Hibachi on Mild

Did the Agent known as Zero hit a spectacular 3 pointer to get the Wizards to overtime? Absolutely, and I loved it. Would the Wizards have been in that position if they had hit a few more of their free throws? Probably not. Hitting a couple more from the field wouldn't have hurt ither. As mentioned by Dave at the Washington Wizards blog, "36% [from the field] will not win games...". I couldn't agree more. The shooting was pretty horrendous. They actually ended the night with a True Shooting percentage of about 44.9%, not exactly NBA caliber. The Wizard with the hightest TS% was none other than Haywood, who finished the night with 10 points, going 4-8 from the field and hitting half of his 4 free throws (team TS% last night). Not exactly surprising given the absence of an interior defender on the Pacers, but when Haywood is our most efficient scorer, we aren't going to win a lot of games. Still, this was the first game of the season but it wasn't pretty. With O'Neal out, the Wizards should have had a 12 point lead throughout the game. Even after Gil hit that shot, I didn't feel like the tide had turned. My feelings were confirmed when shot after shot fell off the rim as OT slipped by. Even Jamison, who finished 27 points behind Gil's 34 was clanking them all night long. Dunleavy's 3 at the end absolutely put the nail in the coffin, and just like that, the Wizards start off right were they were last year, losing on the road. I hope that is where the similarities end.

Before I end this post, I want to talk about the defense. I noticed that we were having a problem with that 3rd or sometimes 4th swtich to get to the open guy on the wing. Blatche seemed to be sticking to his assignment pretty well and helping when he was supposed to and Stevenson was his usual self until banging that knee, but I didn't see a lot of great defense from anyone else on the team. Yes, we had our moments of some great team D, but we need to be more consistent. The Pacers seemed to be able to find the open man almost at will. Then when we started collapsing to stop the outside shots, the middle was left wide open, espeically toward the end of the game where we really needed a stop. If Marquis Daneils is able to drive on us, what are the Celtics going to do on Friday night? Like I said, I saw some hints of great D, I would just like to see it more often.

Now, about the Celtics. We need Haywood to come out real strong. KG is gonna get his points and he's gonna get his boards, but if we can get even 12-10 from the big guy, and our shooting gets better, we can take the game in Boston and spoil the homecoming.