It's been a while...

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!)

What I missed

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."

Wizards Destroy 76'ers

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!

Wow. What a bench.

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?