NBA '06 Preseason USA Kickoff - Wizards vs. Raptors - Truth About It Dot Net

The NBA is back! Being a huge Wizards fan, I decided to stroll over to the Verizon Center last night to check out the action....especially since it's the only home preseason game. Plus, I had nothing better to do and negotiating a ticket for $15 with a scalper wasn't that much of a pain. Probably could've gotten one for much less, free perhaps, but I guess those cats gotta make some money too. But you could tell that it was preseason for the scalpers too. There was still an abundance of them hanging around E St., but they didn't seem to have a rapport built yet.

Side tangent: The whole street scalper business is such a mystery to me. Everyone seems to be their own separate entity, yet under the same umbrella...in that, cats make change for each other and seem to send each other business when a potential customer is not fully satisfied with the current displayed ticket selection by yelling down the street for Debo Jones and Dolemite Jenkins to come over with the selection they have. In walking down the street, I feel like I'm in Hamsterdam from Season 2 of The Wire on HBO. Red Tops....Yellow Tops....Spider Bags.....Wizards vs. Raptors tickets.

Anyway, back to the game. The Washington Wizards started out with Gilbert "Stealth" Arenas and DeShawn Stevenson at the guard spots. Caron Butler at the 3, Antawn Jamison at the 4 and Brendan Haywood at the 5. Here's my down and dirty observations:

Gilbert is the same ol' Gilbert....perhaps a little better on D. He finished the game with 29 points, but had that through 3 quarters. It was a "quiet" 29 in that the points came relatively effortlessly and he seemed to play unselfish....passing up a couple of open shots in an effort to distribute the ball.

I think that Washingtonians are really going to like DeShawn Stevenson. I can't believe we got him so cheap! He definitely looks like a bruiser. I really like having two rocks like him and Caron Butler playing next to each other. The Wizards have the strongest 1-2-3 combo in the league. Plus, kid can score....it definitely helps to have a solid #4 scorer after Stealth, C-Butts and AJ.

I supposed that reports that Butler got stronger are true....but he really looks a lot quicker. And, he's ready to kill teams on the offensive boards. A couple of his wide open shots did look like they had a slight hitch in them.....but when he shoots over close D, he can really get them off quickly.

Haywood still seems like a complete softie on offense. Our big men still leave a lot to be desired (Etan "The Poet" Thomas, Haywood and Michael "Negative O" Ruffin)....but as long as they work their butts off on the defensive end, that's fine with me.

'Twan Jamison will still be solid....just stay healthy kid.

Overall, even though the Wizards ended up losing the game, the first unit look much more cohesive and experienced that the Raptors first unit....especially in jumping out to a 9 - 0 lead with *cough* DEFENSE. Not only could you see the Wiz communicating with points and gestures, but since it was a preseason game and the crowd was sparse, you could hear them. A pretty decent effort and a great starting point for improved TEAM defense. Plus, they seemed to be playing the passing lanes and going after deflections without gambling too much.

I'm a little weary of the second unit...sans Darius Songalia. I definitely like Antonio Daniels providing an offensive spark and veteran leadership off the bench. An early candidate for NBA 6th Man of the Year.

Andray Blatche's shot looked very flat...and he looked overall lost (five turnovers). But I think he's just trying to find his comfort zone.

Last player I will mention....and definitely not the least...is Jarvis Hayes. Now, I knew kid could keep the net wet, from when I watched him back in his SEC days in Athens at the University of Georgia. Well, he sure filled it up last night. Looked very confident in his shot. As far as his knee issues.....he looked mentally confident, but not physically confident. The mental part is more important, the physical will come once he gets his court legs.