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I’m afraid I’m dating myself with the Oregon Trail reference. It happens.
San Antonio: 59 Rebounds - Washington: 44 Rebounds
Wizards: 12 ast, 9 turnovers – Spurs: 32 ast, 8 turnovers
WAS: 33.3 FG% – SA: 46.5 FG%
From my perspective, the killer against OKC was missed free-throws (19-27, 70.4%) and turnovers (20 for 25 Thunder points) … in addition to uninspired defense of course, namely by the prominent triumvirate that’s supposed to be leading the team.
But enough of that. I’ll have some screen shot breakdowns of the OKC game later, but tonight, the Wizards have to concentrate on the Spurs. Fabricio Oberto will make a homecoming, but his fellow Argentine, Manu Ginobili won’t be available (groin). Tony Parker is also day-to-day (missed Thursday’s game with an ankle).
The Wizards will take all the help they can get, especially as it’s been almost 10 years since they last won a regular season game in San Antonio. During that last win in the Alamodome, Mitch Richmond led all scorers with 31 points. Overall, the Wiz have lost seven in a row to the Spurs, last beating them at home in November ’05 thanks to 43 points from Gilbert Arenas on 15-20 FGs.
No room for moral victories tonight, this team needs a win.
The Wizards play the Thunder at 8 pm tonight in Oklahoma City. I’ll be Twittering and perhaps chatting a bit on ESPN’s Daily Dime.
We’ll see if the Wiz have the consistency, energy and focus it takes to win. Word out of Oklahoma is that the Thunder practiced their zone offense at shoot-around today.
Watch out for that Thabo Sefolosha cat. His on-ball defense is something to get excited about … when not playing the Wizards, obviously. It won’t be easy for Mike Miller or Caron Butler, whomever Thabo is guarding. That means … no dribbling around and trying to force things, Caron.
Brendan Haywood will also being going against his old buddy, Etan ‘The Poet’ Thomas. Wizards Insider has more on the game’s matchup.
Finally, it’s Zero vs. Zero tonight, as my fellow ESPN TrueHoop Network blog, Daily Thunder, points out. Russell Westbrook vs. Gilbert Arenas … hopefully it will be fun to watch (and Gil’s not throwing up stink bombs from deep).
Keep scrolling for what you need to know …
As it’s becoming apparent, this Wale/Wizards thing has become a pet project. I “exchanged” tweets with Wale once (more like baited him into responding), sending a reply when he tweeted his support for the Cavaliers during the playoffs last May.
Recently, Wale confessed in an interview on Passion of the Weiss that he doesn’t root for his hometown team.
Yeah, but I gotta be honest, I’m not the biggest Wizards fan. I usually root for the Nuggets and the Cavs.
Since the initial exchange, he’s answered nary a baiting tweet from @Truth_About_It
Wale can root for whomever he wants. That doesn’t mean he’s any less of a lyricist … and he’s a damn good lyricist. And his fandom regarding the Wizards doesn’t affect my fandom of his music. Still, if you’re going to rep D.C., might as well go all out and get behind the Wizards.
Don’t want to call it a rivalry? There are too many coincidences in the series surrounding these two teams not too. With a Wizards six game losing streak that began in Cleveland and ended against the same team in D.C., there’s a certain symmetry displayed that you just don’t get in your usual Wednesday night matchup between most other NBA teams.
And how many teams does LeBron get so frustrated against that he decides dunk a ball so meaninglessly hard that he hurts his wrist? I don’t know.
This time, however, the injury shoe was on the other foot. There shouldn’t be a single Cavs fan out there saying, ‘We were without Shaq and Varejao.’ They’ve had no qualms about disassembling the Wizards’ bandwagon when it was down a couple wheels. LeBron likes to whine but he’s not Eva Perón, no one in Wizards Nation is going to cry for him, his team, or his city because of injuries.
LeBron was as much of a proponent for his team as he was a detriment to their efforts last night. This will be explained further below.
The game won’t go down as a classic in the Wiz-Cavs rivalry … they don’t all have to be. Overall, it was a great win for the Wizards, vital on several levels. But a “statement” game? (as goes the question at least one reporter always seems to ask a coach, player, etc.) — No.
I’ll be reporting from the game tonight with a Live Twitter Blog (hopefully, if the wordpress plugin works), and will also be checking in on ESPN.com’s Daily Dime chat. Until then, here’s what you need to know …
(and oh yea, GO WIZARDS!)
“It will take a little while to blend together, but I think the guys are looking forward to playing a good team with the best player in the league, and it’s always a very exciting game when these two teams meet.” -Flip Saunders
Resulting from multiple knee surgeries, absence from the court, and subsequent intake of criticism, Gilbert Arenas turned silent … most notably when he stopped blogging, the last entry occurring on November 15, 2008.
By February ’09, Gilbert had entered a full-on Hikikomori (Japanese term for a withdrawal from social life BTW), by not speaking to the media and wearing a hotel ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign around his neck at the Wizards’ practice facility. This happened shortly before he began secretly practicing.
By the end of March, Arenas was telling the media he would no longer talk and subsequently announced his retirement from blogging.
Time passed. Silence … deafening silence. Not a word. Not so much of a peep from Gilbert Arenas.
September comes around and OMG! … It’s Mike Jones of the Washington Times with an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ piece on the elusive target. Jones had people buzzing and congratulating him about his story for weeks.
Here I am to finally write a post about Saturday night’s 106-103 loss to the Pistons. Seems a bit tedious to do at this point. But I have a story to tell, so might as well get it out.
I like to think of myself as a pretty optimist … well, “guarded optimism” was the term I often used prior to the season. Guess I threw that ‘guarded’ part into the wind when I predicted 55 wins. Really? What was I thinking? … but that’s neither here nor there at this juncture. To put it plainly, early in the fourth quarter, when the game had become a back-and-forth battle, I caught myself thinking that the Wizards would find a way to lose. And they did. From predicting 55 wins to the point of reasonable doubt … boy did that escalate quickly.
Flip Saunders used a slightly different term after the game, saying, “It’s like we’re inventing ways to put ourselves in a hole.” This was his response was to a question about DeShawn Stevenson’s ‘away from the play’ foul with 16 seconds left, giving the Pistons a single free-throw and the ball. Ben Gordon, one of the best FT shooters in the league (sixth best percentage among active players), easily sealed the game’s fate, putting Detroit up four with 14.4 seconds left. But Saunders also cited Brendan Haywood’s ‘moment of confusion’ travel at the 2:35 mark of the fourth as another invention of wizardry … among other items of note; 20 Pistons points off 16 Wizards turnovers sounds like it’d fit.
And “inventing” is probably the more apt term to use. “Finding” something can be left completely to chance if you are not looking. You “find” a penny on heads, or rather in the Wizards’ case, a fly in the ointment. An invention is left to your own creation, a self-inflicted device. Sure, inventions can be accidental, but I guess those would be more like “discoveries.”
The Wizards certainly didn’t mean to commit such game influencing gaffes … or score only one meaningless field goal in the game’s final five minutes. The mental lapses, the game slippage as many coaches like to call it, created an environment conducive to loss-inducing invention. It wasn’t an instance of the Wizards “finding” themselves in a hole, they were handing out shovels to each other for digging.
On Thursday, the members of the media were treated to a spirited match of one-on-one between Sam Cassell and Nick Young … well, “spirited” only really reflects one side of the battle, obviously coming from the entertaining Sam I Am.
I didn’t see every possession, but as it’s been reported before, the old man still has it.
The game of one-on-one was of the casual variety that you usually see pro or college basketball players play … mostly jump shots induced by a variety of moves that serve no real purpose of ‘getting to the basket’ productivity.
Young did get his shot to fall a couple times. But for the most part, Cassell was getting the best of the kid with some veteran trickery, craftily adjusting his shot near the basket and using some below the waist leverage to gain an advantage on defense, especially when Young was trying to go up for a shot.
Not only was Cassell talking smack to Young, but he managed to get Brendan Haywood involved as well. At point point after a Young miss, Cassell said something in Haywood’s direction to the effect of “Can’t finish … This is the Wizards … Good first half team, but can’t finish.”
The whole scene left the entire media contingent in stitches and the newly acquired Earl Boykins smiling and shaking his head at the antics of Cassell as he and Gilbert Arenas left the practice court.
In this week’s Dagger Report, Mike Prada of Bullets Forever and I talk about the Wizards’ early season struggles, and how they derive from the sub par play of Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, the arrival of Earl Boykins … and of course, injuries.
And since the Wizards play the Detroit Pistons in D.C. tomorrow night, we caught up with Brian Packey of the SB Nation Pistons blog, Motown String Music. Brian, who evidently attended high school with JaVale McGee, drops some Pistons knowledge on us, reveals Epic Vale’s old nickname, and gives us some insight on the Pistons’ coaching situation past and present.
Enjoy.
Episode 3: The Dagger Report – Washington Wizards podcast
Or click here to subscribe via iTunes.
Sure the Wizards could have gone with a younger guy, perhaps a promising prospect, or even a hard worker from the D-League … but little Earl Boykins is what the Wizards get, a move that clearly has the words ‘offense’ and ‘veteran’ in mind.
Flip Saunders and Boykins go back to the old days in Cleveland, where both were born and raised (not together of course, Saunders is 54 and Boykins is 33). Saunders also saw him play a lot when he coached in Minnesota and Boykins played for the divisional foe Denver Nuggets. Flip said that the 5’5″ guard gives the Wizards something different than what’s currently on the roster, has the ability to pick up things fast, and with his quickness, is a tough matchup for any team.
Saunders also praised Boykins for his floor effectiveness, especially in the fourth quarter, and for his ability to shoot free-throws. Boykins is a career .879 from the charity stripe and finished in the NBA’s top ten from ’03-04 to ’06-07. And free-throw shooting is something the Wizards definitely need.
Boykins wasn’t shipped all the way from Italy, where he spent last season playing. He was hanging out in Denver, Colorado, training in the high altitude, confident some team would need him and come calling … and Washington did. Sort of unfortunate for the Wizards because of injuries resulting in the need to sign someone, but certainly fortunate for Boykins.
When asked about the backcourt injuries his team is facing, going from seven deep in training camp to an available three (Arenas, Stevenson, and Young) with four down (Miller, Crittenton, James, and Foye ), Flip Saunders said, “Maybe I had this kiss of death when I said ‘those things always work themselves’ out … unfortunately they did.”
Boykins said that he’d been contacted by some other teams, but wouldn’t divulge whom. “I’m here, it doesn’t matter,” he said. And “here” is in Washington for a team that not only needs his services for depth, but needs them now … as in playing time against Detroit this Saturday. Saunders even indicated that a backcourt lineup of Boykins and Arenas is a possibility because: Read more »
There was a minor Twitter flurry just before the Wizards game in Miami on Tuesday night. In a flash, reports of Gilbert Arenas’ demise (at least for that evening) spread throughout the web; hyped by yours truly. A sore left calf was the case that they gave him. Bury it with the ghosts of injury past and present, I thought … currently Mike James’ finger, Javaris Crittenton’s foot, the left shoulder of Mike Miller, and the right shoulder of Antawn Jamison … and as we would later find out, Randy Foye’s ankle.
Thoughts of distraught that I won’t repeat conjured in my mind as I rode the late bus home … to make a drink (or two) and watch a DVR delay of the Wizards-Heat game in hopes of catching up by the end. But knowing that without Arenas and the aforementioned others, the Wizards wouldn’t stand a chance.
I arrived home to bond with my television and discover the pleasant surprise of Arenas at the starting gate. Screw whatever was plaguing the team, the Wizards were ready to play.
Seven third quarter Gilbert Arenas turnovers led to eight Dwyane Wade points on five total shots … evidently Arenas said wasn’t getting calls from the refs, or something like that.
Arenas also said:
“I’m always upset when I have turnovers. I’d rather just shoot the ball and get the attempts than get the turnovers.”
Arenas’ 12 total turnovers for the game broke a franchise record that has stood for over 20 years (regular season or playoffs, on either participating team).
Bob Dandridge committed 11 turnovers against the Golden State Warriors (Arenas’ first team) on February 7, 1978 … which also happens to be Juwan Howard’s birthday.
The most turnovers Howard ever had in a Washington Bullets uniform occurred on December 19, 1995 against the Los Angeles Clippers. December 19th is also Tom Gugliotta’s birthday.
{flickr/Coast Guard BM}
The Wizards are in Miami tonight for a rematch with Dwyane Wade and the rest of whomever he plays with.
The sense of urgency is elevated. Yea, yea … it’s early. But considering where things stand, tonight’s game and how the Wizards respond to their self-induced and injury-induced adversity is much more important at a record of 2-5 than if the Wizards were, say, 4-3 and still learning how to play with each other.
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