The last time Coach Doug Collins and his Philadelphia Sixers came to Washington, they were treated to a virtuoso performance by John Wall.  He had 29 points, 13 assists and nine steals in his Wizards home debut, and he helped lead his team to a 116-115 overtime victory.  After the game, Collins sounded like a man completely in awe:

“He’s terrific.  I watched him play in college.  He’s just so explosive with the ball.  When you have a player like that you can almost guarantee that you can get a shot anytime down the floor because he can create something.  He’s so strong, and can get into the gaps.  He’s very unselfish and a powerful finisher at the basket.  He’s a terrific player.”

Tonight when the Sixers take on the Wizards, Wall will not be in the starting lineup (although he is in uniform), but Gilbert Arenas, who did not play against the Sixers the first time, will be on the court for the tip-off.  Arenas is coming off a game against the Pistons where he scored 19 points and dished out a career-high 16 assists.  With or without Wall in the lineup tonight, Arenas figures to cause just as many headaches for the Sixers squad, particularly the guards.

Before tonight’s game, Coach Collins talked about both Wall and Arenas, and the challenges they both pose for this Sixers squad. Watch the video:

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The Boss Man Ted Leonsis has spoken and I concur that from now on, the troll will starve.

However, I wanted to share the following video mashup that I created surrounding the Wall Dougie Dance or as I like to refer it to: The John Wall Dance 2.0.

The video includes:  commentary from Wizards players and Wall about his Dougie, hilarious Dougie banter courtesy of Wizards TV announcers Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier, Charles Barkley’s take on the Dougie and an exclusive interview with Cali Swag District about Wall’s smooth Dougie-ability. Because why not?

Time to Dougie Out…

[click here if you can't see the video] Read more »

The Wizards’ loss to the Pistons in Detroit on Sunday was a stinker on a couple levels. I planned to watch at my leisure on DVR delay, so I could chart defense as the game progressed. But at one point late into the evening, and after regulation had ended, I discovered that I hadn’t set it to record for an extended amount of time. In rather anticlimactic fashion, I was resigned to checking the box score to see that the Wizards remained winless on the road on the year at 0-6.

So that was that, never even got to see the overtime. Below, you’ll find a regulation-only defensive chronicle, above that a spreadsheet tallying point responsibilities per possession, and above that, a couple regulation game notes. But first, let’s check Nick Young getting blocked by a 51-year old Tracy McGrady, I wonder if that was special for Nick.

Regulation Notes:

• The manner in which Al Thornton conducts himself on offense lowers confidence that his attempts will actually go through the net.
• A couple times you could hear AND see McGee scream to call out screens, good to witness visual signs of him improving at communication.
• McGee can be unstoppable when very close to the hoop. And he has been showing a bit more patience on offense lately, but when he catches mid-range, he still needs to not panic and throw some crazy junk up when so far away from the rim.
• Give McGee a ton of credit for hustling lately, which in a sense makes up for his traditional lack of substance, but he’s been trying in that regard too.
• A couple of silly turnovers from McGee late in regulation kind of hurt though.
• When the ball is in his hands, Arenas has done a nice job of balancing the offense by drawing attention. He’s been making pretty good decisions. Does Flip Saunders find a way to balance this? Or is it Wall to Wall up and down all day when John returns to the court? Has Wall being hurt somewhat helped to showcase Arenas to other interested teams? Who knows.
• Running downhill on offense, but uphill on defense has become even worse for Andray Blatche, he’s doing it in the half court too. Dray is glad to drive more to the hoop like he should be doing, but he also seems glad to play matador.
• If you want to take a look at Blatche’s bad defense that allowed the game to go into overtime, click here.

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A D.C. pic, links and commentary …

[Riggs LaSalle Recreation Center - NE Washington, D.C.]

The Wizards will be seeking their first road win on the season when they play the Pistons in Detroit at 6pm tonight, and likely will have to do it without John Wall again.
[Wizards Insider]

Looks like the Pistons are inserting Jason Maxiell into the starting four spot instead of the rail-thin Austin Daye to better compete with the athleticism of Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee.
[Detroit Free Press]

Lakers coach Phil Jackson recently said that the Pistons don’t look like they’re trying. Ben Gordon responded by saying that guys need to look in the mirror.
[Piston Powered]

Today Mike Wise had an excellent column on the parallels between Clinton Portis and Gilbert Arenas. I was around for part of the time Wise spoke with Arenas after the Grizzlies game last Friday. One interesting thing Arenas did mention, giving perspective on how he perceives himself, is that he said some in the media, mentioning Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon specifically, have trouble considering him as he considers himself, as an entertainer akin to Denzel Washington (who Arenas also mentioned by name).

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JaVale McGee’s career as a Washington Wizard has been chock full of consistent inconsistency, and head coach Flip Saunders summed it up succinctly after the loss to the Charlotte Bobcats last Friday:

“JaVale has five highlight plays a game, unfortunately there’s about 200 plays in a game, and he’s gotta get more substance than style.”

Both McGee’s style and substance were on display during the Wizards’ 89-86 victory over Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night.  Early in the game, McGee did an excellent job of preventing Marc Gasol from getting deep position in the paint, but then at other points, he would incur the wrath of Saunders for being out of position on both offense and defense.

This theme would also rear it’s inconsistent head in the fourth quarter, as my Truth About It colleague, John Townsend beautifully broke down. Even though Kirk Hinrich and Gilbert Arenas were having excellent shooting nights, McGee tried to take the ball to the hoop (via the dribble), was picked by Zach Randolph (not exactly a quick handed, nimble fellow), and Mike Conley picked up the ball and dashed full speed toward his basket.  Luckily for the Wizards, McGee was able to zoom from one end of the court to the other and block Conley’s shot, immediately exonerating himself from his earlier sin.  Substance and style in less than 30 seconds.

After the game, I ventured over to the Memphis Grizzlies locker room to get their take on the play of JaVale McGee (he finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds, three steals and three blocks). Their depiction of McGee was much different.  Now, I’m not naive enough to really know that, because Lionel Hollins doesn’t see McGee in practices and games everyday, and of course I know the Grizzlies were a bit dejected because McGee had a hand in their close loss.  Still, it was clear that in Memphis’ locker room, they viewed McGee has one of the main culprits in their loss. Here’s Hollins and Rudy Gay on McGee:

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“An eye-catcher,” Nick Young called it. Exactly.

When an NBA player has a big sack of fur hanging from his hip, you’re going to notice. I noticed that one time when Gilbert Arenas wore a funny little vest, among other Wizards locker room fashion trends (like hats), but all of that pales in comparison to a proclaimed lucky fox tail fur-ball dangling from the jeans of the young kid from LA.

I can’t in so many words describe the video you’re about to see. If anything, Nick Young, his lady-getting fox tail (abilities are his claim), and cohort Andray Blatche are some funny cats, mostly ha-ha. They may have their faults involving basketball play (that they are working on), but these are fun guys. After beating the Memphis Grizzlies 89-86 on Friday night, the Wizards are 4-2 at home. The result: so far we have seen a higher fun-to-game ratio than year’s past. And that’s a good thing. Who said Fun Street was closed?

In any case, just watch.

The Wiz-Grizz ‘Play of the Game’
comes courtesy of JaVale McGee.

The Washington Wizards found themselves ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies 82-79 with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The Wizards were on the offensive, but on this particular occasion, they faced a defense playing with a little more attitude. As the shot clock winded wound down — the Wiz just couldn’t find a good look at the basket — the ball found its way into the hands of JaVale McGee. About 20 feet from the basket. Passing the ball back to PG Kirk Hinrich (1) would have been too easy … so with about six seconds left on the shot clock, McGee decided it was “go time.”

McGee (5) tried to lose Zach Randolph (x4) with a hard crossover and a spin move. Z-Bo wouldn’t stand for this and punched the ball out. Mike “Million Dollar Man” Conley (x1) collected the loose ball and took off on the break.

Hinrich and Gilbert Arenas (2) got on their horses to cut off Conley, while Ovinton J’Anthony Mayo (x2) curled around Arenas to support the wing. McGee was in hot pursuit.

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Much has been made about Gilbert Arenas eschewing jersey No. 0, and then going from 6 to 9 (very Jimi Hendrix of him). But why? Probably because Arenas’ past nickname, Agent Zero, derived from the number he chose to represent the slight of people saying he’d get zero minutes at the University of Arizona. The chronicles of zero have been well documented since.

Okay, so why No. 9? Well, it was probably time to ask Mr. Arenas himself, so I did.

“Nine means the rebirth … you know it’s the last number before you start something else,” Arenas said. But it sounds better coming from him, so let’s take a look-see:

Gotta like how …

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Before tonight’s Wizards-Grizzlies game, I briefly spoke with Josh Howard about how the rehabilitation on his knee was coming along — because we are getting closer to the date that he might be back, even though he really has no timetable and the Wizards are bringing him along cautiously.

Howard said that he recently experienced a bit of a set-back with tendonitis, but indicated that such is relatively normal and that he’s going to keep working through it. I asked him if he’d circled any game in particular that he’d like to be back for. Howard said he did, but wouldn’t exactly divulge which game other than to say, “It’s in December, a big week in December too. People who keep up with our schedule, they’ll see it and they’ll know.”

Note that the Wizards play the Los Angeles Lakers in Washington on Tuesday, December 14, travel to New Jersey for a game against the Nets on Thursday, December 16, and then are back home for the their first peek at the Miami Heat on Saturday, December 18. Howard did also say that being more realistic, he might surpass whatever date that he’s targeted. Let’s give Josh a watch:

Before tonight’s Wizards-Grizzlies game, I briefly spoke with Andray Blatche about his All-Star ballot “snub” — JaVale McGee, Gilbert Arenas and John Wall made it, the Wizards’ most capable low post scorer and the face of many Monumental Sports & Entertainment banners didn’t (at least three players from each NBA team have to make the ballot, by the way). Here’s what Blatche had to say:

For Blatche’s response to recent comments made by ESPN.com’s David Thorpe that he is “the laziest great talent guy in the league,” head to the Washington Examiner.

Midnight Madness had ended and the Wizards were funneling out the back of the Patriot Center. Al Thornton briefly chatted with family members on his way to the team chartered bus. JaVale McGee and Cartier Martin quietly filed by. Suddenly, a loud musical voice boomed from behind me and the lyrics were easy to make out, “Teach Me How To Dougie.” John Wall was singing the Cali District Swag hit at the top of his lungs while bobbing his head over and over to a beat in his head, since he was not wearing any head phones.

Hours earlier, as the Wizards were taking part in a drill, Wall barked to Kirk Hinrich, “Get em going out there, Kirk!” I was thoroughly impressed that a rookie in his first official NBA practice was not afraid to tell a veteran to get on their teammates. The Game Changer was no shrinking violet. (Kyle Weidie witnessed something similar in the Summer League with Wall getting after JaVale McGee)

Wall’s impromptu Dougie flow displayed his bubbly personality and youth. He is a freshly minted 20-years old, and I know that at his age, I was humming along to “Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, Can’t You See?”

These incidents provided an early glimpse into his persona. With the ball in his hands, during practice or during games, he is a team-oriented player with killer instinct. He wants to pound opponents at mach-one speed and hates to lose. HATES it. Off the court, he is a normal young man who likes to have fun by singing and dancing.

Those two personalities mesh with Wall’s celebratory enthusiasm and energetic, entertaining style, so I was not surprised when Wall decided to “Dougie Out” (Andray Blatche’s description) when introduced at his first home game.

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Normally we’d break down a play that the Wizards ran for the ‘Play Of The Night’. But, as you know, last night’s loss to the Celtics wasn’t quite normal. Instead, we’ll break down a pretty intelligent deception play from Boston … and in the process, you’ll just happen to see the clueless ways of the Wizards magnified.

This one starts with Rajon Rondo (1) bringing the ball up the middle of the floor. Boston’s bigs, Kevin Garnett (4) and Shaquille O’Neal (5), are posted at the elbows, Paul Pierce (3) is on the right wing, elbow extended, and Ray Allen (2) is on the right block. Since this play took play early in the third quarter, the Wizards’ starters are in: Kirk Hinrich (1), Gilbert Arenas (2), Al Thornton (3), Andray Blatche (4), and JaVale McGee (5).

Out of this set, Rondo uses the pick of Garnett (which Hinrich naturally goes under) to free up space, vision and a passing lane from his position on the left side of the court. As Rondo is moving, Pierce drops just a bit lower from his position. Allen, and here’s the part you could call a deception, has his head and eyes only focused on the Garnett/Rondo action — hence, the guy defending Allen, Arenas, has his defensive horse-blinders on and is only focused in that same direction. In fact, the head of every Wizard is pretty much frozen in the direction of Rondo, including Pierce’s defender, Thornton.

As Garnett turns clockwise to open for a pop out jumper, Pierce starts to cut baseline. Thornton is aware of this cut, but he’s not aware of what’s about to happen, because neither is Arenas. Just after Pierce begins his cut, Allen suddenly turns to screen Thornton. By the time Arenas becomes aware, it’s too late to communicate. Allen sets a great screen on Thornton, who, if he was more aware, would have been able to turn his body in the right direction to trail Pierce. Instead, Thornton turns the wrong way and gets caught up on the screen. Arenas, clearly confused himself, is not in good position to help on Pierce and switch with Thornton. The Wizards are clearly pretty unaware of scouting report action items.

Rondo makes the pass to Pierce under the hoop with little resistance. JaVale McGee wasn’t much help here either. He had his head up observing the action, but was pretty much planted in no man’s land, unaware of the passing lane the Wizards completely opened up for Boston in this instance.

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What do you write after a team shoots 65.8% (50-76 field-goals) on their way to a 114-83 win over the Wizards?

Chalk it up to the Boston Celtics being a great-passing veteran team at home and the Wizards being a non-passing, relatively inexperienced team on the road and move on, I suppose.

Oh, lest I forget a stat fact that you’ll surely be made aware of by others: the Boston Celtics had 32 assists, the Washington Wizards had 31 made field-goals.

But let’s go back to this field-goal percentage thing. It’s kind of like winning in overtime when you didn’t deserve it … a win is a win.

Sure, the Celtics were pretty hot and likely would have been scorching the nets against most teams on this very night on their own parquet floor. But 65% is 65% … this game won’t be exempt from the Wizards’ defensive statistical record no matter how in the zone the Celtics were.

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In basketball, you’re either a winner or you’re a loser. There is no middle ground.

The inviting glow of the winners’ locker room (which I had the pleasure of stepping into after yesterday’s 109-94 win over the Toronto Raptors) effectuates a merry media ceremony. Members of the press toast their champions with microphones, audio recorders, and Flip cams. The players imbibe in the festivities, reciprocating praise with sound bites and smiles.

The locker room across the arena is just like this, but flipped entirely on its axis. The frigid, polar opposite.

Post-game thoughts often roll off the tongue in the heat of the moment, with little thought. And there are always two sides to every story. Let’s read between the lines:

[Quotes via Washington Wizards Basketball Communications]

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The first time I ever heard DeMar DeRozan was in May of 2009, when he was interviewed by Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld and others at the Chicago Pre-Draft Camp. He had just averaged 14 points and 5.7 rebounds as a freshman at USC and decided to declare for the NBA Draft.  During this pre-draft camp, he bragged that he could jump higher than Vince Carter, he said his game compared to no one in the NBA, and he mentioned that he followed the Wizards because of his friendship with Washington guard Nick Young–who also attended USC.

The Wizards ended up trading their lottery pick that year, and DeRozan was drafted ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors.

The first time I actually met DeRozan was during the 2010 All-Star weekend in Dallas. He had just won the “Dunk-In Contest”, which meant he could compete in the actual Dunk Contest (where he was the runner-up to Nate Robinson).  The then-rookie was excited to be getting the exposure that comes with participating in All-Star weekend, and he was looking forward to soaking in as much of it as possible.  I distinctly remember DeRozan saying, “USC baby!” as he walked away from the media, but I never thought to explore the relationship among the two Trojans, DeRozan and Young.

Shortly before the Raptors-Wizards game last night, I decided to do a bit of investigative journalism to find out more about this bond between the two players.  My timing could not have been better, because DeRozan was coming off an impressive two-game stretch that saw him score a career-high 26 points in the Raptors’ victory over the Orlando Magic, and 21 points in a close loss to the Miami Heat.

I asked DeRozan about how he met Nick Young, how their friendship has evolved, and about his raised level of play as of late:

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