flickr/gerlos

The Wizards still can’t find a way to make things work. And there’s only so much tinkering/adjusting which can be made to a team that plays like they can just fix things in the next game and doesn’t understand the need to play with a sense of urgency in the now.

Is it time to stop searching for a way to make the current situation work and look in a another direction with a significant shake-up? Believers in the constancy of the Arenas/Butler/Jamison Big Three are dwindling faster than Social Security.

Not long ago, Flip Saunders said the time to truly give his team an initial once-over would be after the first twenty games. The Wizards will enter game number twenty on Thursday with a .368 winning percentage in a prime-time national television match against the Eastern Conference co-leading Boston Celtics.

I won’t pull a Jim Zorn and say that things look bleak, but they don’t look promising. With the Redskins talking about being cursed, it’s probably only a matter of time until Tony Kornheiser does a ‘find and replace’ and recycles an old “Curse O’ Les Boulez” column.

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Flip Saunders was not happy after Friday night’s loss against Toronto. “I’m more disappointed in this game than any game we’ve had,” he said. Can’t blame him.

It must have pained Coach even more to say, “That was a typical regular season game of non-playoff teams … playing the way we played. We took 29-three point shots. You don’t take 29 … you know, we’re shooting 32% from three and we take that many threes?”

But the threes aren’t something I especially noticed, aside from Jamison’s off-night 1-7, and they’re not exactly what Flip wanted to concentrate on in his post-game press conference.

Was it Gilbert Arenas’ missed layup (or Andray Blatche’s missed tips) that would have tied the game, possibly sending it into a second overtime? Nope.

“You know what, it’s always what happens is you come in after losing a game like that … and what everyone focuses on is what happened at the end. We lost the game in the first quarter.” Six minutes into the game, the Raptors were up 20-5.

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Matching up post-game locker room quotes with corresponding facial expressions.

Caron Butler

When asked about the shot Hedo Turkoglu hit with 8.1 second left in overtime, putting Toronto up for good at 109-107 …

“Turkish Jordan.

You know, it’s tough. It was a tough shot. Tried to make him take a difficult shot, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Brendan Haywood

When asked about the rebounding of Chris Bosh, who had nine offensive boards, five in the fourth quarter alone, and 16 total for the game … Read more »

7:35:57 PM: Talked 2 Haywood, he expects Bosh 2 come out aggressive tonight after he played good D on him in Toronto & ATL put 146 on TOR on Wed.

7:38:01 PM: Haywood said the Wizards’ defensive focus against Toronto will be to limit their good looks from 3-point land, important to contest shots.

7:40:39 PM: Javaris Crittenton said he “doesn’t really have a timetable” & “should be practicing in a week & a half, no more than 2 weeks.”

7:42:26 PM: Tonight’s Wizards v. Raptors refs: Bill Spooner, Leroy Richardson & Zach Zarba.

7:43:55 PM: @MrMichaelLee takes a look at the Raptors on Wizards Insider http://bit.ly/50SzoJ

7:45:34 PM: The last time the Wiz started 7-10 was in 06-07. They went 20-7 over the next 27 & had best record in East on Jan. 30, 2007.

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I experienced a “first” on Wednesday night.

In the Wizards locker room before the game, I noticed a stack of duPont Registry magazines under one of the huge flat screen televisions. If you aren’t familiar with the duPont Registry, it’s a publication full of fancy/luxury cars, etc. that only really, really rich people can afford. One of my friends had a duPont Registry once, but it was just for lookin’, not for buyin’.

So … Wednesday night was the first time I was in the vicinity of the magazine while also being in a room full of dudes who could purchase something from it.

So I have that going for me.

After Wednesday’s win over Milwaukee, I was all ready to write about Earl Boykins, as was everyone else in the world (and I kinda did … below), but life/work got in the way of a more formal game write-up. It happens.

I’ll be going to/reporting from the Toronto game tonight, and … IT’S FRIDAY!

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Gilbert Arenas’ frustration with what he perceives to be a lack of calls in his favor seemed to culminate on Tuesday night in Toronto. Late in the first quarter, he was given a technical foul by referee Greg Willard for arguing a non-call.

On a drive to the basket, Arenas left his feet for a shot and initiated contact with Toronto’s Amir Johnson. Johnson had his arms straight up, but his body did come into contact with Arenas to the extent that Phil Chenier, Wizards television color-analyst, said he was “incensed” because a foul was not called.

When the whistle wasn’t blown, Arenas circled past the ref on the baseline, clapped his hands together and yelled, “Come on!” This did not warrant a tech. But when Arenas clapped his hands a second time, looking back at the ref and saying something else while running down court, a line was drawn. Willard wouldn’t let Gil continue any further and blew the whistle, adjusting his hands in a perpendicular fashion.

Arenas continued to make impassioned pleas to anyone who would listen. Not as impassioned as Scott Skiles when he was given two technicals and an ejection Wednesday night in the Verizon Center, but it was an issue that continued to be on Arenas’ mind nonetheless, including during the game against the Bucks.

Just past the midway point of the second quarter against Milwaukee, Arenas tried to aggressively attack the basket on three straight offensive possessions. Attempts one and two resulted in blocks by Carlos Delfino and Andrew Bogut. A good case for a foul call could have been made on at least one of those attempts.

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7:53:26 PM: Fellow ESPN TrueHoop Networker @Bucksketball previews tonight’s game & picks the Bucks to win 96-93 http://bit.ly/53Uiia

7:53:59 PM: Mike of @BulletsForever is wishy-washy on the game, but soooo wants to pick the Bucks to win. Actually, he kinda did.

7:58:46 PM: Nick Young had his1st career 30 point game last year in a loss against the Bucks on Jan. 12, 09.

7:59:57 PM: Cop-out RT @PDCavsInsider Don’t blame LBJ on dunk contest. Sort of no win situation. He wins, was expected. He loses 2 Nate & it’s a story.

8:02:08 PM: Wiz have lost 4 in a row against Bucks. Last won on 3/11/08 w a starting lineup of Antonio Daniels, Stevenson, Jamison, Songaila & Haywood

8:08:05 PM: If Flip Saunders doesn’t like late-arriving crowds, tonight’s attendance is really going 2 irk him. I’d estimate less than 6,000 here.

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{keys to win vs. raptors}

Active Hands

… especially from Jamison and Butler, the latter racked up three steals. As a team, the Wizards had 10 steals (their second highest total of the season), and held the Raptors to only two. Against the Suns, the Wiz had 12 steals, but they also had 17 turnovers. The team only turned the ball over 10 times last night.

Pushing Tempo

… even after the Raptors made shots, the Wizards pushed the ball up the court without deliberation, giving the recently stagnant offense more time to get something done.

According to KnickerBlogger.net, the Wizards play at the 14th fastest Pace in the NBA (92.6). Against the Raptors, they played at a Pace of 94.1, which is the Pace of the ninth fastest team, the Houston Rockets. The Raptors rank 11th in Pace at 93.7. Read more »

{flickr/Keith Allison}

The Wizards aren’t particularly bad at defense, but are much further from being particularly good. They rank 20th in the league at Defensive Efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions). At least they don’t seem as bad at defending as in the past, but clearly there’s room for improvement.

What makes this 20th ranking “not as bad” (I suppose) is that defense is not something you can’t definitively point to and say, “That’s why the Wizards are bad.” Yep, our ol’ friend defense can rest a little now that he’s out of the limelight. For a change, he can do some finger-pointing … because there are several reasons why the Wizards are 5-10.

One reason that’s been often talked about is the offensive discord of the two main stars, Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler. Mike Prada has a piece about the statistical ills of Arenas and Butler posted on Bullets Forever. He writes:

The problem is that the two most important parts are underperforming, significantly.  Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler have each been a shell of themselves all month, and that’s all you need to know about the Wizards this season.  It’s like saying all parts of your car are working fine … except the engine and the brakes.  If your engine and your brakes aren’t working, chances are your car is screwed.  If your two best players aren’t performing, then you’re toast as a basketball team.

Prada mostly writes about offensive struggles in his post, but Arenas and Butler are no slouches in the “Bad At Defense” category either. Just like it evidently takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire team to play defense.

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{trustworthy gilbert arenas}

Yesterday, reports surfaced that Antawn Jamison was emphatic about his advice for Gilbert Arenas to stop listening to everyone and just play his game. The implication is that there’s a dire need for Arenas to do something, anything different than what he’s doing now. As the worn-out, but valid, saying dictates, “So goes Gilbert Arenas, so goes the Washington Wizards.”

Ok, so Gil just needs to be Gil … comfortable with himself on the court, alongside trusted teammates with whom he has played before. “That’s what I tell him, ‘Don’t listen to me. Coach says this, don’t listen. You play your game,” said Jamison.

But wait, Antawn is telling Arenas not to listen to Flip Saunders? Well, not really. Jamison knows the fastest route to Gilbert returning to suitable form is for him to stop letting his game be pulled in different directions by the advice of others. As soon as Arenas finds confidence in himself, by himself, the rest of the team will develop a comfort zone around him. But he still needs to follow Flip’s game-plan in the meantime.

Such encouragement of patience from a team leader to a supposed co-leader seems nice, but it doesn’t necessarily come out smelling like roses. The message seems to scrap the goal of transforming Arenas into a game manager, while maintaining a supreme offensive threat (a feat Arenas has clearly been unable to grasp thus far). The advice reeks of 5-10 desperation and entrenches the franchise in a grand hope that the team will be all good once Gilbert is all good. But no one knows what the definition of “good” will ultimately be and when it will arrive.

Jamison’s leadership is sensible. Make Gil a player again before giving him the executive decision responsibilities that Flip intended to give him before the season. Still, starting over at an earlier square (not necessarily square one), fifteen games into the season is far from ideal. For fans, it’s like eating the same stale bread they’ve lived off for the past couple of years. But they don’t have a choice and need to practice patience just like Gil. Because at this point, it’s all the Wizards got. Read more »

On one hand, you have arguably the best game of the year. Dallas is the only other in contention (even though the win against Cleveland was nice, it wasn’t the best).

On the other hand, you have arguably the worst … but there are far more in the conversation (Indiana, Oklahoma City, San Antonio).

Part of me wants to vote for the loss to Charlotte as worst because it’s still fresh. And then there’s this:

Charlotte’s 1st Road Win

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