Wizards Win 2nd of 4 Quarters Versus Pistons!!

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)

So Close. SOOOOO Close!!!

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.

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?