My Swog is Phenomenal

Wizards Win 2nd of 4 Quarters Versus Pistons!!

2008-11-02T00:04:00.000-07:00

That's Right!!! We WON!!!!.....the SECOND QUARTER!!! WHOOO HOOO!!!!! Man that quarter was awwwwwwe-some!!!!!!!! It was like, we were good!!! and stuff. Check this out, you aren't going to believe it. It totally says the Wizards beat the Pistons! By 11 points in the second quarter! Who CARES about the other 3!!! I mean, ONE GOOD QUARTER!!!!!!!! Check out these splediferous stat lines, they is down right NASTY! (Oh yeah, I said it.)

Player	FG	3pt	Assist	+/-
Nick Young	4-4	0-0	1	+11
Caron Butler	3-4	0-1	2	+13
Antawn Jamison	3-5	1-2	0	+16
Juan Dixon	3-4	1-2	2	+18

stats from popcornmachine.net)

Notice the highest +/- right therr? That therr is Juan Dixonrrrrrrrrrr NO FUCKIN WAY! Juan Dixon? Holy Crap!?! You know, everyone said he could shoot, but damn!!! 3-4 from the field and 1-2 from behind the arc?!?! That's about a 66% shooting percentage! That's good enough to be the 2nd best scorer on the Wizards! In the second quarter....!!! Nick Young was PHE-NOMA-NOMA-INAL!! That's two NOMA's!!! I don't even know what a NOMA is (currently a tie between a disease caused by malnutrition or THIS Danish restaurant (Danish like from Norway, not danish like the breakfast pastry.))

And duuuuuude!!! You shoulda seen the defense. It was awesome. There was aggressiveness, quickness, agility, talking, and even some sick blocks. Your typical Etan Thomas elbows flew around, but this time, he really meant it. And ALLLLL of it, and I mean ALLL the good stuff was in the 2nd quarter!!

Okay, I think that's enough with the exclamation points. But if I may take an aside for a brief moment (rhetorical questions...the manna of bloggers everywhere). What the HELL happened in quarters 1 and 3? And to a lesser but no less serious or inconsequentially bad extent, the fourth quarter?? How many big words can I fit into such a long winded sentence without trying? The first quarter, the Wizards, as a team, shot 33% from the field and was only 1-4 from behind the arc. The 3rd and 4th we were around 50%, which was nice, but it all came from jump-shots and there was very little passing of the ball. In other words, it was a lot of:

Deshawn/Daniels/Young brings up the ball.
Run the Princeton weave above the arc.
Get ball to Caron/Antawn or Young/Stevenson to make something for themselves.

Kinda reminds me of this.

That's it. I've figured out the Wizards offense. Now I must say, during the second quarter, I do not necessarily think we played much better than the 3rd or 4th (the first was truly terrible, really, it wasn't pretty), however, in the 2nd, the shots fell. There was no more driving, cutting, or looks inside than there were later in the game, we simply made more shots. And by the way, isn't shooting coach Randy Ayers still with the team? I mean, why are we missing SO MANY shots? Yeah, Detroit's D was good, but they didn't contest ALL the shots we missed. (I wonder where I can find numbers on that????)

If we could just get more shots to fall, and drive inside a bit more, I think we could win some games. One thing I think could help is a lineup change. I know it's too early now, but I just don't think what we start out with on the court is going to pan out in the long run until Arenas comes back. I say you can keep Daniels at the point, unless Nick strings together a run of "super duper that was so awesome I need to go to the pooper" games, at which point I would say try the switch, especially if Arenas' return is delayed. I know it's not his best position, but I gots to leave Stevenson in at the 2. He's streaky, I know, but he's been pretty good on average, and I can take that. Besides, he can't feel his face. I stick with Caron and Antawn at 3 and 4, but at 5, I really gotta pull Etan Thomas.

Dear Etan,

I like you dude, seriously, your energy is awesome and the fact that you came back so quickly is a testament to how hard you worked, but there is this minor issue of you not being able to put the ball in the basket from within 3 feet. I know you may eventually get there, and with Haywood out you will see plenty of playing time off the bench, but unless you figure it out soon, we gotta replace you. I know it may suck to be replaced by JaVale "Gumby" McGee or Andray "the Tease" Blatche, but if we don't get some interior scoring, it's going to make it tough to even make the playoffs. I mean, have you seen the Sixers? Or the Raptors? Or the Celtics or Hawks? Forget about Rose in Chicago or Wade, Marion and Beasley in Miami??!?! So with that, score some points in the paint for please sit down.

Thanks buddy!

--
Me

Yes, I'd replace Etan Thomas with McGee or Blatche. (BTW, thank the Pistons announcers for "the Teaser"). Probably Blatche first because he's got more experience, but if McGee could realize some of that potential real fast and put on a couple pounds so he doesn't get pushed around like Dust in the Wind, I really think he could help. I'm not even totally sold myself, still lots of time to see if these starting five can pull out something that resembles a win.

So now the Wizards head up to Milwaukee on Wednesday to play the 1-2 Bucks. What to expect? I have no idea. Seriously, I'd love to see a win, but by the looks of the slow start we're havin, I'd be happy with just winning two out of four quarters.

PS - He's mad! He's mad! He's really, really mad! (ok, that's an exaggeration and also a bad rip-off from the King of Pop).

(I must also thank this guy for his tips on tables in blogs)

...And We're Back

2008-10-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

That's right, the Swog is back. It's a new season, and I know all of you missed my high school humor and super duper wit. Plus, I couldn't stay away, blogging is an addiction. Not like crack er nothin, that's gross and really bad for you (I hear). It's more like being addicted to the Orange Chicken at Panda Express. I mean, that shit is really good. I tell myself I don't need it, but I'm just foolin myself. Of course I do.

Maybe they sprinkle the crack into the sauce!

And you know what else? I need to blog. I need to talk about the Wizards, the NBA, and every once in a while, really dumb shit that bothers me, and every other once in a while when I'm not blogging about shit that bugs me, I'll talk about hot cheerleaders. Everybody loves hot cheerleaders. But the Wizards played a game last night, first one of the season, and I made sure to watch every second. What follows is an almost true account of what transpired.

I ate a burrito during the second quarter. It was good. It was during this time the Wizards started to play particularly well. Or so it seemed. The first quarter had been filled with some made 3's and a couple 18 footers to go along with our 3-10 shooting under the rim. After such a poor performance, I felt like some guacamole was necessary. Some hot sauce too. So I opened the little hot sauce container, unrolled my burrito and proceeded to pour said hot sauce onto said burrito. Same with the guac. Now comes the re-wrap. During this time, EJ was throwin some spicy chicken at his players, explaining to them that they need to get to the rim. Maybe it wasn't spicy chicken. But
I found some on my shorts so I figured it had to have been him. Whatever he said to (or threw at) them, it worked, because the 2nd quarter was mucho better. Blatche calmed down, ET stopped trying to look for shots and became a facilitator, and Jamison actually HIT a 3-pointer (his first and only of the game). Although the Wizards were only up by two at this point, they were doing a much better job defending in the paint, allowing only 2 baskets on 5 attempts. You do know why, right? It was my burrito. Burrito-power. But anyway, I was about half-way through my burrito when half-time rolled around but I was pretty stuffed, so I decided to take a burrito break.

And you can too. Please take 2 minutes and 31 seconds of your time to learn the history of the word burrito from my favorite schoolteacher and yours, Hot For Words.

...I didn't know either, don't feel bad.

So back to the game. When the second half began, so too did the reconquest of my burrito. But something didn't look right in the 3rd quarter. Maybe it was that our 2nd basket didn't come until 6:09 in? Or maybe it was that the first had been nearly 5 minutes prior? Perhaps it was the guacamole/bean/burrito juice on my shorts? Or maybe it was the Nets' 6-7 shooting inside the paint. Nah, it was probably Jamison's 4 missed 3-pointers. It definitely was not the rumble in my stomach screaming Hibachi! (In fact, it was a slow mumble, something like "doooooop" or "chuuuuute", I couldn't tell). Whatever it was, it was sucking. But my burrito was still good, so I hadn't lost hope. It's the first game of a LONG season, and we were playing the Kifferson-less Nets (ahhh, but you say they themselves were playing the Areewood-less Wizards, and you would be correct, and I would hate you for it). But seriously folks, what happened? We seemed to have a plan in the first half, and in the 2nd, everything seemed to not work. But what was worse, was when plays didn't work, everyone would stand around and wait for whomever had the ball to do something. I think I saw MAYBE 3-4 cuts through the lane when plays stopped working. I will say this. JaVale McGee can friggin rebound. And block too. I swear, you could tie sheets to that dude's arms and legs and para-glide his ass all the back to Barcelona. We missed all 7 shots around the arc on the right side of the court and only made 2 on the left side. Although they went 4-7 inside the paint, the Nets simply dominated the 3rd quarter. But you know what? I'm used to that. The Wizards wouldn't be the Wizards if they didn't slack off in the third quarter after playing a particularly good half. So I continued watching. And eating. (Yeah, it's a large burrito, so what?).

1/1000000 scale

The 4th quarter was not much better. 4-11 from the field, 1-5 behind the arc, 14 total rebounds and -386 assists. We got close, but in the end, that VC 3-pointer sealed the deal. I was upset. My burrito was gone, the Wizards had lost their season opener, at home no less, and soon, I was gonna have to make a trip to the bathroom real soon. I simply HAD to read the newest Maxim. I know it's a very long season, and truthfully, I think the Wizards played well, they are simply rusty. I wish EJ could figure out a way around that, cause it seems like it happens every year. We overcame a rough start last year, but I didn't wear my jersey and I couldn't even attend this year, so it HAS to be different.

Overall, I like McGee. I liked him when I saw him in Vegas at Summer League and in pre-season, and I liked that EJ had enough confidence to put him in tonight. Dee Brown made some nice passes, but I'm still undecided. He was ok at Summer League, but not great. I'll be happy when Gil is back. Juan Dixon wasted 5 possessions by chucking up shots, only going 1-4 from the field and o'fer 2 from behind the arc. I would have liked to see DMac in the game a bit more. I know he's not a scorer, but he always seems to have a positive affect when he's on the floor (I will prove this, one day). Jamison needs to either hit 3's or stop taking them, one or the other. He was ice cold tonight. As a team, we need to pass more. The 18 assist total simply will not cut it. We rarely win when the assist total is under 20. Committing 15 turnovers and going 37% from the field didn't help either. But like I said, I'm not worried (yet). I've got plenty of time to worry before Gil comes back.

It was fun speaking to you all again. I hope you enjoyed my burrito as much as I did. Now I have to go recycle it.

Fan-Friggin-Tastic

2008-09-17T15:24:00.001-07:00

They do say 3rd time's a charm...if you haven't heard, Gil has knee surgery numero tres.

Bye, Bye Cleveland

2008-05-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

OVER. Enjoy your summer.

Who says I can't talk shit?

I Need This. WE, Need This.

2008-04-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

As I awoke to the buzzing of my alarm this morning, the normally bright sunshine that is omnipresent around southern California was nowhere to be found. Today, according to Accuweather, was to be cloudy and cold (relatively speaking, a high of 55 with mild wind isn't bad on that other coast). But there was something else wrong this morning when I woke up, and it wasn't because I was in some strangers hotel bathroom or felt like I might have been missing a kidney, no, this wrong-ness felt more Wizard related.

I think I'm legitimately worried. It's the first time this post-season that I felt unsure of the Wizards chances (the last time I felt this dismayed was watching Gil miss those 2 free throws). I have always stood by them, believing unflinchingly in their ability to win. I even picked the Wizards to win in all in a bracket with some friends. Over Boston, over Detroit, over LA and over the Spurs. It was worth the $5 for me show by complete belief in their ability to win. Now, with our backs up against the wall heading into the Q, I am unsure if we can do it. As mentioned by Prada over at BulletsForever, lots of things went wrong in Game 4. There was no individual player, no individual moment, and no individual performance factor that stood out (ok, maybe offensive boards). I was so upset after watching Game 4 that I couldn't even talk about it, let alone blog about it. That last second shot by Gil, all the missed 3's, the missed rebounds, it all weighed on me. I decided later in the day that I had to let that game go. Much like a player, a blogger must learn to move on as well, as does a fan. But how does a player, a blogger, or a fan come back from a loss like that? How do you look at a game where despite losing the rebounding battle badly, despite your poor shooting, and despite mistakes of the other team, you still manage to stay close AND lose? I don't know. That's where I'm at.

Usually I'd sit here and say we have to get aggressive on those boards, but we knew that. Or we have to have better shot selection, or more assists, or sit Stevenson when he's cold, but what will that do? Frankly, I think we have played reasonably well enough to win at least 3 of the 5 games, yet we only have 1 victory. Something has got to change, but I don't even know what it is. I know the Wizards want this win. I know they (myself included) want to beat the Cavs VERY badly. The problem couldn't (and shouldn't) be a lack of desire. So whatever it is they need, I hope they find it.

I, and many other fans, have poured their heart and soul into the club and this year was going to be the year we made it past the Cavs. The year when we could tell Lebron and his rag-tag group of rotating role players that we are not a team to be messed with. That the Wizards are the #1 team in the East, a spot we held briefly when all 3 guys were healthy last season. I still believe in this team, and I hope they do to, cause I swear, I really need this.

PS - Please, please, PLEASE do not let Lebron go baseline this time. I'm begging you!

"When Life Gives you Lemons you Paint that Sh*t Gold"

2008-04-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

Thank you Atmosphere for naming your album with such a pertinent saying, I need it for this blog post! (Side note: got a BWD last Saturday, Blogging While Drunk. It was just a warning this time, but it can get you in some real trouble, like fired).

When I originally watched game 2, everything blurred together and all I remembered was that we played a terrible (insert Charles Barkley impression here) game. I didn't remember playing well at all but I couldn't put my finger on exactly why we were SO bad. I mean, I know they weren't hitting any shots, and that was part of the problem, but what else?

So I re-watched Game 2 last night, and this time, I took notes. Some examples:

Missed layup
Wide open Wally
Gil misses long shot with 24 on the shot clock
Gil bad shot
2-6 FT @ 1:35 in 1st
Gil loses ball
Missed layup
Bad shots
No passing
Haywood ejected

There were lots of others in between, even some good ones like good rotations on D, but for pretty much the entire game, the offense was stagnant. Like. Real, real, real bad. I think for about 5 minutes in the 1st quarter we moved the ball, but after that time we simply settled for jump shots or missed easy layups. We stopped moving the ball, we stopped cutting to the basket and we stopped trying to establish any kind of position near the rim. If some of our more open looks had gone in, things would have been a little different, but they weren't, and our guys should have adjusted. Instead, Caron, Jamison and Arenas all decided they were gonna be the one to fix it. They took turns putting their head down, driving the lane and missing layups, sometimes getting a foul (but then missing the free throws). I can't put into words how much I hate seeing players with the Michael Jordan syndrome trying to take over the game by not passing, not spreading the floor, not play TEAM ball. In cases like that, EJ has been able to fix things by slowing down the offense to encourage passing, but this time, nothing worked, and then Haywood was out and the game was over. What I saw in Game 2 was a lack of ball movement, bad shot selection, ok not great D, poor free throw shooting, poor ball control and what I think may have been the worst part, a lack of cohesiveness.

This entire year, our team has played as a TEAM. They shared the ball, helped on D, and had the will to win as a team. What I saw in Game 2 was not the same Wizards team I've seen all year. Now, I know people don't want to point to Gil as the reason, and I'm certainly the last one to NOT want to see him in this series, but at this point, how is he helping? Hear me out.

He has shot poorly this series. So has Deshawn. Now I know, we ALL know, that Stevenson is a streaky shooter, but I think the fact that Stevenson is getting different minutes than he's been getting all year, his game is off. Simple as that. I think if you leave him in for his regular mintues, he starts hitting shots. Gil was unable to close in the end of Game 1 and also has a sprained wrist that affects his shooting (he finished 2-10). His turnovers are up and he's not passing when he needs to. All this considered, and I'd say Gil doesn't necessarily need to play. I'm not saying sit him out, I'm saying don't use him unless you have to. The Wizards without Arenas made it into the Playoffs, I honestly believe that we can beat the Cavs without him if we had to. But since we do have him, let's be smart. Let's beat them like we beat teams during the regular season. I don't know where it may be right to use Gil at this point, but EJ is a smart guy, and I think he could find a role.

Game 1 was a tough loss. Game 2 was an aberration. You know what they say...

When life gives you lemons.....you paint that sh*t gold (and dunk it in their MOTHERF#*%'N faces).

When I watch this game on TV later tonight, I want to feel the energy though the screen. I'm serious. All you people goin to the game better yell as loud as possible. Because you gotta believe...

We got this.

I'm Drunk and the Wizards Lost

2008-04-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

1. Yes. I'm really drunk and yes, I'm really going to write a blog post in my current state. 2. I do not believe my drunkenness has anything to do with the Wizards losing.

Why am I drunk? Well, the game on the West coast started at 9:30am...sweet. However, before I could enjoy the game, I received a call of a very personal matter that pretty much ruined my day/week/month. Without going into details, I"ll just say that the other people/person in this this post isn't/aren't held in the same regard as she was when I wrote the post. So I was already angry/pissed/upset/excited/confused and many other emotions before I began watching the game.

Once the game started I felt a bit better. It was going real well. Agent Zero hit his 3's, the Wizards were winning and dominating in most aspects of the game. At half-time, I decided it was time to start drinking (approx. 11am). The Wiz were ok, but I was still out of it. Once I got to beer 3 (about the 4th quarter) I was feeling a lot better. When we got deep in the 4th quarter, shit started goin bad. I was becoming an angry drunk, yellin at the screen and what-not, and then Arenas decided to chuck up some shots that I gotta say, were terrible. And I let the people sitting next to me know that. He really should have passed the ball in those end of game situations after he realized nothing was dropping. So back to the alcoholism. I decided that to make myself feel better after the loss the only real answer was to keep drinking. So I did.

I speak to you now after a solid # of beers and a 40 (I had to stop so I could drive home), and 10 minutes of spell-check. And instead of working on the 15-page paper I have due on Wednesday, that I haven't even started, I'm gonna keep drinking. That's right, I'm gonna make it so Game 1 (and a couple other things) never happened.

PS - I really could have used a win today, would have made the rest of the day that much easier.

Random Ramblings – Monday 4/14

2008-04-14T14:21:00.001-07:00

I'm sure you've all heard by now, but it's worth mentioning again…Carmelo Anthony was arrested and later released for suspicion of DUI. He is due in court on May 14. (ESPN story for more).
I was a little too tired to do a recap of the game versus the Sixers, but I watched every minute and DAMN!!!! That, my friends, is how you close a game. BREAKING NEWS: THE 4^th QUARTER IS VERY IMPORTANT.
I am very much looking forward to the match-up against the Cavs. Just wanted to let you know that.
We've got Agent Zero, Tough Juice, and now…? Ladies and Gentleman I present to you The Force, DeShawn Stevenson, who refuses to sit despite multiple injuries. And yes, Jake, I do question his shot selection, and maybe even his beard growing abilities, but I would never question the 80's themed birthday party. (UPDATE: Apparently he already has a nickname, Mr. Accessory Man….though based on his exceptional acting ability, perhaps "The Chameleon" works better. That name also works during the game, as he blends it to become an elite scoring threat behind our Big 3).
Tom Brokaw speaks out against the Dolans, the Garden, and the sorry state of affairs in NY. Oh, and he's not renewing his season tickets. Maybe Jimmy Dolan is hoping he can woo him back with free hot dogs. I doubt it, as it seems Mr. Brokaw has discovered craigslist.
If you haven't already, please help send mosquito preventing bed-nets to Africa via NothingbutNets.
The Wizards match up against the Pacers tonight, Truth has the preview, quick and easy, exactly how she likes it ;-).
Wizards Insider: Butler and Arenas might not play tonight.
Beasley expected to declare for the NBA draft. Thanks Chad.
Mr. Stern. So you're saying that despite all those emails, you believe Clay Bennett acted in good faith? Really? In that case, I have some swamp-land to sell you. It's only in the 104^th biggest media market, but you don't seem to give a crap about that, as you graciously rip away a storied franchise from the only place they have called home. You, Mr. Stern, are a liar and a thief. I mean seriously folks, we've all known those OKC businessmen wanted the team out of Seattle, we finally have the sorta smoking gun to prove it, and Stern is now basically disregarding it? Unbelievable. If I were a Sonics fan, I would be so pissed at the NBA right now. They are essentially saying they don't care. I don't buy that "we tried" B.S. I understand why Stern is saying what he's saying, but how he sleeps at night is beyond me. I get it, the NBA will never get another sweet arena deal if they buckle to Seattle, but you think what you're doing now is better? You think this improves the image of the NBA. I'd hate to say it, but Mark Cuban is right.
The Pacers cheerleaders are called Pacemates. Just an FYI.

Random Ramblings - Monday 4/7

2008-04-06T23:27:00.000-07:00

KD hits a monster 3-pointer from about 5 feet behind the arc to send the Seattle/Denver game into double-overtime, where the Sonics eventually beat out the worn down Nuggets. It was a fun to watch high scoring affair. Great to the see the Sonics get a win on their home floor. Not that it wasn't important already, but that upcoming Warriors/Nuggets game at Oracle on Thursday is gonna be HUGE if the see-saw action keeps up this way.

According to Ivan Carter of the Washington Post, Jamison should be back to play the Celtics on Wednesday at the Phone Booth. Good thing, cause he's been our MVP this season.
Round and round we go, who we'll play in the playoffs, no one (not even the all knowing Ivan Carter) knows. Cleveland has lost two in a row. We could snatch home court advantage from them with a strong finish.
After the season, maybe Nick Young and D-Mac can get a place out here. You know, on the cheap. This way they ain't snatching fur coats from Gil's closet no more.
While watching both Kansas AND the Wizards game on Saturday (wow, impressive) Truthaboutit speaks the truth about the Bulls..."Their future once looked so bright."
Boston will most likely be benching their starters for the game on Wednesday. In a bold move, Doc Rivers is going to rest the bench as well. Wednesday's lineup:

Lastly, if you have not gone ahead and provided your email to have a mosquito preventing bed-net sent on your behalf by NothingbutNets, please do so HERE. It's free and easy. Just to clarify, I get absolutely nothing out of this. No referring anything is embedded in the link.

Save A Life in Less than a Minute

2008-04-03T23:53:00.000-07:00

Nothing But Nets is a non-profit group that sends bed-nets to Africa to help prevent malaria, a deadly disease that has killed millions of people in Africa and elsewhere (Rick Reilly of ESPN did a piece on the organization a few years ago). You can find out more about what they do below, but first, let me get straight to the point. You can have one of these nets sent in your name for taking the time to tell them your email and confirming it. You will get signed up for their emails and their "NETwork" but I think that is a very small price to pay. It seriously takes no effort.

You go to THIS SITE and you can either play the neat little game they offer, or skip straight to the email part, you're call. It can take you literally 10 seconds. Once you fill it out, you'll get an email with a confirmation you have to click, which will bring you to a page where they thank you. Real simple. If that link doesn't work for some reason, go here and scroll to the bottom to play the game (you can still skip it).

As of right now, only 743 people have done this. I say we should be able to easily get another thousand if we spread the word out. This runs until April 25 (five days after the playoffs start), which is also World Malaria Day. Nothingbutnets.net is their main page, check it out for all the information you need.

If you have made it this far, I'll say a few words about the program. It is a GREAT way to help people, but this is only preventative. This saves lives by keeping the mosquitoes away from people while they are under the net, while they are sleeping. There are those out there that are working towards a vaccine, such as, our government.

Play A Game. Send a Net. Save a Life.

PS - If you're wondering why this is on an a blog about the Wizards and the NBA, NothingButNets is part of the NBA Cares network. That is how I found out about them.

Guess Who's Back?

2008-04-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

Yup.

Second, ouch. Losing a game like that sucks.

Mr. "not playin tonight" played last night. I'm happy he did. But here's the thing. See, I probably should have known better, but I believed him. As such, I proceeded to skip the game live and watch it on DVR later. But then I ended up at a bar watching the Mavs/Warriors game. Well, you know that they couldn't let that bit of news just go unmentioned during that broadcast. Sure, I probably shouldn't have been watching that game if my goal was to remain clueless about the Wizards until later. I was a little disappointed, cause I was really looking forward to watching him re-enter the game live. I was gonna bust out the jersey and everything. Gil man, that was a little un-cool, but it's ok, cause you hit your first three shots out the gate, so we're cool.

I did watch some of the game later, but since I had already seen replays of the finish, it made it a little tough to sit through the whole thing. I watched Gil's entrance, most of the 2nd quarter and the last few minutes of the 4th. Check out the GameFlow from PopcornMachine, my man Gil was a -8 for the night. That was the largest negative value last night. Now, I'm not saying that it's not understandable, but it is something to take notice of. The team was playing well without him, and it's important that he doesn't mess up the flow. Also on the GameFlow you'll see that the Wizards dominated the whole game, except for the very end, which makes this loss all the more frustrating. That brings me to my next point...

The Wizards need the win vs Miami. We simply cannot afford to fall any farther in the standings. Sure, it's a three-way tie and we own the series on Toronto, but Philly owns the series on us and need to be in a better position before we actually play them. At least, I think so.

Hat tip to BulletsForever, who called it on Gil's ploy last night.

One more thing I am not going to talk about (yet) because it would be all speculation are potential injuries to Stevenson and Jamison. As of midnight on the West Coast, this was BF's latest, via Ivan Carter.

Isiah's Out!!!!

2008-04-02T10:36:00.001-07:00

Without going into detail about my conversion, I used to be a Knicks fan. Suffice to say, being a Knicks fan during the past 10 years or so has not been fun. Luckily, my TV tunes to NBATV automatically and the first thing I saw was Donnie Walsh sitting against a Knicks background. I immediately jumped for joy. Seriously. I jumped up and down, pumped my first and used a couple 4 letter words.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, HEY HEY HEY. GO F YOURSELF ISIAH!!

This blog simply cannot contain my excitement. I've been waiting for this day for YEARS!!!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

PS - Isiah is not officially fired, but I can dream.

Arenas Cleared To Play, But....

2008-04-01T21:07:00.001-07:00

He won't be playing the Bucks tonight. Ivan Carter of the Washington Post has the story. What are my thoughts, you say? Thought you'd never ask.

He doesn't want to have to guard a high scoring guard like Michael Redd. Although Redd does not get into the lane as much as some other guards in the league, I do seriously doubt Gil would be able to keep up with him. Coming off a 2-3 road trip tied for 5th in the East, we really need the wins. Keeping Arenas out is probably a smart move. If you buy into this (I do) then perhaps we will see him when the Wiz play the Heat.

Then again, maybe he's just waiting for that nationally televised game vs. Boston, when presumably their starters will be on the bench and Gil can get back at one of the few teams he actually did play this season. Nah. That is SO unlike Agent Zero.

UPDATE: Thoughts from BulletsForever. I had similiar thoughts, and I would not be the least bit surprised if it was true.

April Fool.

2008-03-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

From BulletsForever, Oleksiy Pecherov was arrested for solicitation in Utah last night.

"They Ran Into a Buzzsaw"

2008-03-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Phil Chenier is right, but man, that was embarrassing. 42 point loss, worst of the season, tied for 6th worst all time in franchise history. Not having Butler or Daniels really hurt and Jamison just couldn't carry the load again. It's a tough loss but it's not like it's not expected. The 3rd game in 4 nights is hard, especially on the road. Now factor in a tough overtime loss to the Lakers and it's no surprise the Jazz simply dismantled us. I mean, I have a feeling we would have had trouble with the Bobcats, let alone the Jazz. Simply put, the Jazz are really, really good. I bet their lockers are made of rich mahogany. The first half was an a seminar on how to run the pick and roll, not to mention the constant cutting to the hoop. Who woulda thought cutting to the hoop would result in points? And on defense? If those who watch the Wizards regularly can tell you where the ball is going once the play starts, you know full well that stuff is in the scouting report. I remember a stretch in the 2nd quarter where D-Will correctly anticipated the pass from the top on it's way around the horn at least 4 out of 5 times. It didn't matter if we screened him off or not, he knew exactly where to go. It's not like every other player in the league doesn't have access to this information, it just seems like the better teams, I don't know, actually pay attention. So I think what I'm saying is that I would not want to play the Jazz in the playoffs. Not without all 3 All-Stars healthy. They are just too good.

I like to think about the quality of good teams based on how well they are able to challenge or beat us. When you think about all the other elite teams, which ones have we struggled with this year? Celtics? Nope. Opening night doesn't count. Pistons? Eh, we all know we can beat them. Lakers? Stayed with them last night, that's for sure. Hornets? Beat them on their own floor. Suns, Rockets? Not in my Swog. That leaves the Spurs and Jazz. I mean, we lost games to other top teams, but not in a way that shows what I perceive as dominance. In other words, they didn't kick our ass.

We are now essentially tied with a tumbling Toronto for 5th in the East. Philly is a game behind us and Atalanta another 3 games behind them. So where does that leave us? We have 8 games left. If we don't go at least 4-4, we may be in some serious trouble. Hopefully we can get back on track at home with wins vs. the Bucks and the Miami D-Leaguers. After that, it's a tough stretch: at Chicago, home vs. Boston and at Detroit. I think we are going to need two of those three, which will bring us to our 4 win minimum. After Detroit, we come home to face the Sixers. Now, a lot can change in a week, the Sixers could lose a few. Despite what Henry says, they are a young team and they may just run out of steam. Our final two, home vs. Indiana and away vs. Orlando. By that time, Orlando will hopefully be benching some starters so we could finish that last stretch. That leaves us somewhere between 7-1 and 3-5 to finish the season. I'll be watching.

The playoffs are coming, I can smell it.

Random Ramblings - March 31

2008-03-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard, Gil said last night that he'd take a pay cut in order to allow the Wizards to re-sign Jamison. Gilbertology has the quotes. Adande over at ESPN goes on to quote an anonymous source (Ernie G. anybody???) stating that the Wizards are responsible for taking care of ALL their franchise players and goes on to say the organization is authorized to go within $1 of the luxury tax threshold. ONE DOLLAR?!?!?! You cannot run an NBA team like a 99 cent store Abe. I understand you do not want to go over the limit, but you think maybe you can look at the situation before you go making rules like that. The least you could do is give the typical, "We'll see where we're at at the end of the season."
In a bit of DC related new, Pres. Bush gets booed throwing out the first pitch at the new Nationals stadium.
Apparently, the Wizards do not have any "ankle-busters". Shame. Still fun to watch.
Save Stevenson's beard! Personally, Deshawn, I say bust out some Rec Specs.

CelticsBlog has some nice things to say about the Wizards and gives 5 reasonably good reasons (reasonably good reasons....yeah...that sounds right) why you should watch the Eastern conference playoff race.
My new favorite non-basketball related blog: Stuff White People Like. Here's a good one on San Francisco. If you're bored at work (you are, or you wouldn't be reading this) or you've completed your task of finding a vaccine for malaria (or AIDS, or whatever), I highly suggest wasting...AHEM...spending some quality time on that blog.
Doc Rivers sits next to Pat Riley at the G'town/Davidson game and humanity spirals towards the apocalypse. Not really. (Hockey assist to TrueHoop).
I watched, for the first time since I've been here, a home Laker broadcast. I noticed a couple of things. First, their dancers are hot. That's expected. Second, the Phil Jackson interview before the game, which the announcers dubbed "Philosophy 101" (lame name, couldn't they come up with something better...like "Zen-Ball-Talk" or "Jackson on Jackson"?) was actually not the worst pre-game interview I've seen. Phil actually answered questions with direct responses and didn't seem TOO upset about being interviewed before the game. By the way, that name, "Phil Jackson." Look at it for a second. If you met a Phil Jackson in grade school, wouldn't you picture him being the lame ass fat kid eating a cupcake in the corner of the cafeteria? I would.

Last but not least, Jamison is STILL #2 in the league in adjusted +/- according to BasketballValue.com. Sure, he's doing more awesome because Gil is out (thank you 9th grade English). But really, isn't it EASIER to be better when Gil is in (more open looks, etc)? So really, Jamison has dominated as the primary threat. Throw Butler and an un-injured Hibachi to the mix and I'd say you have a championship caliber team. Yeah. I said it.

So Close. SOOOOO Close!!!

2008-03-31T01:54:00.000-07:00

We had them on the ropes, and I really thought we could have pulled it off. Still a great game, and although it makes things a little tighter for the 5th spot in the playoffs, I think our guys can come away with a positive attitude as we were able to hang with the Lakers. Hopefully we can carry that into tomorrow's game against Utah, which I think is going to be MUCH tougher than the LaLa Lakers.

BIG game from Nick Young tonight, scoring a season/career high 28 points!!! The kid was just on fire in the 4th quarter and overtime when we really needed him.

Caron Butler. 17 points. 12 rebounds. 12 assists. And a crazy off balance 3 to send the game into overtime. Awesome.

By the way, if you didn't notice, that was from the LA broadcast. See the hand with the finger shoot up after the he hits the shot? How great is that? After that shot I really thought if we could get to overtime that we could win the game. When Fish missed that 3 from the corner, I figured we had the game in the bag (I know, I should have known better). Once in overtime, Young stayed hot and we hung with them almost till the end. Unfortunately, we couldn't hold on in the end. Phil Jackson put Sasha Vujacic on Nick and he missed the last good shot in overtime. Our official last shot was an ugly chuck at the backboard by Butler.

Huge game from Stevenson. 8-12 from behind the arc. Ridiculous. Question, how is that the Wizards drastically improve their shooting after they hire a fantastic shooting coach, yet other teams in the NBA don't seem to be catching on? I mean, why was Hopla even available? If he's as good as his results seem to indicate, I imagine this guy would have been snagged by the Spurs or something. What gives? Not that I want him to go anywhere, I just think that in a highly competitve atmosphere that is professional basketball, some team would have figured this out some time ago.

So next up we're heading to Salt Lake to take on the Jazz. It's going to be tough, but if we can stick 'em on D and keep the turnovers low and get at least 20 assists, I think we can pull out a win.

Big Win in the Big Easy

2008-02-25T20:47:00.000-08:00

The Wizards pulled off their second win in a row, versus the Western powerhouse Hornets no less, after a buzzer beater by DeShawn Stevenson. I have to say, the entire game I kept saying, if we stay in this, someone will hit a shot at the buzzer. Sure enough, we did. I have to be honest, I did not really expect Stevenson to hit that shot. He had clanked 3 off the rim prior to that, but he did hit it, and the Wizards top the #2 team in the Western Conference.

I've always felt more comfortable being just behind the whole game. The Wizards can seem to never hold a lead, but if we can snatch it with a few minutes left, that usually seems to work.

We were pretty sloppy on both of the floor early in the game. Your usual lazy defense with an offense that looks like it was designed to stand around. But I bet EJ gave them a talking to at halftime and they buckled down on D and put together some nice runs on offense.

I'm glad we got the win, but it sure as hell wasn't pretty. Here's to hoping we can top Houston on the tail end of this little back to back!

Phew! (That was awesome)

2008-02-14T00:08:00.000-08:00

That was close. Just got back from the Wizards/Clippers game in LA, it's 12AM, and I'm tired. However, I must get down a few quick notes about my first full and first live Wizards game in a little more than a month (yes, it HAS been tough).

- We had a lot of steals in the first quarter, we looked like we did two years ago.
- McGuire can jump really, really, REALLY high.
- The BEAST was back.
- The Clippers can be either really bad or really good, depending on the dilation of Sam Cassell's eyeballs.
- This was another game that should have been in the can early, but once again, we let the lead slip away.
- I noticed we hadn't even hit the 70 mark by the 4th quarter and was amazed once again that we scored 70 in ONE HALF versus the Warriors (and even more so cannot believe we lost that game...ugh).

YAY! WE WON! Glad we are not taking a losing streak into the all-star break.

Much more to come tomorrow (or later today, depending on how you look at it).

What, how, wait....but?!?!??!? Ohhhhhhhhhhh.

2008-02-12T15:23:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we lost that game. Up until the last few minutes, the title of this post was going to be "Where Did That Come From," referencing the huge first half. But no, the Wiz had to go and throw it away at the end, wasting a 70 point first half in the last few minutes, losing the game AND ruining what was sure to be an awesome blog post.

It was like we couldn't miss in the first half and all the Warriors could do was rim out. Then, as expected, the Warriors start hitting shots. The lead dwindles, and before you know it, DeShawn Stevenson is brickin' ugly layups and jackin' terrible 3's while Stephen Jackson saves the Warriors, hitting a clutch 3 off a rebounded free throw. How do you not box out there?

Why is Stevenson taking shots in the clutch? He obviously wasn't shooting well, going 5-18 in a little over 40 minutes? I understand why he took the last shot, but all those others? The better option is Nick Young with a spin move in the lane? I know we have lots of injuries, but either Eddie Jordan had nothin' left or no one was listening. They made soooo many mistakes at the end. They lost their hustle and as a result, they lost the game.

We need help. Like now.

On a happier note, Gil reiterated his comeback schedule during a half-time interview as well as mentioned this fantastic blog, stating he'd come back, "once he gets his swogger back".

Note: The latter half of the above statement is a complete and utter lie made up by the author because he felt like it. In fact, Gil only mentioned needing his trademark, "swagger," back, which in no way is a reference to me or this blog, as I had implied above.

What the F$&K?

2008-01-24T10:05:00.001-08:00

What the hell was that? I mean, WHAT THE F?!?! I don't event have a smart ass comment. That was simply disgusting.

Back on the Ball

2008-01-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody! It's been a while, but the Wizards don't care. They beat the best team in the L, twice. In a row. That means our records against them is 2-1. Name another team with a winning record against the C's....

Not gonna lie, I didn't watch the game. I couldn't. I have re-located to the West Coast in sunny San Diego and obviously the Wiz are not on local TV. But don't worry, I'll have the League Pass soon. I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging. I've missed the likes to Bullets Forever and Truth About It.

By the way, it's 70 degrees outside where I am right now. I know all you DC'ers can appreciate that. HA HA!!

Jell-O and Confidence

2007-12-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

What you ask, do Jell-O and confidence have to do with one another? Think about it. Both are tough to get a handle on. The wrong jab and both could come crumbling down like Antonio Daniels driving to the basket on Shaq. It's a very fragile thing, Jell-O. You stir and stir and stir, but when do you stop stirring? Do you make one big Jell-O? Do you make many little Jell-ites? As a coach, what do you do when a player takes a shot not in his arsenal? Posts up down low when his entire game is on the outside? Do you risk hurting their confidence by pulling them right away, do you let the mistake stir to see if they can make up for it? It's been said before (a lot by David Thorpe), but confidence is a big part of every players game. Without the confidence that they can make a shot, they never will. In order to win games, players need that confidence, and it is the job of coaches to take care of that. The players play, the coaches coach. Wow, that was deep. Anyway, this is where Jell-O comes in.

I admit, this post was inspired by Phil Jackson's book, The Last Season (funny, about that...). Even though I don't really even like Phil Jackson, I hate the Lakers and Kobe, it seems that he does sometimes seem to know what he's doing. And I like basketball books. Anyway, it was an ok read but I did take something from it. Most NBA fanatics know that Phil Jackson is more of a people coach than a basketball coach. Sure, he knows his X's and O's, but we all know the Zen Master is about centering the players on his team, not teaching them how to play basketball. So like I said, confidence is a big part of every players game. Every player has some degree of confidence, and that confidence is built up through successful outings on the floor. So yeah, back to the Jell-O...run with it, if you will.....

When you stir your favorite Jell-O flavor (red), how long do you stir? Do you even bother stirring? I mean, it's sugar and water, what's the stirring action for? Do you make multiple colors to see what comes out? These are important questions, and once you've answered them, and you boil, stir and pour your Jell-O into your bowls and stick in the fridge, you wait.

You pick an agile 7 footer in the 1st round of the draft. They are excited, you're excited. They report to camp on time and begin learning the offensive and defensive schemes right away. You see their confidence building in practice, as he jumps to block the layup of your veteran center. The season starts. You put your 1st round draft pick on the floor. And you wait. You've stirred and stirred and your confident that they can handle the pro game. Then your 1st round draft pick, your agile 7 footer, tries to dribble in from the 3 point line against a smaller opponent. Back in the fridge.

But think about it. You're a person. These players are people. Even if after playing big time college ball in front of thousands of people and on national TV you get pulled after 2 minutes in your first pro game, how fast are you going to recover from that. Lots of people says it depends on the player. I agree. Let's get back to the Jell-O, a Bill Cosby joke is waiting.

You sit at the kitchen table, you want your Jell-O to be ready. You check after only 10 minutes and give the Jell-O such a strong wiggle some of it splats of the floor in a pattern very similar to one seen on a Bill Cosby sweater. You clean it up and tell yourself a motivational story to pass the time. As you get around to the part about the little girl overcoming all adversity with just a rubberband and a crayon you realize your Jell-O is done. OH BOY OH BOY! Say it with me now...

J - E - L - L.............O!

So you give your rook a talking to, explaining that they are needed inside. Not dribbling, but getting high percentage buckets close to the rim. In time, the outside game will come. You put them back in to start the 2nd quarter and he starts it off with a jam off an alley-oop but then never really does anything else the rest of the game. He is invisible on offense and does not move his feet on defense. After the game, after you've splattered that Jell-O on the floor, you clean it up and give your player a motivational speech about how your mom made Thanksgiving dinner for 30 people in 30 minutes. The next game works out much better. This 1st rounder plays his game and plays it well.

Good story, right? You might still be a bit confused. You see how I can make comparisons between Jell-O and confidence, but what do they really have to do with one another. Well, basically, it comes down to the fact that Jell-O is a process, and it's fragile. You have to take your time, be patient. Once you get it cold, you don't want to still a spoon in and mash is all up, cause no one wants gross Jell-O like that.

Even though they are professional athletes, their confidence can be shattered, and you don't want to do that. There is a lot of talent in most players that make it to the League, it's up to the coaches to get the best out of them. The example story above could have been a veteran player as well. In which case, the Jell-O may have been a little stale.

To some extent, I don't think I realized how important confidence really was in the NBA game until I read the book. I didn't truly hate Kobe as much as I do now. His lack of confidence in his teammates now was present even then. I didn't truly appreciate what a great locker room presence, like Karl Malone on that Laker team, can have. Confidence is a fragile thing, you don't want to screw it all up and end up with Jell-O in your face.

The Past 10 Days

2007-12-25T22:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, this post is a long time coming. I'll start with an apology of sorts. I haven't posted anything in a while. As this is by no means a money making professional blogging operation, when life happens, the blog takes a backseat. Well, life is happening, nothing bad really, but just a lot of stuff. However I have been coming up with great topics for posts so hopefully as stuff slows down I'll be able to really get back to the splediferous quality you have come to expect from The Swog. The first of those topics is the next post. Since I last posted, the Wizards started losing, Jamie Lynn Spears got pregnant, the Bulls fired Scott Skiles, and the Blazers won their 11th game in a row (someone needs to keep an eye on Abbott, he might keel over and die from a heart attack). Wow.

The Wizards losing was inevitable. I have been unable to watch the games very closely so I'm going to reserve opinion for a later date. Based on what I've seen and heard, I'm not worried. Yet.

Jamie Lynn Spears. As Simmons would say "I wish there were a way to bet on stuff like this."

Skiles. Also inevitable. Random find of the day: While going through old baseball and basketball cards there were lots of goodies, including a Scott Skiles card from his Magic days. (I also found Isiah Thomas' and Kevin Pritchards' from his days with the Vancouver Grizzlies...CRAZY! Too bad they don't have GM cards, I'm sure the stats would be pretty reversed these days).

Blazers. I got nothin.

Extended Sigh...

2007-12-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

Reported by Ivan Carter in the Post, Daniels is out 2-4 weeks.

Who is EJ going to start? Nick Young? Mason? The Wizznutzz?

I'm not even sure what I want to see. You? I have to think about this a little longer.

I Called It

2007-12-14T09:22:00.000-08:00

I called it on Haywood. See?

I'd say he gets a double-double easy.

His stat line from last night:

Minutes: 32
Rebounds: 10
Points: 12

What is there left to say about Stevenson? Except, that he is a (in a deep, booming voice) FLAMETHROWER!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH HA HA HA!!!! I Throw Flames Because I Am the FLAMETHROWER!!!!

(Ok, I'm done now)

I'll be honest, I couldn't watch the game last night. Let's just say a combination of traffic and burritos got in my way. I did get to watch the highlights of DeShawn on Sports Center. Speaking of which. I was thinking, is Sports Center kind of like those people that peak in high school? I feel like it used to be awesome and now it kind of sucks. Like, when they got started, they were cool, then, as they got older, they were simply the shit. You know, Kilbourne was cool and then Stu Scott and Dan Patrick and others brought it to another level. Now look at them. They never went to college, never figured how to keep it awesome and we are left with the SC RunDown and terrible catchphrases. The only thing left are the highlights and those somewhat hilarious Sports Center commercials. But I digress.

The Wizards beat the Heat. In Miami. They now sit at 12-10, 3.5 games out of 1st in the division. 5-1 in the last 6 games, the only loss to the Suns. Without Arenas. Who woulda thunk it? How awesome is that? Though I really wish I could watch a friggin game.

It wasn't the greatest performance, but it was enough this time. I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of that in this next stretch of games, all of which I really think we can win. Sacramento, Chicago and New Jersey are the biggest challenges coming up. If they could go 5-2 in the next 7 games, they would be in an excellent spot to start the new year.

Anyway, I got stuff to do. And I won't be able to watch the Kings game either. Crappy.

Random Ramblings - 12/12

2007-12-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

So, yeah, no posts in a day and a half. I had a thing going there for a while where I posted everyday. Not gonna happen this week. Got lots of stuff to do. But if I may go back to the Nets game for a moment...

When I saw the Stevenson dunk about to happen as he came down the court, his face said he was going to dunk the ball. He knew RJ might catch up with him but dude, when he took that ball strong to the hole....we have this.

Roger Mason Jr actually hit shots in the Nets game, and then goes off for 17 versus Minny. Sweet.

We've got Miami up next, which will not be easy, not without Gil. I think that as long as someone, maybe Stevenson, can stay in front of DWade we'll have a chance.

Look for a big game out of Haywood, he always has big games when people count him out and I'm sure that, being a national game, the talking heads will doubt that he will be able to handle Shaq. But watch out. I'd say he gets a double-double easy.

We broke the Miami losing streak last year, but we had Gil at that time. We need not to underestimate this Miami team. They may be stinkers at 6-15 right now, but anything can happen when Shaq and DWade are on the floor. We should be ok on defense, I think our strategy of switching will work with Miami because I don't think their other scorers will kill us. We should be able to dominate the boards on both ends of the floor as well.

So while I was not blogging, I was missing the Blog Show debut of Domi.Nick (by the way, Dominic seems to be getting into rhythm in the games, which is nice, I was beginning to get frustrated) and more amazing things about the Wizards.

Bullets Forever had a birthday. Happy birthday. Beers are on you :)

AND

They figured out why we are better.

Five reasons why some people, and the Wizards, are awesome

2007-12-10T06:03:00.000-08:00

I'll probably have a recap/follow-up/post-op of last nights game up later today (including an Agent Steinz sighting). I was at the game last night, and I have some thoughts concerning why some people, and the Wizards, are awesome. Thus...

1. They surprise you when you least expect it.
2. They win (I win! One to nuthin'!).
3. For 2.5 hours during a game, they help you escape from real life.
4. They make me dinner.
5. They don't ask for anything in return, just some lovin'.

I wax poetic because at this time, when I am usually at work, I am at home. Friday was my last day at work as I am going to be attending Graduate School in sunny San Diego in January (don't worry, this internets lets you blog from anywhere). I celebrated this weekend, and as I mentioned above, it was awesome, and it was capped off with a super Wiz win on Sunday. Anyway, when I woke up I just felt like blogging about the good things. That's all. I hope you can all sit back and just enjoy being a Wizards fan, cause as you can see, it has its rewards.

Spank you very much, there's the door, don't let it hit you on the way out

2007-12-06T07:53:00.000-08:00

We handled them. No question. Things that were awesome at last nights game...

Nick Young. Man, if he keeps this up he is going to drastically improve this team in the near future. Eddie Jordan puts him in, and he just scores. That's all. The buckets just keep going in. He finished with 14 points on 5-7 shooting and went 4-4 from the stripe. There was a point in the 4th quarter where he was looking to drive the lane from the top of the key, found it and leapt from about 1 step past the free throw line and attempted a sweet jam. It was blocked, but the move motivated him. You could see it the rest of the quarter, he kept looking for that lane. Eventually, he got it, from the corner he drove and finished with a sweet dunk. All I have to say is, the campaign to get Nick Young into the dunk contest has got to get going. This kid can dunk, even his teammates think so.

Brendon "Beast" Haywood took Ilgauskas to the floor last night. He shined his bald head so shiny he saw his own reflection after he came down from every big dunk or grabbed every rebound out of Big Z's hands. That's a shiny head.

Kurtis Evans

Caron Butler. Not enough can be said about his play. I mean, now that he has range, he is simply unstoppable. He is being guarded all the way out past the arc, and is consistently beating defenders to the hole. But everyone is talking about his offense, what about his D? Superb. Yeah, he makes mistakes, but he has been shutting down defenders left and right. He has consistently buckled down his opponent. He hasn't had an opponent score 20 on him in the past 5 games, while scoring 20+ in all those games except vs. San Antonio (he finished with 16). Damn, he's good.

Jamison is fantastic as well, but his fantastic-ness isn't as exciting as the others, because he always does this. He's proven time and time again that he can score in the most unusual ways, get rebounds, run the offense, and be the player the Wizards need him to be. Last night, his turnaround jumpers went in, his crazy down the lane flip shots went in. He finished the game with 17 pts and 12 rebounds. He's been simply amazing (see, amazing DOES happen here!).

AD. 9 assists last night. 10 points. 5 rebounds and only 2 turnovers. Part of me wants to argue with Gil about him being a PG. Put AD on the floor with Gil and let AD run the floor. Gil can create for himself and might work better off the ball. Anything's possible. Antontio Daniels was kinda surprisingly invisible last night. Which is good at times. That means he did his job and let the offense run. When your PG can disappear in the crowd while the rest of the offense does it's thing, it can be a beautiful thing. He always comes through when we need him.

Roger Mason actually hit some shots. He hit a couple vs. Toronto as well, very timely, awesome, 3-pointers. I think he shoots better from the corners though, like Bruce Bowen (if only he could match his D), but I like that they are going in. That's always a plus. He only hit one 3 last night, but finished 3-6 from the field, which is better than the 0'fers he had been putting up.

Not a single player on the Cavs scored more than 20. Big Z was Big Useless. 12 points in 23 minutes. Drew Gooden was outclassed by Jamison and looks like a caveman. Boobie's nickname is Boobie.

I got a free Gilbert home replica jersey for filling out 300 All Star ballots and voting for all 3 Wizards (with help, thanks buddy!) at the game last night. Not sure if they will keep doing it, the table was behind section 401.

Let's review what I blogged about yesterday, see how I did:

Assists. If we can break 20, we are golden. This obviously requires a significant contribution from AD.

We finished with 23 assists, 9 of which came from AD. Check.

Rebounds. If we could, that would be super (Hey Brendon, wake the F up!)

We out-rebounded the Cavs 45-29 and simply dominated the offensive boards with 13 to their 6. Haywood was a big part, pulling down 9 on the defensive end. Butler and Blatche, the Bed and Breakfast cause they are my Bread and Butter pulled down a combined 7 offensive boards.

Steals. We are currently 16th in the League in steals per game, with 7.5. We used to better at that (Jared Jeffries helped a lot, maybe we can get him back too). I would like to see that number up, especially tonight with so few good ball handlers on this Cleveland team.

Seven steals last night. Pretty average. More than the 5 of the Cavs, but I guess that the tighter D may result in less steals, since players aren't cheating as much (as it should be). Come to think of it, I'm going to back off the above statement and say I'm happy if we have tighter D, the steals aren't THAT important.

Caron Butler lighting it up behind the 3 point line. It's just awesome to see.

Didn't hit any last night (0-2), but that's ok. He still finished with 27 points on 13-23 shooting. He leads the league in 3 point efficiency, among other things, from the Post:

He's one of only two players in the league averaging more than 12 points and hitting at least 50 percent of his three-point shots (Daniel Gibson is the other), and one of only three players in the league averaging 23 points per game and making 50 percent of his shots (Dwight Howard and Carlos Boozer are the others). Butler ranks among the league's top 20 in scoring, shooting percentage, three-point shooting, foul shooting, steals and minutes.

All in all, the game was a complete success. For a complete recap, check out the live blog over at truthaboutit from last nights game. We ran smoothly on offense and defense, and I personally enjoyed kicking the crap out of the Cavs, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Wizards > Cavs

2007-12-05T13:40:00.001-08:00

Tonight, we take on the Cavs. A team so lost it was heard they were even asking TomTom for directions. Directions to the Phone Booth. Direction to the NBA Finals. Direction on what to do when their only proven scorer, LBj, is out with a hurt finger (or in more modern sports speak, LBj is out with a finger). Which way do they go from here? I know. DOWN. Down like a clown.

I hope they lose, and lose, and lose some more. I hate their evil-ness. Their reluctance to give a proven ESSENTIAL piece of the puzzle the money he wanted seems a bit ridiculous. At the point where they weren't getting what they wanted anyway, they should have tried a sign and trade. I don't think he's going to come back energized and ready to play. But who cares? I don't like the guy. I think he's a pathetic flopper and at times, an insult to the game. You wanna get a foul call? Take a friggin charge to the FACE Andy! Take it, right in the face. I'm sure 'Sheed could help on that one. But I digress.

I hate the Cavs. Why? Well why not? Exactly. They are a middle of the road team with a superstar. Their role players would be role players on any other team, except, they would suck more because they wouldn't have LBj stringing them along. I also hate LeBron (not necessarily as a person, I don't know the guy, and I am not an irresponsible blogger). I watched on TV as Gil missed those two fateful free throws. I wanted to punch LeBron in the face for what he did (and why did not ONE WIZARD stop LBj from getting to the line???). I was there in person for Game 4 of that series in 2006, when we smacked Cleveland around like our red-headed step child (oh, wait). I also attended last years playoff stinker Game 4, where LBj mailed it in for 3 quarters then turned up the juice on our injury devastated squad. Oh, how I despise thee, Cavs. I won't even call them Cavaliers. Yuck.

Mark Duncan, AP

Lucky for me I have an awesome girlfriend who knows my hatred of the Cavs and my love of the Wizards, and she awesomely bought me tickets to tonight's game. I won't be sitting behind their bench (or anyones for that matter), but you can expect to hear the following things when you tune in to the game tonight:

"LeBron sucks finger!"

"I drink the Tuff Juice, so should you!"

"Hey Larry, you aren't doing them any good. You have been statistically insignificant for years. Please come back and back up AD!!!"

"Please!!!"

"Hey LeBron, tell Boobie to suck on your non-shooting hand next time!"

"Where's Sideshow, losers?"

and finally...

"[fill in your own witty remark]"

I know, I know. I have the creative juices of a drunk 13 year old. But seriously, I hope the Wizards pound the living S#!T out of the Cavs tonight. Here is what I will be looking for:

Assists. If we can break 20, we are golden. This obviously requires a significant contribution from AD.

Rebounds. If we could, that would be super (Hey Brendon, wake the F up!)

Steals. We are currently 16th in the League in steals per game, with 7.5. We used to better at that (Jared Jeffries helped a lot, maybe we can get him back too). I would like to see that number up, especially tonight with so few good ball handlers on this Cleveland team.

Caron Butler lighting it up behind the 3 point line. It's just awesome to see. By the way, go vote for him for the All Star game.

See y'all tonight. Go Wiz!

Nice Guys Finish First

2007-12-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

I had actually been pondering doing a "the Wizards are awesome off the court as well as on the court" piece. I thought it would be a nice addition to the early days of this blog. However, after reading this post over at Wizards Insider (by Ivan Carter), I'd say most of the work is pretty much done. I'm not even gonna quote it, go read the whole thing.

It's been a while...

2007-11-30T14:37:00.000-08:00

One of the benefits of having a blog that not many people read (ok, no one reads it) is that when I get lazy and slack off posting after a Wizards game, no one cares. I didn't post after the Spurs game cause I got caught up doing other stuff. I mean, they are who we thought they were...

As expected, the Spurs played terrific defense. They doubled up on Butler and Jamison when they had the ball and shut down the strong side of the court. From the Washington Post:

"They had a good game plan," Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan said. "They really loaded up on Antawn and Caron every time they caught the ball. It was tough for them to catch, and we knew we had to screen right, execute and have our angles right and the proper spacing. When they did catch, the defense loaded up on the strong side of the floor and we have to pass out of that."

But I was not disappointed at all. As pointed out by BF, we were in it for 3 quarters. We played very well, about as well as we played against the Mavs, and we won that one. So no, I'm not upset. I'm glad to get out of Texas 1-1.

Tonight, we get the 76'ers again. You will recall we beat them to get out of the 0-5 slump we started the season with. I do not expect that to happen again. I think we are going to have to play harder than we did last time we beat them. As long as we keep of the D, and Jamison and Caron continue to take on more of the scoring burden, we will be fine. Just to point out how well everyone has picked up the slack, I jacked this little quote from the official Wizards blog:

"Antawn’s average is up 8.8 ppg and so is Antonio’s….Nick Young’s scoring up 8.1 ppg and Blatche 6.8 ppg..those figures are over the last 7 games"

For all those people out in blog o land looking forward to seeing an update tomorrow morning, I'm going to have to disappoint you and say, not happening. Maybe tomorrow afternoon. I gotta get my drink on tonight.

Happy Friday. Go Wiz! (I love the implications of shortening the Wizards to simply "Wiz", after all, Nobody Beats the Wiz!)

Prediction: LBJ to Brooklyn Nets

2007-11-29T13:51:00.000-08:00

I don't know if other people are saying this, but I need to get this off my chest. LBJ is not going to the Knicks when he opts-out in Cleveland. His friend Jay-Z is a part owner of the Nets. I have no idea where I read it, but in James' early days, he would talk to J about stuff, from business to girls, whatever. He's going to the Brooklyn Nets. Anyway, I see that as a far more likely scenario. I've believed this for the past 2 years, so I don't want everyone acting all surprised when it happens. Just remember, I said it here.

PS - Provoking this post was Henry at TrueHoop in his bullets for today: "Reciprocal man-crush: LeBron James and Jason Kidd. And Kidd plays for James' friend Jay-Z."

NBA Survey Follow-up

2007-11-29T12:56:00.000-08:00

Following up my post here, I received an email from the NBA Fan Forum (ok, ok, it was a "Newsletter"). It contained many items, the contents of which I will share with you here.

The first part of the newsletter contained anonymous quotes from forum members. Below are some of those quotes with my own snide, witty comments following:

“Because I have been a fan of the NBA since I was 10 and I am now 48. I like the opportunity to give my opinions and input. I want to keep it a respectable, fun sport for all to enjoy.”

In English: Because I am older, I know how basketball should be played. I know how it should be marketed. Listen to me! Stop the hip-hoppiness!

“As a long time basketball fan, I feel my insights into the NBA might be helpful in improving your product for the average fan.”

Also stated: I am all-knowing. My words are your divine guidance and you shall obey henceforth.

“Even though I’m not a ‘normal’ fan base person (female, aged 60), I am a rabid basketball fan…and I’d like to believe my opinions count for something.”

David Stern's (fictional) response: "They do not, I only care about the opinions of my owners (except Cuban, that bastard) and other white, rich, elitists whom I believe will pay big money for advertising in my league as well as help solidify my position as greatest commissioner of any sport, ever.*

The next two pieces of the newsletter told us, the NBA Fan Forum membership, that we helped name the new, free NBA insider like program called "NBA All Access". Note: No Ahmad Rashad. Check that out here: http://www.nba.com/allaccess/. We of the forum also voted on prizes for voting for all stars and the winner was, GASP, a set of two season tickets. Big new, big news.

Now, here is where it starts to get (somewhat) good. I'm a fan of surveys that gauge public opinion in the least statistically relevant way possible, and in that light, I present to you results of who the forum participants pick as recipients of major awards (quoted directly from the survey):

The top choice for MVP was Kevin Garnett (21%), followed by LeBron James (14%), Steve Nash (12%), Kobe Bryant (11%) and Tim Duncan (9%).

The Defensive Player of the Year award results were closer with the top choices being Bruce Bowen (13%), Kevin Garnett (13%), Dwight Howard (11%), Ben Wallace (10%), Marcus Camby (10%) and Tim Duncan (10%).

Manu Ginobili (34%) was, by far, the top choice for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award. The next closest players chosen were Leandro Barbosa (14%), Boris Diaw (4%), David Lee (4%) and Andres Nocioni (4%).

Now, I can't totally make fun of the survey, as the last section provides information on who is taking the survey, which I think is quite interesting (really).

Age: Panelists are spread throughout different age groups from 13-17 year olds (1,174 panelists) to 18-34 year olds (5,401) to 35-54 year olds (4,452) to 55+ year olds (1,281).

Gender: There are 8,205 male and 4,103 female panelists.

Favorite team: The panel includes fans of teams across the league such as the Lakers (1,626), Suns (1,024), Pistons (941), Spurs (916), Heat (778), Mavericks (755), Bulls (693), Knicks (530), Rockets (431), Cavaliers (405), Nuggets (374), Celtics (355), Nets (306), Wizards (249) and Kings (248).

NBA attendance: While one-third of the panel (4,364) did not attend a game last season, 1,178 panelists said that they attended more than 20 NBA games. Ten percent of the panel said that they are a full (703) or partial (565) season ticket holder.

WNBA habits: There are many WNBA fans too as 2,470 panelists said that they frequently watch WNBA games on TV and 618 said that they frequently attend WNBA games.

Basketball participation: 4,008 panelists said that they play basketball frequently (once a week or more), while 5,115 play less than once a week and 3,185 did not play basketball last year.

So, what have we learned? No one watches the WNBA, no matter how many survey stuffers the NBA employs.

*It should be noted that I think Stern has done a fantastic job running the league for the past million years or so but I think it's time for him to step down. Sometimes fresh perspective is hte best thing that can happen to an organization as large as the NBA. I make fun only because I care.

Arenas out for 6 months?

2007-11-29T11:08:00.000-08:00

According to an article on Basketball Prospectus by Kevin Pelton and Will Carroll, yes, that seems to be the consensus of the article. I'll quote directly from the piece, but you should really go read it.

"The three-month recovery quoted by the Wizards is extremely aggressive--most physicians interviewed for this piece felt that six months was a more likely scenario--but none would rule it out. "Pain tolerance is what it will come down to," said one orthopaedist who regularly performs this type of surgery on skiers."

The rest of the article speaks to the future problem Arenas will most likely have. Whereas he was practically assured of getting a max deal from the Wizards or elsewhere when he announced he would opt-out, now that doesn't seem so guaranteed. His knee may have never healed completely, evidenced by the return of swelling when he pushed it.

The article goes on to discuss the fantastic contributions of AD and Blatche (to which every Wizards fan should remark, "well, no s**t, we knew they were good"). I'll end this with one other direct quote from the article, one that speaks differently of their defense than I have in the past.

"Butler and Jamison have been brilliant since Arenas' injury, averaging 24.3 and 29.0 points, respectively. More striking has been their efficiency. Butler has hit 11 three-pointers at a 64.7% clip and has a 65.7% True Shooting Percentage; Jamison is hitting 56.3% from the field and has a True Shooting Percentage just behind Butler's at 64.5%. Last year, their True Shooting Percentages were 53.7% and 54.5%, respectively, and both players will have a very tough time maintaining their efficiency. As they cool down, so too will the unsustainably-hot Wizards offense."

I'm Excited

2007-11-28T13:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, so after a morning at work "wasted" reading all the articles and blogs concerning the Wizards, I have rested on a final emotion. Excited.

I'm excited because Caron Butler is on fire. The last 3 games he has gone for 26, 27 and 35, and as pointed about by Bullets Forever, his TS% is at 61.4. Frankly, that's awesome unbelievable-ness considering most people view Caron as a 3rd fiddle on a team that already includes Arenas and Jamison as primary scoring options. But with Gil the Thrill out for 3 months, he has stepped up in a big way. His importance to the game isn't showing up in the typical boxscore, but his 16 dimes and 9 steals over the past 3 games have been essential. I agree with Jake over at BF, I'm not ready to name him the best player on the team, but I'll go along with Dave and Glenn over at the Wizards blog who observed that the team is taking on Caron's, "identity on defense–diving for loose balls, digging to try and force steals." I like it. No. I love it. That type of basketball helps win games, check out the Bulls circa the previous 2 years.

I'm excited because Brendan Haywood isn't Brenda anymore. He's the Beast. Although his numbers the last few games don't necessarily indicate, his 6 double-doubles, his above average FG%, his intensity and most remarkable of all, his defense have all been a huge part of the Wizards success this year. Don't forget, the Wiz lost a whopping 5 games to start the season. Getting out of that hole would have been impossible without the Beast on the Boards.

(George Widman - AP)
I'm excited because AD is being AD. He's diving at the floor and making funny faces. He's passing and hitting his shots. He has up'd his game tremendously in the absence of the Agent, running this team from the point like a true point guard. Only 2 turnovers the past 3 games. 2. Douce. Duex. Both of those came against Dallas, which means in 74 minutes of combined play in two games vs GS and Memphis, he had a whopping ZERO turnovers. I'm most excited to see him starting to get to the line. The game just isn't the same without AD going down hard, laying there a while, and getting up making his "Ahhh man...I mean....damn, why do I always hit the floor so friggin hard, F##K!" face. I love it.

I'm excited about Nick Young. I was happy to see the Wizards pick him last year because above all else, the kid puts points on the board. He's only getting limited minutes, but he is scoring at will. I also like to hear things like this, from Ivan Carter over at the Post:

"They were trying to make a run so I just wanted to be aggressive," Young said. "I got a rebound and started pushing it, and the lane just opened up. One thing Caron is always telling me is: Don't play scared. I've played in a couple of games now, and I'm getting more confident. I'm seeing that I can go to the hole. I don't want to do it every time, but I feel that I can get there when I need to."

Think about it. We have the lead in the 3rd quarter, but instead of losing the lead going into the 4th, as is typical Wizards fashion, we throw in Nick Young to throw down and drive the lane, which he does perfectly. Once his defense picks up, I expect to see him in more games.

Andray Blatche. I'm not gonna say I'm excited. I'm not. I'm ecstatic. When Blatche is on, the dude is ON!! Rebounds, jumpers, blocked shots, he can even put the ball on the floor and drive the lane. Phenomenal. Although he is still streaky at this point, throwing up at average of almost 8 points a game with 5 rebounds in only 20 minutes of play is great. The energy he brings to the floor can't be quantified in statistics.

I'm excited about Jamison. It's a contract year, I'm sure he's excited too :-) No, but seriously. Can't say enough about a veteran who comes out every night and simply drops bombs on the opposition. Although I'm used to the crazy tear drops, the impossible lay-in's, and the remarkably impossible post up, I still get scared. But he always quells my fear by dropping 40 when he needs to. Nuff said.

I'm excited about Eddie Jordan. He is managing minutes perfectly, making the most of the players we have and in the process, is proving that we have one of the deepest benches in the L.

Songalia, he's good at stuff. Like setting picks and pissing off the other team. I like that. He works the Pick/Roll with AD to perfection.

So, like I said, I'm excited.

RIP: Sean Taylor

2007-11-27T08:52:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say what a horrible tragedy this is. I had heard before falling asleep that he had responded to doctors and woke up to find out the terrible news. 24 years old, a new daughter and everything. Very sad. Thoughts and prayers to his whole family. The whole DC community feels this one.

NBA Referee Survey

2007-11-27T07:10:00.000-08:00

So I'm on the NBA Fan Forum panel that gets surveys in the mail every now and again. I'm not totally sure how I got invited to join the program, but you get these survey requests about various NBA related topics. ANYWAY. The survey invitation I got this morning was about referees and asked for a my opinion on NBA trustworthiness compared to other professional sports leagues (including boxing...). It also asked lots of other questions, including ones about gambling and how I felt about the whole thing, if I thought it was isolated (I do) or if I think gambling among refs is a problem in general (I don't). Anyway, the space I liked most was where you could make a suggestion, here was mine:

We know that they review tapes after games, (now they even get a super duper projector) how about if they prepared a report on calls they thought were close and were protested, but were called correctly, as well as calls they may have missed, and released it to the press? Maybe there could even be video to go along with it? During the playoffs, I would be willing to accept a delay in the report, given the circumstances.

Anyway, I'm not sure that would be a good permanent solution, but I think that some discussion with active referees, with the game still fresh in their mind, can be helpful. That's just me.

PS - I think the results, or at least some of them, should be released. Court Reporters, get on it.

Mavericks Postgame, Initial Reaction

2007-11-26T20:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, big win tonight. Caron hits 5 3's (new career high), the last of which was in the last few seconds of the game, during garbage time. He finished with 35 points. That's 3 in a row where Caron has absolutely picked up the slack. He missed 4 shots all night. Stupendous.

Jamison took over as the closer in the game, at one point dashing though the middle to get his own rebound on a missed free throw (I'm sure Avery was happy about that, thought they didn't show him on the sideline).

Defense was pretty good. I saw a lot of great rotations, and lots of hands in faces. Everyone pretty much stuck to their assignment and we held the Mavs to under 40% shooting. The Mavs have now lost their 3rd in a row.

Duncan on ballot as Forward, as it should be

2007-11-26T10:10:00.000-08:00

I didn't see anything about this anywhere, but I went to nba.com to do my daily voting, and I noticed that Duncan is now on the list of West Forwards. The result is one less West Center, big friggin deal. Glad to see the League rectified this error. It would have been a travesty if Duncan, one of the best, if not THE best in the NBA right now, was not on the all-star team simply because his position was botched on the ballot. Go Vote Now, and don't forget to vote for the Agent as well!

What I missed

2007-11-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

Well, for starters, I missed the overtime game against Charlotte on Wednesday night, due to travel. I checked the score throughout, and I could have guessed that the team was suffering a bit of mental anguish after finding out Gil is out for 3 months. Reading the follow-up pretty much confirms this (and that Butler had a huge night). But we won, and that's what counts.

Since the NBA TV was not destined to be for me right now, I also missed the Warriors and Grizzlies games, both of which we lost. I didn't get a chance to follow those games, so my observations come purely from the boxscore and other blogs.

Against the Warriors I can see that both sides were shooting the lights out, with Caron earning his first career-triple double (that's two big games in a row, for those keeping score at home). BD got one as well, first time that's happened since like, the Ice Ages. Anyway, very happy to see Caron stepping up his game to another level, but we couldn't pull it out. From Bullets Forever, it seems that we just broke down at the end. There's a shocker. The Wizards D couldn't contain a hot shooting Warriors, and when Gil time comes along and there is no Gil, someone (in this case Caron) has to take bad shots. I'm not too worried, you win some, you lose some, but it is a little disconcerting that we could have won with a few defensive stops. Haywood wasn't much help on the inside, coming off a bad ankle and all. He went 3-8 and pulled down 4 rebounds. Not exactly the Beast.

Against the Gizz, and the Juan and the Pau, the Wiz couldn't pull out a win. The Man with a Plan, Antawn Jamison went off for 41 points (boxscore), but that wasn't enough to overcome the Grizz. We did a little better on the boards and the assist numbers were up from the previous game, but some poor free throw shooting and once again, a lack of D, the Wizards left Memphis feelin the blues. Apparently, the Wizards hit a bit of a dry spell from the left side of the floor. Interesting.

It doesn't get any easier from here with games against the Mavs tonight and Spurs on Wednesday to wrap up the West road trip. I am not sure we can beat these elite teams without the Agent, but if we can play some defense and pass the ball around, we can at least stay competitive so that when we visit Philly on Friday, we'll have the momentum to take a W on the way to a week and a half long home stand. Big games from Haywood or AD (or both) could push us to upset one of these behemoths, but don't count on it. Les Bullez says it best, "this season will be a roller coaster."

Gil Out 3 Months

2007-11-22T17:11:00.001-08:00

I realize the news broke yesterday, but like most Americans, I was traveling and my mobile blogging stuff wasn't setup correctly (aka, I was sleeping on the train). Anyway, as soon as I read it (and here, and here) I sighed a big, long, sigh. Granted, we won 3 games without Gil, but this hurts. Just when we thought we might get him back, BAM! I am sure he is just as frustrated as we all are, especially since he's also dealing with a breakup.

But I have confidence in Gil and in this team. The Agent will work to get back in shape, and he will do it right this time. The knee injury at the end of last year was his first real injury (disregarding his rookie season), so he probably didn't know how hard, or not hard, he should go. Since Gil is Gil, he went hard. I just hope that it is really fixed this time and when he comes back, he comes back for good.

All us Wizards fans need to stick by him and this team to make sure we can stay afloat and keep winning games. We have a very strong bench, one that will surely be able to help us win some games. The upcoming road trip with games against Dallas and San Antonio is going to be tough, but hey, it was gonna be tough anyway.

I hope everyone had a fantastic turkey day. Gil will be back. The Wizards will make the playoffs. It will happen. Are you ready?

Wizards Destroy 76'ers

2007-11-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

The Wizards absolutely tore it up last night. Even the new AI was pissed that his team got beat so bad (who wouldn't?). The fact that they were able to kick so much ass last night, without the Secret Agent speaks volumes (loud ones). There were amazing things happening all over the court.

- They played TEAM defense. I actually saw help defenders help and guards other than AD fighting through screens. Whoa.

- Blatche showed us what he can really do. Check out his stat line: 26 points on 12-14 shooting, not including the big 3 he hit to close out the half. Don't forget about his 8 rebounds, 4 assists and the one block.

- Deshawn Stevenson has offense (7-11 from the field). He was absolutely ON FIRE from deep.

- Team Assist Total? How about a new season high of 29 dimes. 'Nuff said.

Watching the game last night was fantastic, I really wish I had gone. We had 98 points in THREE QUARTERS! I hope the Wizards can continue to play like this. The energy they bring to the floor, the fact they are winning without the man, the passing and spreading the floor, the awesomeness that is Andrey Blatche. So nice.

That's it for now,

Happy traveling everyone!

GilTV Videos for the Gil2Zeros

2007-11-21T06:54:00.000-08:00

Here are some super fantastic awesome videos from Gil advertising his new shoes (check out GilTV). Got these from Wizznutzz:

Black President:

Hibachi: Cooking with Gil

Shrimp or Lobster?

The best one, in my opinion, as Gil takes on a Lobster 1 on 1 is...

Gil Island, Cuba Shoe:

Wow. What a bench.

2007-11-20T17:08:00.000-08:00

I know it's only half-time, but DAMN! Blatche hits the 3 to end the half. Stevenson hits two big 3's in a row and is on fire (ok, he's not bench, but he was playing like it). What would normally be considered the bench is shooting about 70% from the field. The future Slam Dunk champ (and here) Nick Young was tearin it up as well. Blatche is leading all Wizard scorers with 16pts to go with his 4 Reb and 3 dimes. Wow. This is fantastic. If that bench can play like that in the playoffs? You kidding?

Oleksiy Pecherov at the Grocery Store...?

2007-11-19T06:44:00.000-08:00

I was walking in to my local Shoppers grocery store in Northern Virginia and I noticed a really tall guy on crutches coming towards me. He seemed to have a cast on his foot, but I only recall thinking, "Damn, he's tall." (FYI: I am 6'3" myself, so for me to see a taller person is already strange). Then I keep staring, and it is none other than Oleksiy Pecherov. I continue to stare, like an idiot, as he walks past me out the door. He turns around to take measure of the weird guy staring at him and I say, "Hey, good luck this year." (I know, I have the quickest of wit). What he was doing at the cheapy cheap grocery store in Northern Virginia at around 6 in the evening, I have no idea (I was getting stuff to bake cookies, you needed to know this). Doesn't he make enough to shop at Harris Teeter or Whole Foods? Or maybe pay someone to do it for him? Perhaps he ran out of milk and sugar, or maybe he needed some meat for his Beef Stroganov (don't forget some potatoes!). He seemed to know someone behind the counter, as he was giving his regards in Russian as he walked out. If anyone has some inside knowledge, feel free to share.

Don't Tease Me

2007-11-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, for all 3 readers of this blog, you need to know that I was not always a Wizards fan. I adopted them when I broke up with the Knicks a few years back. I'm originally from NY and was raised a Knick fan. Perhaps I can talk more about it another time, but first, to the link. Found this (Newsday) via SLAM Online.

"If the Knicks return home with a 2-7 record after this four-game West Coast swing, which continues tonight in Sacramento against the Kings, a change may be inevitable. Dolan is said to have already lost his patience with the poor start."

Man, oh man, oh MAN! If only...but something tells me that yet again, the NY press is taking another story out of context. I can hope. Right?

We Needed That

2007-11-15T09:35:00.000-08:00

I watched the win against the Pacers last night and I liked what I saw. Arenas came to play and although it was against a Pacers team we were supposed to beat (now on a 5 game losing streak), the offense and defense both looked promising. After seeing them struggle the first couple of games, it was a breath of fresh wiz. Butler delivered another fantastic performance and finished with 25pts (7-7 from the line), 7 rebounds and 4 steals. It looks like this team may be coming back to life. Their team TS% is up to 45.2% (brought down a bit by the rooks, who aren't shooting terribly well). In the game last night, only 1 player (Jamison) didn't have a TS% over 50% (table here). But the fact that they won, with Jamison shooting so poorly (7pts, 1-5 from behind the arc), shows that this team can win without it's Big 3, as long as someone else picks up the slack. In the past, that was a sore spot for the Wizards. This year they have The Beast, Brendan Haywood (more on that below). Their higher TS% indicates to me that they are taking better shots, which I like. It was SO frustrating to watch them bring up the ball, stand around, and shoot the first shot they saw, which was usually a low percentage contested shot from the perimeter (diagrammed here). Yesterday, I spoke about the 5 things the Wizards needed to do to win the game. They were:

Haywood has to be a Beast like he was the first 3 games

Check. Just like the first 3 games, Haywood finishes with a double double (16pts, 11reb, 8 of which were on the offensive boards). Jeff Foster was no problem for the bigger Haywood, who continually abused him on both sides of the floor. Haywood even had a sweet dish to Songaila under the rim in the second half of play, and finished the game with 3 assists.

Gil has got to get to the line.

Check. He did more than just get to the line 11 times (hit 9 of those), he shot 9-18 from the floor while hitting 3-8 from behind the arc. His range from beyond will come, but his 30 points and 11 assists were a must have in this game and adds him to list of Wizards players who finished the game with double doubles (only him and Haywood, but Butler was 3 boards off).

Stevenson has to remain un-slumpified

Half a check. Eh. I wasn't overly impressed with is 24 minutes on the floor. He got 5 Reb, all on the defensive end and dished it 3 times. He did help a bit on D when O'Neal was in, but I would like to see better shooting if he is going to start. 1-3 from the floor and 1 missed 3-pointer doesn't exactly scream starter to me. He didn't play terribly, and didn't hurt the team that much (only 1 TO), but I would like to see some improvement on his part.

Eddie Jordan has to play Haywood and Blatche at the same time

Check. I am not sure how many minutes they played together, seemed like somewhere between 10-20, and when they were, it was awesome. I counted at least 2 tipped passes by Blatche as well as a sweet mid-range jumper that hit nothing but net. Having both of them spreads the floor so much because most teams don't have the ability to guard two 7-footers, especially this deadly combo. Once Blatche is able to hit that 15 footer consistently, he is going to be a real threat in this league. When we had these two, Songaila, Arenas and either CB or AJ on the floor, the Wiz were simply unstoppable. I like the rotation EJ is developing. Shame on you who put him on the hot seat.

Pass the ball

Check. They won in ATL with a season high 26 assists. They finished this game with 23. The result? More high percentage shots. Perfect. As I mentioned above, 11 of those dimes were from Mr. Swagtastic himself. And Simmons says he isn't going to play the point.

For those of you not keeping score at home, 4.5 out of 5 ain't bad. I know, it was just Indiana, and we don't exactly play a tough schedule the rest of the week, but we need some good wins. We need to beat the teams we are supposed to beat. Once we do that, we will be back on track and it will be like those first 5 losses never happened.

Notes: All stats, as usual, from Knickerblogger.com. For more info on True Shooting Percentage (TS%), check out Kevin Peltons Stats 101 site here.

Wizards/Pacers: Pregame Points

2007-11-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

The Wizards play the Pacers tomorrow night, and I think we owe them a little somethin, somethin. You know, like a whoopin. A spanking. A, "We are WAYYYYY better than you" type of beat down. Kinda like what the Celt's did to us. I digress. I was really happy to see us get a win on the road against a streaky Atlanta team. I had to miss the 3rd quarter of play due to travel between locations (you know, Metro on the weekends is slow as balls), but from what I saw in the first half and the last quarter of play was promising. I guess that players meeting after the loss to the Nuggs really helped. We could easily go 3-0 this week with games against the Pacers, Minny, and the Blaze. If we can do that, we are ok. If we end up with anything less than 2-1, the Wizards are gonna be in trouble. Although there are those that believe Indy is a fluke, it's not like they don't get their shots. We have to stay focused on how we win games, and with that, here is what I think they need to do in order to win.

Haywood must be the Beast he was in the first 3 games. His double-doubles are a huge piece of the Wiz winning games. His competition is pretty weak this week as he goes up against T. Murphy, Jefferson, and Frye. He should be able to take them no problem. In fact, I think Haywood could even post a 20 rebound game against the Pacers or the Blaze. Anyway, if Haywood comes to play, it drastically improves our chances to win

Gil has got to get to the line. In the past 6 games, he has gone to the line 10 times. That's it. 10. Anyone who has watched them over the last 2 years knows that in order for Gil to get his points, he has to get to the line. I know he isn't at 100%, and he has been OK at distributing the ball to the other players on the floor for open shots, but unless he gets to the line and hits some free throws, the defense will not respect him at all.

Stevenson must stay out of his slump. He has to play stiff D. He has to shoot better. Basically, he has to be a good complimentary player, which he hasn't been.

Eddie Jordan has got to put Blatche and Haywood in at the same time again. We simply dominate the frontcourt with those two in. No idea why it doesn't happen more often.

Pass, pass, pass the ball. They had a season high 26 assists in their win in the ATL, surprised? When teams pass, it creates more open shots, which will inevitably lead to more points.

One other thing I'd like to address is their overall shooting and shot selection. I can quantify the shooting in numbers. As a team, they have a TS% of 41.3%. The best shooters on the team are Haywood, Songaila (expected, as they usually get lots of high percentage shots) and Butler, which is AWESOME! Caron's TS% is 53.9 (all stats from Knickerblogger). However, from my observations, their shot selection could use some improvement. I didn't make it a point, since I don't think it's going to be a big problem if they can keep their D up. But I'd like to see some better shots taken.

All in all, I think the Wiz are gonna be ok, and I'm looking forward to watching them beat the crap out of Indy.

I hate Boston too, but this is ridiculous

2007-11-12T10:20:00.000-08:00

Found this over at CelticsBlog (via BallHype), un-friggin-believable. Go to the site for more.

The Celtics lead the league in point differential at +18.0 ppg (next closest is 11 ppg)
However, the defense is tops in the league on a FG % basis giving up a stingy 39.8% per game! (that's crazy)
Oh and to compliment the defensive prowess, the offense ranks 7th in the league in points per game, but is the top shooting team, making 54.5% of their attempts (also crazy).
The PGA tour is among the top 20 in ppg.
Ray Allen is 2nd in the NBA in FG % at 63% - which is unbelievable for a perimeter player. And KG isn't that far behind at 6th.

Finally. A Win.

2007-11-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

It came in the disguise of a Sunday afternoon game. They played defense, the Big 3 put up decent numbers, and Haywood played the way he had the first 3 games. We are going to need his continued production in order to keep winning, but I'm feeling good about the upcoming week, only 3 games: Indiana, Minny, and Portland. I suspect some revenge is in order for that beating on opening night vs. Indy, Minnesota is a young team we should be able to handle, Portland as well. If we can at least go 2-1 this week it would be a good sign of things to come.

We needed that win today, and they earned it against a previously hot but currently mild Hawks team. I don't want to talk about that Nuggets game, by the way. I was there, it was horrendous. That's all I have to say about that.

We get it, the Celtics are good

2007-11-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

Can we PLEASE stop talking about the Celtics? I was afraid this over coverage might happen. Every site I go to is Celtics this and Celtics that. STOP! We get it, they're really, really, REALLY good. Now, I know the various Celtics Blogs (including the aptly named CelticsBlog) are going to be doing this throughout the season, but we don't need it from everyone else. Yes, some people have touched on the other awesome stories around the NBA, like the Hawks starting strong(from the Boston Herald, of all places), the Hornets finally showing what they can do, and even my ex, the Knicks, doing good things, but for the most part the Celtics are everywhere. Just go to BallHype and check out the NBA section. When I got in to work this morning and my RSS feeds all came in, all the general NBA blogs were either talking about the Celtics or linking to the stories elsewhere. At least Henry Abbot over at TrueHoop hasn't jumped on the bandwagon (yet).

Look, I am all for the revival of the Celtics, but can we stick to just a few stories a day? Do we have to make such a big deal out of it? I mean, did you think the PGA tour (my fav nickname) was gonna be BAD? Of course not. Some thought they may take time to gel, but that didn't happen. They are awesome out the gate. Lets give thim their due credit and move on please.

Instead, lets talk about Amare buying his 4th house, straight cash. Or about Scott Skiles, the dictator(hockey assist to RealGM).

PS - I know this isn't gonna happen, but thanks for listening anyway.

Wizards lack the Magic Touch

2007-11-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

What is wrong with the Wizards? Why can't they shoot? Why so many turnovers? Why is Brendon Haywood the most dominate player on the floor? Why do fans at the Verizon Center suck? Those are the questions. I seek thruthiness below (nod of the head to Colbert).

What is wrong with the Wizards?
I do not think anything is wrong with the Wizards. They had a strong preseason showing and everyone in the organization was (and still is) confident that this is a good team capable of accomplishing great things. From watching their 3 games so far, I do not see a 'bad' team. I do see a team that struggles on both ends of the floor. Their defense vs. Orlando had moments of greatness. They also had moments where they left the middle WIDE OPEN. I stopped counting the times that Howard or Turkoglu or even Nelson made our defense look like the 33rd best in the league (yes, worse than Minny). We need to cover the middle. We need to play better help defense, too many uncontested 3's after 3-4 passes. Now, the part the Wizards are supposed to be good at, even earning the nickname, "the Suns of the East," is scoring. But whoa. What happened there?

What can't they shoot?
You got me on this one. After the Orlando game I read a report that Gil's knee was bothering him so he gets a free one this time. However, the other 2 of the Wizards big three need to pick it up a bit. Yes, Butler started hitting his shot by the middle of the 2nd quarter of the game, but he seemed inconsistent. It looked like he wanted take over the game but everytime he started getting hot the Magic would drive down, exploit the lack of D in the middle, and then we were right back where we started. He ended that night hitting a little less than 50% of his FG's. Jamison shot way worse (6-16 from the field) but made up for it with some nice 3's and his ability to get to the line (a whopping SEVEN FT's). I would have liked to see AD in there a bit more, but I think he busted his nose or something, he was only in for 10 minutes. But I digress. I don't know why the Wiz can't shoot. Maybe they lost their wizardry somewhere along the line in preseason, but they need to find it, fast. The Nuggets are going to run the floor with us and we can't afford to not be hitting shots.

Why so many turnovers?
Well, Gil comitting 6 turnovers (though he had 6 assists) vs. the Magic didn't help. Neither did our inability to rebound the ball. It isn't counted in any NBA stat, but we lost A LOT of rebounds vs Magic. We actually did better vs. KG and the Celtics. Not a lot can be said here, just take care of the ball guys, c'mon now!

Why is Brendon Haywood the most dominate player on the floor?
Not enough good things can be said about Haywood and his performance this year. He has just been awesome. I plan on writing a more in depth post on the productivity of Haywood this year compared to the past, but for now, let's just look at the numbers. In Indy, 13 rebounds, in Boston, 12 rebounds, and against the Magic, a career high of 16 rebounds. Now, I know BH ain't no KG, Dwight Howard or even Marcus Camby, but if he can keep his rebounding production up, that will help A LOT (more rebounds = more possessions = more shot attempts = more points).

Why do fans at the Verizon Center suck?
I was SO disappointed in my fellow ticket holders on Saturday night. I would have expected such suckage from a Wednesday night game in January, but opening night? After getting a beating from the Celtics and a tough loss from Indy, I expected the crowd to be with it. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was in Section 416 and there was one other guy 1 or 2 sections over that would routinely try to get people involved with 'Let's go Wizards.' Look, I know, saying, "Let's go Wizards!," sounds like you are cheering on a Middle School volleyball team, but can't you put that aside for just a little while? Would it hurt you to stand up and cheer when it is clear that they need our help? I couldn't help but feel jealous watching the Boston Garden crowd, with it's rowdy, victory-laden fans booing Gil at every turn. Why did we not boo (except at the end when EJ threw in the towel)? Why did we not cheer when the Wizards were on a roll? I know, I'm asking more questions, but it really bothers me that the crowd at the Wizards games suck so much. The kids right in front of me were more concerned with trying to figure out who was yelling in the next section than who was winning the game. I should end this now before it turns into a rant, but hey, VC, lets do a better job next time, k?

Arenas in Sports Illustrated

2007-11-02T15:07:00.000-07:00

If you haven't read it already, you should. Besides discussing his candidacy for MVP is this gem,

"I told Arenas that I imagined at his best he could be like Isiah Thomas, who won two championships as a scoring point guard. He nodded in agreement and said, "I'm much stronger and a better shooter than he was.''

And if he ever becomes a GM...

Go. Read. Discuss.

Arenas Isn't Backing Off

2007-11-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

There are some people out there who seem to think Arenas is backing off his prediction that they are going to be the C's tonight. Granted, he said in his very own blog in a section titled, "Prediction Time," that,

"You guys are going to lose. It's not going to be a victory for Boston. You might as well just cheer for me, because Boston isn't winning in Boston for the season opener. I'm sorry."

When is a player ever going to come out and say that they are going to lose, or that they are going to have a tough time tough time with a given team? Does that ever happen? We all know there are players out there that talk a bit more than others, Rasheed, GP, etc., but I don't think any player would ever take a position any less swag-tastic than the one Gil took. Every player in the NBA wants to win all the time. If they didn't, then they shouldn't be in a Professional basketball Association.

What Gil did by stating,

"...when you look at that Celtics team, that’s a powerful team … on paper. Once those guys get going, you’re in trouble. You can’t guard that team … on paper."

is acknowledge that it won't be easy. I could even take it one stop further and say that by saying this, he is preparing himself for the win. He knows it won't be easy, but that is what makes success that much sweeter. Being able to beat the Big 3 of the C's, at home, on their opening night, is exaclty the kind of motivation Gil needs (beating the Pacers would have been nice, just sayin). They absoultely DOMINATED the headlines until this Kobe garbage came out. If it isn't plainly obvious by now that Gil loves attention...and that stealing headlines is a favorite pasttime....c'mon, don't you see? Gil thrives off the doubters and the non-believers. When he comes out and says that they are going to beat the Celtics and then acknowledges that they have a great team, which happens to include the great KG, that is ALL the same message. He isn't changing course, he is reaffirming his stance that they are going to beat them, and you know what? I believe him. After all, His Swag IS Phenomenal. Go Wizards!

Hibachi on Mild

2007-11-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Welcome to my Swog. It will be Phenomenal.

2007-11-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome ladies and gentleman to that which is my swog. In this space on the internets, I will muse about my Washington Wizards. And about Gilbert, the original swogger, as well any other topic abound the Association that I feel like expressing my opinion on (I have lots of opinions, as you shall see. I'm also a big fan of parenthesis).

Me? I am just a fan. More about me in a post some other time. For now, let's discuss.