just like Don Nelson ultimately wasn’t the guy to take Dallas to the next level, so to is Jordan not the guy for the Wizards.

What this team really needs is a fiery young hotshot who isn’t afraid to get up in the players’ grill. It’s no secret that the two offensive-minded teams that made great strides in the past two years—Seattle in 05 and Dallas last year—had young fiery coaches in Nate McMillan and Avery Johnson. The Wizards could really use a guy like that who can get in the players' faces and let them know that the team isn't playing to their full potential. Many have said the Wizards could use some toughness in their personnel, but it's much more important to get a tough coach than one tough player. This is what the Wizards really need.

Unfortunately, the coaching market isn’t exactly brimming with these types of guys, so we may just have to hope that the Wizards can get back to where they were at last season. Maybe, when this guy retires, he can then take Jordan’s place.

But coaching change or not, the Wizards clearly need a spark from somewhere. Last year, it was giving Caron Butler more playing time. This year, it might have to be firing Eddie Jordan.

By the way, big stuff is happening with the site soon, so I’m looking to incorporate some eyewitness accounts into the recaps. If you are attending any of the Wizards upcoming home or away games, I’d love it for you to send me an account of your experience at the game to put up on the blog. Even if you're writing in a million different places already, it would be really cool to get an actual eyewitness account on this blog somewhere. E-mail me at pradam@brandeis.edu if you’re planning on attending any future games so we can set this up.

(And yes, I realize this is the same thing the guys over at Blazers Edge do, but I think it's really cool thing.)

Do you think a coaching change is the right move here?

Recap and Open Thread for Game 16

Regular Season Game 16
Wizards (6-9) vs. Bulls (6-9)
United Center
8:30 PM
CSN and NBA League Pass

I'm going to be gone all day, so we're going to combine the recap and preview this time.

I have to say, I was more impressed by the win over Atlanta on Tuesday than the win last night. Obviously, the Wizards played a better game yesterday, but we knew the Wizards could win games like these. It's the games where they aren't scoring a ton of points and they need to rely on defensive stops that we weren't so sure about.

I expected Charlotte to try to grind it out and force the Wizards to win a low-scoring game, but their perimeter defense stunk, allowing way too many open shots. It also helped that the Big 3 were shooting the lights out, and Gilbert Arenas had arguably his most impressive all around game with 33 points and 11 assists. Still, the Wizards defense absolutely stunk last night. There's no other way around it. You can't let Charlotte shoot 59 percent in the first half and 54 for the game. It's not like Charlotte is an offensive powerhouse either: they rank in the bottom 5 in the league in points per game. In the end, the Wizards forced enough turnovers to win, but against a better team, that would have been a loss.

Moving ahead to tonight, the Wizards look to finally get a win on the road against the Bulls tonight. You'll probably remember my proposed wager with Matt at Blogabull about which team will win more games. So far, both teams are struggling, and I don't think either of us wishes we made the wager.

I love when these two teams play because they are complete opposites of each other. Scott Skiles preaches attention to detail, whether it be on or off the court. They run disciplined sets offensively and beat you with solid perimeter defense on the other end. The problem with the Bulls is that they're wound too tightly. Nobody on that team is a consistent difference maker on either end of the court. Ben Wallace was supposed to be that guy, but it simply hasn't happened. Chicago has nobody who can score consistently when their offensive sets break down, meaning that you see a lot of low-percentage contested long jump shots.

The Wizards, on the other hand, have a ton of offensive talent. They have guys who can score in any given situation, and they only struggle offensively when they get lazy. When the shot clock winds down, the Wizards have a pletora of players that can create their own shot. However, they don't pay much attention to detail, whether it be perimeter defense or offensive scheming. If you put the two teams together, you'd have the perfect team.

Bulls blogs: Blogabull

Whenever these two teams play, it's close. There was that epic matchup at the end of the year in the United Center that featured a red-hot Ben Gordon and the charging call on Jared Jeffries when the Wizards tried to tie it. I think this one will be close as well, but I'm not encouraged by the Wizards inability to defend the perimeter against Charlotte. The Bulls should get plenty of open looks and score enough to win this one at home.

Prediction: Bulls 96, Wizards 89

If you're online during the game, give a shout!

Wizards 97, Hawks 96: Offensive aggression allows Wizards to win an ugly one

It's one of the strangest lines you'll ever see, but in a game where both teams struggled to hold onto the basketball, Caron Butler's 21 point, 15 free throw performance in the win tonight is something that needs to be explored more extensively.

In their last two losses, the Wizards have suffered from a lack of aggressivness in taking the ball to the basket. The Wizards shot significantly more free throws than their opponents last season, but in losses to Memphis and Detroit, the Wizards did very little to debunk the popular idea that they are a soft jump-shooting team. As soon as shots stopped going in, the Wizards offense stopped working. Even the best teams can't win too many games scoring 80 points every game.

This backdrop is why Butler's performance tonight is particularly important to understand. He made more free throws tonight (15) than field goals (10). Instead of hoisting jumper after jumper in hopes of heating up, Butler made sure to attack the rim and get easy points at the free throw line. This in turn allowed the Wizards to win the game despite turning the ball over 21 times (this will be a subject of a future post) and getting outrebounded 44-38.

In terms of quantitative analysis, the Wizards +11 in points at the free throw line won them this game. The Hawks shot only 42 percent, but they still were +10 in points on field goals because they attempted 20 more shots. Combine that with a 15-6 advantage on the offensive glass, and it's safe to say that Atlanta's offense was working better than Washington's. Still, the Wizards were able to win this game because of their renewed offensive aggression. The Wizards' offense struggled with turnovers and a lack of flow, but because they attacked the basket with a renewed vigor, they were able to get enough to win.

Also, I can't recap this game without giving props to Jarvis Hayes. I've been hard on the guy, but he had a superb game tonight, pnroviding 9 points on 3-3 from three point range as well as superb defense on Joe Johnson when it mattered most. If Hayes could simply focus on playing his role and improving his shot selection, he could provide the type of bench spark this team desperately needs. When he's shooting 10 times in only 18-2o minutes, it's a problem. Tonight, he picked his spots well and made three huge treys.

Overall, there were lots of encouraging signs. The turnovers are a huge problem--one big enough to tackle in a future post--and the inability to score in the halfcourt at the end of the game is troubling, but the Hawks are a tricky team to play because they have a real star and a number of athletic surrounding pieces. The Wizards did not play their best game at all tonight, but because of a renewed focus on aggression (led by Butler), the Wizards found a way to win an ugly one.

Postgame thoughts? What do you guys think went well and what do you think still needs work?

Pistons 115, Wizards 111: I'm Getting Nightmares of 2000

No doubt about it, this was a game they needed to have.

The Big 3 all had big games at the same time. Scoring, as a whole, wasn't really a problem. Gilbert Arenas had arguably his most complete game with 28 and 10 assists. Antawn Jamison had 22 and Caron Butler had exactly the type of game I know he can have with 25 points on 12 of 16 shooting. DeShawn Stevenson even chipped in with 15. Offense is solved, right? How could the Wizards lose?

Two uncharacteristic things killed the Wizards. The first was the huge free throw difference. Detroit is really more of a jump shooting team, yet they were able to get to the line 40 times! On the road! They were +18 at the free throw line, which is an insane difference. At some point, the Wizards need to be able to defend without committing too many fouls. Offensively, the Wizards only got to the line 23 times, which is a lot less than usual. Considering this also happened against Memphis, it may be the beginning of the trend.

The second uncharacteristic thing that killed the Wizards were the turnovers. The Wizards forced only 9 turnovers and had 17 of their own. This probably was the main reason why the Pistons were able to score at will on Washington last night. The Wizards were not able to get easy buckets in transition, which is something that has become a trend recently. However, the Wizards still usually take decent care of the ball, which makes the 17 turnovers tonight troubling.

This team is starting to remind me of the 29-53 team of 2000. I went to many home games that year, and after a while, each one started to mold together. The Wizards would fall behind early, be down like 8-10 at the half, and would see the lead baloon to 15 or so in the third quarter. Then, by the end of the quarter, the Wizards reserves would make a run and it would carry over to the fourth quarter. By the middle of the fourth, the lead would be down to 6 or so, and we'd honestly believe the comeback would continue. After a timeout by the opposition (this always happened after a Tracy Murray three...this was simply uncanny), the Wizards would miss a shot to cut it down further and the opponent would close them out eventually. I can't tell you how many games have followed that same pattern this year. It's just unbelievable.

I still think this ship can be rightened. The Wizards played pretty well tonight, to be honest. Detroit is just a super team playing really well right now. They could have beaten nearly any team tonight. There still is more that needs to be done, but the schedule calms down and the Wizards have a lot of home games coming up. A nice run is going to come sooner or later, just like it did last year.

I'd have more to say, but I need to keep watching this Kansas-Florida game. If only the Wizards had an athlete like Julian Wright on their team...


Postgame thoughts? What's your take on tonight?

Grizzlies 95, Wizards 80: Shoot Me Now

By running this blog, I realize that I'm supposed to be some sort of quasi-expert on the Washington Wizards team. Granted, I'm not down there with the team, but I do what I can to stay on the beat from afar.

With that being said, I really don't have too many answers for tonight. It was like the anti-Wizards were out there. Instead of Washington driving and getting buckets at the free throw line to compensate for so-so shooting, it was Memphis sloppily driving to the rim and getting a majority of their points from the charity stripe. Looking at the game stats, the only one where Memphis had a clear advantage was in free throws (36 to 15), which is completely uncharacteristic of the Wizards. They were settling for too many midrange jumpers, and while it often seems like this happens every game, the reality is that the Wizards usually have a free throw advantage against their opponents.

Tonight, it simply wasn't happening. The Wizards are your classic rhythm team. If their jumpers are falling, then they can kick their offense into high gear. Teams have to acknowledge the jumper, which opens up the lane for easy buckets. The problem is that if you aren't hitting your jumpers, that lane never opens up.

Speaking of uncharacteristic, I have absolutely no answer as to what was wrong with Gilbert Arenas. All I can say is that he's a rhythm shooter, meaning he is prone to streaks where he's on and where he's off. Usually, however, Arenas can shoot himself out of them, but I guess he never got the chance to do it when he was on the bench in the third and fourth quarters.
That was probably the worst game Arenas has ever played, and he's given no indication that there was anything wrong with him, making it even wierder. He didn't admit that he was restless after sleeping three hours and bouncing around a basketball all night, so I don't know. Perhaps he was spending too much time worrying about blogs.

Ultimately, as much as I tend to advocate Arenas not shooting as much, the reality is that the Wizards need him to consistently score 25+ to win. That doesn't mean the Wizards should be over-reliant on Arenas--after all, Dallas has won 8 in a row and they need Dirk to score 25+ to win--but it just means that Arenas has to bring it every night. Nobody can really win against anyone if their star scores 3 points, and if there is a positive to take away from this, it's that the Wizards did hang around without Arenas and Antawn Jamison playing well. At least Caron Butler finally showed that he can be a monster.

Obviously, it looks bad now, and the Wizards are in big trouble. Judging from some of my comments in the game thread, I'm feeling the pain. Still, there are two good pieces of news. First, the Eastern Conference has been horrendous, which opens the door for a nice Wizards run once they play some Eastern Conference foes. Second, as Gilbert Arenas said to Marc Stein here, this isn't so different than last year.

Q: The last time we spoke, you said you thought the Wiz were about a year and a half away from challenging for the East title. But you guys haven't won a road game yet. How concerned are you with this start?

A: With this team, I'm never worried. I've been with this group for three years now and we've been through worse times. Last year, what did we start, 7-14?

(Editor's note II: It was actually 9-14 and 12-18, but you get his point.)

Hopefully, some home-cooking tomorrow should help heal the wounds. As crazy as it sounds, the Wizards don't need to do anything big to get better. All the parts have been there, just at different times and in different games. If they can simply put it all together, things can get better. I'm not saying they will, but as crazy as it sounds, the Wizards picked the right year to start 4-8 and score in the 80s in four road games.

Still, "The Takeover" needs to start tomorrow. Detroit has to be defeated. There is simply no alternative at this point.

GO WIZ

Postgame thoughts? The floor is open to venting.

Wizards 87, Wizards 82: The Real Problem is Clear

With 4:45 left in the third quarter, Tracy McGrady's three pointer gave Houston a 15 point lead. The Wizards then went on a 26-12 run to pull to within one point at 72-71 with 5:43 left in the fourth quarter. This was probably the best offensive stretch the Wizards have had on this road trip. But a second glance at the play-by-play of the stretch reveals the very problem the Wizards' offense has had.

During the stretch, here are the facts.

Number of Gilbert Arenas shots during the stretch: 3
Number of Gilbert Arenas points during the stretch: 4
Number of Gilbert Arenas shots the rest of the game: 23

In those 11 minutes, Arenas shot only 3 of the Wizards 15 field goals and scored only 4 of the team's 26 points. Yet during this two game road trip, Arenas has jacked up 51 of the team's 159 shots. Nearly one third of the Wizards shots on this road trip so far have come from the hands of Gilbert Arenas. This all despite the fact that the Wizards best offensive stretch on this road trip came when Arenas was shooting the least.

The problem, therefore, is clear. If the Wizards do much better when everyone is involved in the offense, why is Arenas shooting the ball so damn much? Where is that Princeton-style rhythm offense that was so good last season? How the hell are the Wizards supposed to win games scoring only 87 and 82 points?

When most basketball pundits analyzed the Wizards' potential problems this year, chief among them was the defense. Well guess what. The defense is doing quite well. The Wizards held Dallas to 40 percent shooting last night, and they held Houston to 41 percent shooting and only 86 points tonight. DeShawn Stevenson has been really solid on the wing, and Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood have given the Wizards some semblance of an inside presence. All should be good. But instead, all is bad.

The Wizards can't win on the road right now because Arenas is taking matters completely into his own hands. The Wizards are never going to win by going down the court and adopting the Arenas attitude, jacking up the first decent look they get. There are certainly times when Arenas' quick-scoring ability will be instrumental. Hell, he almost brought the Wizards back with that bank three in the final seconds. There is a reason why you can rarely count the Wizards out of any game.

But you can't do this for 48 minutes. If all you're doing is jacking up shots with 18 seconds left on the shot clock, no matter how good the shot is, you're incredibly easy to defend. Opponents have to expend very little energy on defense and can therefore focus on attacking a suspect Wizards offense. It's no wonder the Wizards have had three games in the 80s on the road this season.

Here's what needs to happen on offense. Antwan Jamison has his faults, for sure, but he is an extremely difficult matchup off the dribble and off the ball for any power forwards. Jamison is at his best hitting open threes or driving to the lane. Instead, Jamison is simply jacking up mid-range jumpers and missing them at an alarming rate. It's as if Arenas' disease is rubbing off on Jamison, who had previously been one of the league's most efficient scorers.

More importantly, the Wizards must get Caron Butler going. Butler is such a tough matchup off the dribble. He's strong enough to post up most threes, but has too good of a mid-range jumper to lay off him. If you get too close to him, he can take it to the hole and is among one of the best finishers in the game. Butler is also a monster on the offensive glass, and his rebounding has been awesome so far this year. There is no reason why he should not be getting 18 shots every game.

Finally, Antonio Daniels, when he's in the game, needs to be utalized offensively. He's among the best slashers and finishers out there and has become adept at the mid-range jumper. It seems like every time the Wizards make a comeback, it is a Daniels drive and three-point play that catalyzes it.

When Arenas shoots the ball 26 times a game, that means fewer shots for those 4 players. The Wizards offense functions best when Arenas is Option 1, Butler option 1A, and Jamison option 1B. When Daniels is in the game, he is usually option 3. The four of them played off each other
so well last year, so I really don't understand why suddenly it's become this bad. Arenas doesn't strike me as the kind of player who will suddenly become big-headed, making this all the more worse. Quite simply, this has baffled everyone, including me.

Oh, and one more thing. I don't think this is Eddie Jordan's fault. Sure, he's made a couple questionable substitution patterns, but it's not his fault if these guys have concentration lapses. Ivan Carter, in his latest Washington Post chat, said it best.

Didn't this guy just take this franchise, which hadn't pissed a drop in decades, to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons? Am I missing something here? Who do you want to hire? Sam Mitchell? Flip Saunders after he's fired in Detroit? Isiah Thomas? Larry Brown? Bill Fitch? Leonard Hamilton? Gene Shue? Kevin Loughery?

I agree 100 percent. There's nobody out there better at this point.

Anyway, I've aired my grievances, and I'm sure you have some, so I'll step aside for now and let you guys have the floor. Consider this an open forum for complaints thus far. I realize it's the time of year to be thankful, but I'm sure people have a lot to say.

[editor's note]: The title is actually the number of points the Wizards scored in the last two games, not the actual game score tonight. I realize it's pretty misleading, but I was trying to illustrate how bad the Wizards offense has been. It is pretty confusing though]

Wizards 111, Cavaliers 99: Agent Zero Loves Goooold

I guess forgetting to post an open thread is lucky.

Either that, or gold jerseys do something to Gilbert Arenas and the rest of the Wizards, because that was about as satisfying a win as this team has had in a while. The score may be 111-99, but that looks a lot closer than it really was, because Cleveland went on a pointless 14-0 nothing run to close the game.

I said yesterday that despite the loss to Detroit, there were some positive signs. The Wizards shot poorly even by their standards for two straight games, and you had to expect that to turn around simply by the law of averages. The perimeter defense was better Friday, and the Wizards were able to win the rebounding battle. The only thing stopping the Wizards was their own shooting, which was bound to improve after three off nights in a row.

One need not look further than at Arenas to see the difference in shooting yesterday. Arenas was on fire, scoring 45 points and draining 7 of 11 threes. With Larry Hughes injured, there was nobody that could guard Arenas yesterday. Cleveland put LeBron James on Arenas for a stretch, and we all know that the King leaves a little to be desired on the defensive end. Combine all that with the home-court advantage, and it's no surprise that Arenas went off last night.

DeShawn Stevenson was also solid yesterday, with 15 points and really solid perimeter defense. The Wizards did allow Cleveland to shoot 47 percent from the floor, but for the most part, it was guys like Damon Jones and Sasha Pavlovic that had success. Drew Gooden, who gave the Wizards so much trouble in the first matchup, was nowhere to be found. Cleveland also really missed Larry Hughes, who was the real star of the opening day win. The Wizards defended the three well (31 percent) and forced guys like Jones and Pavlovic to beat them. It was a strong defensive scheme and it worked extremely well, especially in the third quarter, where the Wizards made their big run.

I hate to be the guy shooting down all the optimists, but despite blowing out a really good Cavaliers team, the Wizards didn't answer two of the biggest questions surrounding this team.

First, can this team win if Arenas is not shooting the ball well. In the Wizards' four wins this year, Arenas has scored 45, 43, 40, and 29 points. The best teams find ways to win even if their star is having an off night, and I still haven't seen any sign that the Wizards can win if Arenas is struggling. I don't expect Arenas' Jekyll and Hyde routine to continue, but there are going to be plenty of games where he doesn't produce. When that happens, the Wizards need to buckle down and figure out how to grind their way to wins. Caron Butler and Stevenson need to be consistent defensively and still be able to find ways to produce enough offensive scoring.

Secondly, and most importantly, this wasn't a road win. We know the Wizards can destroy even the best teams at home. We know the Wizards shoot better and somehow play much more aggressively in the Verizon Center than they do on the road. Obviously, the Wizards couldn't answer this question tonight, but when you watch this team play at home, it's easy to wonder where this type of effort and scrappiness is when they hit the road. If the Wizards are serious about competing, they need to start winning key road games. This next stretch of games is going to be huge for the Wizards. They desperately need a big win, especially against either Dallas or Houston.

A couple more thoughts:

• I wasn't sure what I thought about the gold jerseys when I first heard about them, but I know now. They're horrendous. Get them out of there. I'm sure UniWatch will be all over these jerseys soon, but I can't understand how gold and black actually makes sense. The colors clash incredibly. A gold jersey like that is blinding on its own, but when you combine it with black, it makes it so much worse. However, if the Wizards contiue to play this well in gold, then I'm all for the unis.
• I'm glad to hear Jarvis Hayes is okay. That spill looked pretty bad, and it was scary to watch him be carted off. Les Bullez is all over Hayes, saying he should have known better than to put himself in that situation. I have to respectfully disagree. There's no way you can expect a competitor like Hayes who is there to bring energy off the bench to suddenly let a guy go right by him. If this was a situation where Cleveland was down 7 with 45 seconds left, where an And 1 would have really hurt, I can understand, but when it's that much of a blowout, the score doesn't even matter anyway. It's unfortunate that Hayes got hurt, but you can't just let someone drive by you without even trying to stop him. I'm happy Jarvis is okay. Now just stop shooting bad jumpers! [edit] Hayes is day-to-day, which probably means he'll miss two months.
  

Postgame thoughts? What did you think of the win?

Pistons 100, Wizards 91: Wizards D Cures Ailing Pistons O in Detroit Win

For nearly four full quarters, the Wizards outplayed Detroit last night, but one 13-0 stretch in the third quarter allowed Detroit to pull away for the 9 point victory last night.

I actually thought the Wizards did a lot of things right yesterday. They shot fairly well from two-point range, held Detroit to 43 percent shooting, and won the rebound battle. But two things really went wrong yesterday that cost the Wizards the game.

First, Detroit was an obscene 8 of 16 from three point range. Tayshaun Price and Rasheed Wallace on their own shot 6 of 9. Prince hit two of those threes during that decisive 13-0 third quarter run. I said the Wizards would struggle to defend Richard Hamilton on the perimeter (and they did), but I expected a better effort defending Tayshaun Prince.

The other thing was that the Wizards shot only 21 free throws. For a team that jacks up as many shots as Washington, they need to get to the line more. Arenas was a main culprit, as he only shot 6 free throws on the night. Without Ben Wallace in the middle, the Wizards have no real excuse to not attack the rim. This is not a characteristic problem, but when you combine it with the inability to defend the perimeter, it becomes a much greater problem.

One of these days, I'm going to devote a post to Antonio Daniels. He's arguably the teams most unsung hero, and it feels like he helps bring the Wizards back from a fourth-quarter deficit every night. He did it again tonight with some awesome drives to the basket, especially in the fourth. If only the Wizards had not created a deficit for themselves.

Overall, it's disappointing to lose, but the Wizards did play better. Detroit needed this one badly and it showed. With Cleveland playing really well right now, the Wizards need to match the desire Detroit had last night in tonight's home contest. Both teams are on a back-to-back, so that cannot be an excuse.

Postgame thoughts? What did you take away from yesterday's loss?

Knicks 102, Wizards 82: Umm...Yeah...

I'm always hesitant to promote intangibles as a primary cause for success or failure, simply because of the danger of over-relying on elements that are difficult to emperically define. However, in light of this performance, I feel pretty confident in saying the following statement.

The Knicks wanted it more than the Wizards tonight.

How else can you explain how the Knicks' second unit, led by David Lee and Renaldo Balkman, outplaying the Wizards starters in the fourth quarter? How else can you explain the Wizards going 36-40 from the free throw line and getting blown out by 20?

Understandibly, the Knicks second unit has arguably been stronger than their first unit, but this has occured mostly against other team's second units. Today, Isaiah Thomas finally played them for extended minutes, and it paid off. Balkman finally got real minutes and he made the most of them. They had more energy on both ends of the floor, and it was contageous. Lee in particular was a beast on the offensive boards, and Balkman was all over the floor offensively and defensively. It's no accident the Knicks pounded the Wizards 52-39 on the boards, held them to 31.5 percent from the field and 0-15 from three-point range.

This kind of felt like one of those mid-majors going up against a Kansas or a North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament. The underdog, with the crowd in its favor, uses the energy and races ahead to a consistent 4-8 point lead for a long period of time. All the while, you sit there thinking sooner or later the better team will get their act together and turn things around. The problem is, the more the underdog, energetic team invariably gains more energy, gets the crowd into it more, and uses that energy to thwart a comeback and potentially turn the game into even more of a blowout. I can remember the crowd being very out of it early on and slowly getting into it when the Knicks were turning it on.

Again, I hate using this analysis, because it's all based on subjective findings and it doesn't help to signify a strong trend. But I have to hand it to the Knicks tonight; they deserved to win by even more and they really shut down the Wizards' offense.

If I can pick out a real trend that is particularly disturbing, it's rebounding again. Do not ignore the importance of rebounding. The Wizards struggled tonight, and it meant that they got blown out despite going to the free throw line so much. The Knicks aren't exactly known as a rebounding powerhouse, which makes tonight's line even more disturbing.

All this makes for an interesting game on Friday against Detroit. Both teams are struggling, and both teams are in about as much of a must-win situation as you can be this early in the season. One thing's for sure though; a loss tonight really hurts the Wizards.

Postgame thoughts? What did you think of tonight's loss? If you need to air some grievances, feel free to let it loose.

Open Thread: Game 6

Regular Season Game 6
Nets (2-2) vs. Wizards (3-2)
Verizon Center
6 PM
News Channel 8, NBA League Pass
Sports Talk 980

The Wizards close their three game homestand against the New Jersey Nets tonight at 6 PM. After sweeping the first two games, the Wizards look to capitalize and go to 3-0 on their homestand tonight.

I apologize for not recapping last night's game, as I've been really busy with college newspaper stuff. Essentially, the Milwaukee Bucks are the Wizards lite, except that they don't have a certified #2 and #3 options at this point. Their frontcourt has promise, but has been soft as a donut all season. They give Washington problems offensively because Michael Redd is the single most underrated player in basketball. Now that he scored 57 points to just keep his team in the game yesterday, people will understand. He only had 28 against the Wizards, but his drives allowed a guy like Dan Gadzuric to get 6 offensive rebounds and score 15 points. It speaks to Milwaukee's terribly inept perimeter defense that the Wizards were able to get back into this game and win it. In the end, the Bucks were only 4 of 18 from three-point range, which allowed the Wizards to escape with a win.

Nets blogs: Nothin' But Nets, Joe Nets Fan, Matt McQueen's Nothin' But Nets

The big news for this game is that the Nets will be without Richard Jefferson for a significant amount of time after he sprained his ankle against Miami on Friday. They are saying 2-4 weeks right now, but it's a Grade 2 sprain, meaning RJ could miss as much as 7 or 8 weeks. No matter how severe the injury is, he won't play tonight, which robs the Nets of a key offensive threat.

Without Jefferson, the Nets become infinently easier to defend. Throw two defenders at Vince Carter, stop Jason Kidd on the fast break, and force them to beat you with a million Nenad Kristic jumpers, and the Nets can be stopped. Marcus Williams has been very solid so far, but he's not the type of guy you have to desperately worry about. The Nets will start Antoine Wright tonight, and I don't expect him to be such a big threat in the offense.

On the other side of the ball, New Jersey actually had a pretty solid defense last year, although much of that has to do with Jefferson's perimeter quickness. Jason Kidd used to be a great defender, but he's lost a lot of his quickness. The Nets have an underrated interior defense, but they are still prone to quick guards like Dwayne Wade, who consistently torches them when the Heat and Nets play. Gilbert Arenas and company are exactly the type of players the Nets hate to defend.

In the end, I expect another Wizards win in a game that should be their best all-around performance of the season.

Prediction: Wizards 98, Nets 86

And, as a final reminder, I'm giving you guys until tomorrow to send in your Brendan Haywood trade proposals. Keep 'em coming.

Wizards 117, Pacers 91: That Was Refreshing

It's true that Jermaine O'Neal was out of the lineup, but the Wizards win last night was still very impressive on all fronts. I didn't really expect Indiana to keep up with the Wizards' guards, but there were a number of other things the Wizards did well that I didn't expect at all.

For one, this was probably the Wizards' best defensive game that I can remember. Understandably, O'Neal was out, but the Wizards still held Indiana to 38 percent shooting and 4 for 19 from three-point range. Considering how poorly the Wizards usually defend the perimeter, this is an extremely encouraging sign. DeShawn Stevenson finally showed why the Wizards got him in the offseason, as he completely took Stephen Jackson out of the game. Granted, this is Stephen Jackson we're talking about, but Jackson's 5 point, 2 for 9 performance is still way below even his standards. The Pacers simply never got it going on the perimeter, and Stevenson deserves a lot of credit for that.

The other surprising development was the play of Brendan Haywood. Only two days after fighting with Etan Thomas and prompting this blogger to ask his readers for trade proposals, Haywood had easily his best game of the season with 9 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 24 minutes. Apparently, at least for the short term, Haywood has used that fight to motivate him to play better. As a 7 footer off the bench ,this is exactly the type of role Haywood can play when he's playing well. In past years, it felt like the team was hoping for Haywood to develop into a double-figure scorer in the post, but now that Thomas has beat him out, the focus has shifted for him. Hopefully, the adjustment will get Haywood to continue to play well.

With home games coming up against Milwaukee and New Jersey and a road game against the Knicks, the Wizards have a great chance to go into Detroit on a 4 game winning streak. At some point, you have to wonder why the Wizards play so much better at home than on the road, but it's still early and the Wizards are only a few points away from being undefeated.

In other news, Gilbert Arenas has an explanation for the robe he wore on opening night.

I was planning on doing it last year, but I just thought the way this year was going, it’s just The Takeover. I’m trying be mentioned. If I came out in that robe and had a bad game, they was gonna make fun of me. That’s how I was getting pumped for the game. I want all of this to come back on me. A lady made it for me for my birthday two years ago. I used to use it when I used to beat Chucky Atkins in dominoes. I used to come out to the gym after I’d beat him and I’d say, “I’m the king!” and I’d hold the belt. And Chucky used to die laughing from it.

Again, Arenas is at the point where he can do whatever he wants as long as it works. There's nothing he could do that would surprise me at this point.

Finally, as a final reminder, keep sending in possible Brendan Haywood trades. So far, I've gotten a lot of interesting ideas, but keep thinking for the next week and I'll decide which one I like best.

Postgame thoughts? What are your impressions from yesterday's win?

Magic 106, Wizards 103: Armchair NBA Analysts, Listen Up!

Had you told me prior to the start of the game that Jameer Nelson and Dwight Howard would have combined for only 15 points, I would have asked you whether the Wizards won by 10 or by 20. Alas, thanks to the duo of Carlos Arroyo and Keyon Dooling, Les Bullez lost by 3 to the Orlando Magic tonight.

I guess if there's any good that can come from this game, it's that perceptive people can finally realize what's really wrong with the Wizards defense. Those people that think the Wizards defense will only get better if there is a physical Ben Wallace-like presence inside need to stop it. Etan Thomas showed today that, when healthy, he can be a really good defensive presence inside. The problem is much more basic than that.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. The bottom line is, the Wizards' perimeter defenders give up way too many open shots.

The Wizards struggle so much with getting through screens and general lack of concentration. There's no reason that Carlos Arroyo and Keyon Dooling should be getting all those open looks. The Wizards emphasized improving on the ball defense by signing DeShawn Stevenson, but he struggles to get through screens and allows too many open looks for his man. Same with Caron Butler, who would be a phenomenal defender if he scaled down his gambling a little bit.

Through the first three games, this has been a recurring theme. Wizards opponents have shot at least 47 percent in every game, and the opponent's three-point percentage has gone up every game. There's absoultely no reason the Wizards should have lost today, but their inability to grasp the finer points of defense cost them once again. As long as Etan Thomas is healthy and the Wizards are outrebounding a team with Dwight Howard and Darko, the interior defense is fine. But when Carlos Arroyo and Keyon Dooling are keying a fourth quarter run from the outside, that's a major problem.

Can this be corrected? I think that Wizards fans need to be patient. For the Wizards to truely be a stout perimeter halfcourt defensive unit, they need to start getting away from the gambling perimeter game that has dominated the team in the last two years. Sure, it's nice when Arenas and Butler get easy steals and dunks, but we may need to see fewer of those for the defense to really improve. For every time that one of them gets a steal by jumping the screen, there are two or three times where their man will run a simple fade cut and get an easy jumper. These habits are hard to shake, especially when there's a stigma that forcing turnovers is necessary to mask the apparent lack of size inside. It'll take time for the Wizards perimeter defenders to fully get it, especially when it seems like their gambling is encouraged to some degree.

It may be worth it for the Wizards to make a move to get a veteran perimeter role player to help those guys figure it out, but I don't know how possible that is at this point. For now, let's hope the perimeter guys can do a better job of preventing open looks, because that is clearly the problem.

I was going to end this here, but I just saw this news item that made me cringe. Haywood and Thomas apparently have a history, but this is still unacceptable at this point. I really don't know what to do with Haywood. On the one hand, how many teams can trot out a legitimate 7 footer with his contract and length. On the other hand, he kills the Wizards offense when he's in there, and he has a horrible attitude. It may be time to get rid of him, but the Wizards need to be careful to make sure that they get good value in return, because 7 footers aren't easy to find. Maybe Memphis will be willing to give Stromile Swift for him. Who knows?

Postgame thoughts? What are your impressions from tonight's loss? Also, throw out some Brendan Haywood trade possibilities.

Wizards 124, Celtics 117: I liike wiin. It's niice.

As if it needed to be proved again, Gilbert Arenas showed why you can never count him out for too long. After going 2 for 12 and scoring only 7 points against Cleveland, he eruped for 44 points on only 14 made field goals to lead the Wizards to the win in their home opener.

This is your classic Washington Wizards high-scoring victory. They were nearly unstoppable in spurts, especially during the key third-quarter run to make it a double-digit game. However, they were also sloppy at times, allowing Boston way too many open looks. The Wizards needed practically every one of the 93 points the Big 3 put up to win this one.

I didn't watch the whole game, but from what I saw, here's what I liked and didn't like.

I liiiike


-The offense: Well, duh. When I talk about the Wizards' Big 3 clicking on all cylinders, this is what I'm talking about. How often will a team have a guy who scores 44 points, another who nearly gets 30, and a third who gets 20? It speaks to the efficiency of the Big 3 that they're able to all score so many points at the same time. I realize Boston is among the worst defensive teams in basketball, but if they score 73 points combined instead of 93, that will be enough to beat most teams.

-Forced turnovers: The Wizards, for the second game in a row, forced a ton of turnovers, stealing 11 balls and converting on 23 Celtic turnovers. That proved to be the difference in the game. Obviously, this has something to do with the Wizards' gambling style, but if you can force as many turnovers as you do, it can help to disguise a terrible defensive effort.

-Antonio Daniels: I can't stress enough how important a player Daniels is. He can play either the one or the two off the bench and provides solid veteran leadership and defense. Most importantly, Daniels is dynamite instant offense. Because of his slashing and driving nature, he can be counted on for production every game. He gets to the line, doesn't turn it over, and shoots really well from the free-throw line. When the Wizards start to fall into shooting too many jumpers, Daniels is always there to save them.

I nooo liiike

-The open looks: 52 percent from the field? 48 percent from three-point range? All this to the Celtics? This is a problem. Against Cleveland, I actually think the Wizards did a good job of preventing open looks, as I feel like Cleveland (especially Larry Hughes) just hit some tough shots. Tonight, though, it didn't seem like that. There's no way Wally Szczerbiak should have 33 points on 10 of 16 shooting. The Wizards don't really have the big defensive presence necessary to completely shut down the paint (although Brendan Haywood did have 3 blocks), but they can more easily control open shots. Too often, guys were trailing their defenders off the ball, allowing the guy coming off the screen an easy jump shot. This was something that was a point of emphasis all throughout training camp, so it's even more disconcerting to see.

-Rebounding: Understandibly, the Wizards don't have the horses to pound opponents on the glass. However, you have to be able to at least hold your own on the glass to be able to kick-start your high-octane attack. If you don't have the ball, you really can't score. The Celtics should not be outrebounding the Wizards by 15 without arguably their best rebounder in Theo Ratliff. Thomas, for all of the things he does well, does not rebound particularly well on the defensive glass. He should be grabbing way more than 6 rebounds.

-The minutes: Arenas, Jamison, and Butler all played more than 38 minutes last night. If they do that every game, they're going to tire easily. Eddie Jordan needs to show more confidence in guys like Roger Mason, Andray Blatche, and Donnell Taylor in future games. If they can each provide 10 solid minutes, that means more rest for the Big 3

Overall, a win's a win, but it could have been much better.

As for Borat, it's a must see. It's pretty tasteless, but who didn't expect it to be? If you know what to expect, you should love it.

Postgame thoughts? What are your impressions from yesterday's win?

Cleveland 97, Washington 94: Welcome Back, Inconsistency!

The calendar may have turned, but there was a distinct flavor of 2005/06 season and the 2006 playoffs in the game tonight. At times, the Wizards showed us why they're one of the up and coming teams in the league, but they also had a lot of bad moments.

As a whole, though, I wasn't too upset. Gilbert Arenas isn't going to shoot 2 for 14 very much this season, and the rest of the team played pretty well as a whole. Here's what else I took away from this game.

• The Wizards need to get to the rim more in road games. Last year, the Wizards resorted too often to shooting jumpers on the road and seem allergic to the rim. Tonight was no exception, as they didn't consistently get to the line until the fourth quarter. Arenas in particular was the biggest culprit, shooting only two free throws in the game. Getting to the line will be the difference between winning the close road games and losing them.

• As long as they stay healthy, Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood will be a competent duo in the middle. Both played well in stretches during the game.

• Jarvis Hayes had a good game, but why is he the one shooting the biggest shot of the game? Why not Arenas or Butler?

• Cleveland is going to be really good. Larry Hughes had a big game and Drew Gooden was awesome on the boards tonight. They played a really strong game tonight, with the exception of their sloppy stage in the second quarter. The fourth quarter was more of the Wizards finally getting it offensively, and Hughes and James were out at points during the Wizards' run.
  

• As important as the Big 3 are, the Wizards cannot afford an injury to Antonio Daniels. His driving to the rim and solid ball-handling is invaluable and it was the reason the Wizards started their comeback.

• I can't believe Jamison missed that shot.
  

Next up is Boston on Saturday in the home opener. Let's see if they can fix the problems of this game.

Postgame thoughts? What did you think of the loss?

Wizards are apparently less sleepy than Bobcats

The Wizards and the Bobcats played a preseason game at 10 AM (seriously, 10 AM!) this morning, with the Wizards coming out on top 100-91 despite turning the ball over 26 times. Apparently, the two teams needed to play for the local-area Charlotte schools, and the only time that would work was 10 AM. Naturally, I wonder what those kids were doing watching a basketball game at 10 AM instead of being in school, but the question apparently never was considered by the organizers of the game.

Other than Antwan Jamison having a monster game with 22 points, there's not much to report here. Etan Thomas got the start at center, but neither he nor Brendan Haywood played much during the game. Caron Butler had his strongest game of the preseason with 17 points in 18 minutes. Donnell Taylor turned the ball over an astounding 8 times, hurting his quest to earn the backup point guard spot. Gilbert Arenas and Jarvis Hayes didn't play, with Hayes sitting out because of a sprained ankle. Hayes' injured ankle certainly doesn't sound good considering his past history, but I think he'll end up being okay.

Now that 4 games have been played, what's been good and bad at Bullets training camp?

The Good:

-Starting Lineup: As Michael Lee and Ivan Carter note, the Wizards have outscored their opponents by 14 points in the first and third quarter of games, the time when starters are usually on the floor. The Big 3 in particular have had really strong showings this preseason. Gilbert Arenas opened the preseason by dropping 29 in 29 minutes against the Raptors and has been very strong when on the floor. More importantly, the Black President has showed a willingness to improve his defense, as evident by his insistence on guarding LeBron James in the Wizards' win over the Cavs on Friday. Antwan Jamison, featured in this article, had a big game today and seems to be carrying the momentum from his Team USA performance over to the preseason. Caron Butler, when playing, has been a solid third scorer, and has proven to be one of the team's most consistent options. As for newcomer DeShaun Stevenson, wait until the next point.

-The shooting guards: This was point #1 for me on my list of things to watch in the preseason, and the results so far have been more than encouraging. I'm becoming more and more convinced that signing DeShawn Stevenson for the veterans minimum may prove to be the steal of the offseason. Stevenson seems to be exactly what this team needs. With Arenas, Jamison, and Butler providing more than enough scoring on their own, the Wizards didn't need more offense. When Stevenson is out there, he is a tough, physical, lock-down defender in the Bruce Bowen mold, and is a much better fit for this team than Jared Jeffries ever was. He's even shown a solid outside touch, hitting on over 50 percent of his shots in the preseason.

Jarvis Hayes, meanwhile, has also had a big preseason. He nearly led the Wizards to a win over Toronto in the fourth quarter of the preseason opener and has averaged a solid 8 points in only 16 minutes per game. We've been down this path before with Hayes, and every time he seems to gain momentum, he gets hurt or shows inconsistency. With that being said, he's still very young and, if he can stay healthy, he will provide really strong scoring punch off the bench.

With Stevenson blending in easily with the starters and Hayes showing that he could be a potential 6th man candidate, the shooting guard spot, which seemed unsettled entering training camp, has now become a potential strength.

-The defense: Granted, it's preseason, but the Wizards have held each of their opponents below 95 points and 45 percent shooting from the field. That's a good sign no matter how you slice it.

The bad:

-Andray Blatche-Granted, the youngster had a very good game today, shooting 4-7 from the field and scoring 8 points in limited minutes. Prior to today's game, however, Blatche has been struggling. His stats prior to today's game have been ugly to say the least. He's shooting under 20 percent (5-28) from the field, committing turnovers at an ungodly rate (3 per game), and averaging nearly as many fouls (4) as rebounds (5). With the injury to Darius Songalia, the Wizards have given Blatche many opportunities to succeed, but he just hasn't been able to carry over his strong summer league performances to the preseason. Hopefully, today's game can be a turnaround, because he may find himself back in the D-League with more poor performances.

-Darius Songalia-The Wizards' top free agent signing continues to be out of action with his back injury. On the first day of camp, the team expected this to be a day-to-day thing, but here we sit over two weeks later and Songalia is still injured. There's no denying that Songalia's offensive game is tailor-made for Eddie Jordan's system, but unlike fellow newcomer Stevenson, Songalia hasn't gotten the opportunity to get used to the system. If Songalia's back continues to bother him, the Wizards may be forced to play more of Michael Ruffin, who should not ever be playing more than 5 minutes a game. With Blatche's poor preseason and Songalia's injury, the Wizards haven't really had the chance to develop the frontcourt depth they desperately need.

Overall, I'm liking this preseason so far. Despite the problems of Blatche and Songalia, the Wizards are proving to be a much deeper team than they were last year. Gilbert's dedication to defense also is incredibly encouraging, and the starting lineup looks to be clicking already. Barring a serious injury to a top player, the Wizards will enter the 2006/07 season with their best team in 25 years.

Bonus stuff...The NBA Blog Previews keep rolling along. Be sure to check out these awesome previews for Detroit (Need4Sheed and Detroit Bad Boys), Indiana (Donning Craig Sager's Suit), Milwaukee (5 Point Bucks), and Denver (The Nugg Doctor). Each of them predicted an over .500 record for their teams, which, at this point, is hardly shocking to me.....Blog-A-Bull is still in limbo with the decision to accept my wager. I'm eagerly waiting for Matt to stand up for his team and pull the trigger. There's nothing like a little friendly blog rivalry between two fanatic team bloggers. Well, maybe if we were actual professional athletes...

What's your feeling on Bullets training camp thus far?

The preseason keeps on rolling along...

Another day, another meaningless preseason loss for the Wizards, as they fell to the Chicago Bulls 87-86 on Tuesday. The Wiz were leading 86-81 with a minute and a half left until the Bulls put the clamps down defensively and eventually took the lead on an Andre Barrett jumper with 17 seconds left. Roger Mason missed the chance to give the Wizards the win, and the team dropped to 0-2 on the season.

This game was much less interesting and important for the Wizards, as they rested Caron Butler and played Gilbert Arenas and Antwan Jamison 14 and 15 minutes respectively. The Wizards team that was on the floor for the late-game collapse was mostly composed of deep reserves and guys that may not even make the team.

So what can we learn from this game?

-Jarvis Hayes continued his strong preseason with a solid 11 points in only 18 mintes. Ivan Carter obviously believes this is a big story, as he devoted much of his beat article today to Hayes.

-The story essentially was the same for the Bulls game as it was for the Raptors. When the first unit was in the game, the Wizards were a much better team. Once it got down to the reserves, it was a bit of a different story.

Donnell Taylor played a lot of minutes and scored 12 points, but Eddie Jordan was not too happy with his decision-making. This may become a slight problem, because I think Jordan was expecting Taylor to step in and be able to log some minutes this year as Arenas' backup. The Wizards kind of lack that pure point guard, and while Arenas, Antonio Daniels, and Taylor all have point-guard ability, none of them really are distributors. This makes you wonder whether taking Marcus Williams over Oleksey Pecherov may have been the right decision.

Andray Blatche showed more flashes of ability, but still was extremely inconsistent. He grabbed 5 rebounds on the defensive end, but shot only 2 for 9 from the field and somehow found a way to foul out. This isn't summer league, Andray. You don't get unlimited fouls. Ultimately, Blatche probably will take a while to become a real contributor this season. The Wizards should continue to bring him along slowly and hope he can make some noise late in the season.

The reserves as a whole shot 34 percent from the field against Chicago, which is not such a great sign. Mike Hall and Roger Mason struggled all game, shooting a combined 3 for 14. This is not a major concern, but one of the two will likely make the team, making their performances slightly troubling.

Enough preseason, though! I remind everyone of the 10 commandments of the preseason, decreed by Blazers Edge.

Some more Wiz news...

-Antonio Daniels hurt his ankle in practice and is listed as day-to-day. This doesn't sound too serious, but then again, Darius Songalia was also day-to-day early in camp and he's still out with the back injury. Daniels seemed to be playing really well in training camp this year, so let's hope this doesn't set him back anymore.

-The Washington Times is reporting that Peter John Ramos is "not in our plans," according to Ernie Grunfeld. This is pretty sad, actually, because PJM was the brunt of a lot of blogosphere jokes. As far as his playing ability, I trust Ernie Grunfeld, but how in the world can a 7 foot 3 guy on a team starving for physical play not make it? I guess Ramos has absolutely no basketball ability. The article also reports that James Lang is getting a real look for the third center's job, and judging from his playing time yesterday, that makes plenty of sense. Lang is smaller than Ramos, standing only 6'10,'' but he fits in better with the Wizards' scheme.

-Dan Steinberg has even more Gilbert Arenas stuff up today, with a post featuring 10 of the funniest Gilbert Arenas moments of all time. More stuff can be found at this article he linked in the entry. While I think we may be hyping up Arenas' quirkiness a little too early in the season, I loved hearing most of these stories. However, this is by far the best line.

I'm now willing to argue that our humble little market has either the best, most famous or weirdest young star in virtually every pro team sport: from Ovie (best) to Adu (most famous) to Gil and Portis (weirdest). Bloggers go to sleep happy at night with a foursome like that. Thanks, Stealth. Seriously, thanks. And thanks, Esquire.

Truer words have never been spoken. Thank you Dan for putting all our thoughts into words.

-In case you haven't noticed already, Dan and I were both linked on Deadspin today in this post.

-YaySports' Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Blog Preview is up now. Go over to see the Cavaliers fan drink the Queen James coolaid. I like Cleveland this year, but 58 wins? That's pretty bold, if you ask me. Still, I agree that Cleveland could easily be the best team in the league...until they get the Wiz in Round 2 and fall for real this time.

-While the Wizards-Bulls tilt last night may have been a close game, it was not nearly as competitive and nasty as this old clip from a couple years ago. Enjoy this brawl from the 2005 preseason.



What are your thoughts on the Bulls preseason result?

By the way, in case you were wondering, the guy in the picture up at the top is not me.