Posts in month: January, 2011

[Editor's Note: When someone has tried to hype up the match-up between John Wall and this player or that, Wall himself before has played down the issue across the board, saying him against anyone could be considered a so-called 'match-up' ... Well, why not John Wall vs. Jose Calderon then? In the way that everything is connected, Calderon is the former whipping boy of Gilbertology -- the sentiment coming from Arenas' blog in February 2008 that Calderon did not deserve to be an NBA all-star. Now Rashad is here to tell it from the other side, not regarding the days of old, but of Calderon against the Wizards of Wall. -Kyle W.]

I was not able to speak with Raptors guard Jose Calderon or Wizards guard John Wall before the game. Calderon was in the training room getting treatment on a foot that was so injured, even Raptors coach Jay Triano wasn’ t 100-percent sure if he’d play. And a pre-game interview with Wall is as elusive as as a Wizards road win these days–I’m sure it’ll happen one day, but it hasn’t as of yet.

However, if I were able to interview Calderon and Wall, I can imagine interview answers going something like this:

Hypothetical Wall: ‘Calderon has been playing well, I think he’s averaging 12 points and 10 assists over the past 10 games, so he’s playing at a high level. But he played 36 minutes last night in the Raptors’ loss, and he’s battling a sore foot. I’m going to use my speed and quickness, and try to go by him as much as possible–while staying within the framework of the offense of course.’

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[Editor's Note: Beckley Mason provided Verizon Center coverage of Saturday night's 98-95 Wizards win over the Toronto Raptors for TAI. You can usually find Beckley at the TrueHoop Network general NBA blog, HoopSpeak.com. You can also find him on Twitter: @BeckleyMason. -Kyle W.]

“Yi has a great set of skills. When he dunked it tonight I was like ‘OK China.’” -Andray  Blatche

On a night when the entire NBA was dwarfed by the NFL playoffs, the Wizards’ nondescript three point win over the Raptors was overshadowed by Chipotle’s burrito giveaway extravaganza.

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I caught up with Rashard to ask him about tonight’s matchup with the Raptors. The take away: Both teams have the same game plan. The Raptors play fast and loose with plenty of pick and rolls. According to Lewis, the Wizards will look to do much the same.

Lewis identified forward Andre Bargnani and point guard Jose Calderon as the primary threats on the Raptors, as I’d imagine Toronto is concerned about the Lewis-Wall tandem.

Bargnani is a big key for this team, he’s playing great this year. He’s big, so he creates matchup problems, he can shoot threes– he can post up, he can drive to the basket, sets a lot of pick and rolls with the pick and pop or he can roll to the basket… so it’s a number of different things to look out for. And Calderon is also a good point guard so there’s a number of different things we need to be ready to defend with those two.

As for pace, Rashard supposes the Wizards need to push the ball as much as possible, but it has to come from defense. That is, play fast, but not loose.

It’s a big key tonight. We need to come out and hit them first, set the tone . You know they like to play fast but we like to play fast, as well because John is our point guard, and he’s better when we play fast… I think if we can defend first and hold them to one shot and then kick the ball to John and get out and just run we’ll be better off on offense.

In the half court, Lewis noted that the Wizards have the ability to really hurt the Raptors’ bigs with pick and roll action (sound familiar?): Read more »

It was during the first minute of last Thursday’s Wizards game against the Timberwolves in Minnesota. John Wall did a nice job of quickly recovering on Luke Ridnour after he came off a ball screen and JaVale McGee did a nice job of helping. The attention paid to Ridnour forced him to attempt a pass, but that got deflected off the backboard by Wall who made the recovery and headed in the other direction. But for some reason, as he was pressured by Ridnour — but not too much — Wall decided to get rid of the ball, which, is not necessarily a bad idea … you can pass quicker than you can run … but perhaps not ideal when the pass goes to the big man McGee in the midst of him jetting up the court.

McGee caught the ball in stride, just before crossing the half-court line, put it on the floor once … put it on the floor again, a in-and-out move versus Darko Milicic … and put the ball on the floor a third time. Before anyone knew it, McGee was past several T-Wolves and scoring at the rim, an incomparable athletic maneuver for someone his size. That’s when Wizards television analyst Phil Chenier said:

“I still say that’s a curse and a blessing … the ability to handle the ball at 7-feet … that time it worked out well.”

Sometimes the blessing of McGee’s talents can be a curse when he thinks he can use them in just about any situation. And this time, he was unfortunately encouraged because it worked. The success rate of McGee pulling off such a feat is likely higher against a team like the T-Wolves, much lower against a team like the Boston Celtics. In any case, it’s never truly ideal. Hence, it’s difficult coming to grips with how to celebrate something that often causes chagrin in the heart of a coach, yet is pretty beautiful to watch.

You appreciate the blessing and hope the result is not always cursed, or at least that young players eventually learn to limit self-induced risk. And in this instance, note that to both McGee and Wall, as the point guard who might one day better know who he’s passing to in that situation. Then you write about it and make a video of the play … JaVale McGee: A Curse and A Blessing.

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Long ago, in reference to his team’s troubles at the time, former Orlando Magic GM Pat Williams said:

“We can’t win at home. We can’t win on the road… As general manager, I just can’t figure out where else to play.”

The year was 1992 and the Magic fielded a 7-27 record when Williams said his quote that’s become one of the more infamously comical ones in NBA history. The 1991-92 season started out well enough for the Magic, as they won four of their first six games, two of which came against the Washington Bullets, one in Orlando and one in Landover, MD, despite 30 points from Michael Adams.

But when Williams said his memorable quote, the Magic had won just one out of the previous 21 games and held a  4-12 record at home and a 3-15 record on the road. After the quote, the Magic lost their next game at home versus the New York Knicks, but then won four out of their next six games. As irrelevant as all of this is, it all worked out for O-Town. Well, kinda. Their poor record that season landed them the No. 1 pick in the lottery and thus, Shaquille O’Neal, who later skipped town without winning a championship.

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[Al Thornton might not be as worried about the Wizards trying to end their 0-19 road record, he just wants his team to win two games in a row this season -- something Flip Saunders' squad was able to accomplish seven times last season, but they never got three in a row. The Wizards haven't won three games in a row since April 4-9, 2008.]

As frustrating as it is to see the Wizards fight to take a 94-90 lead with 5:45 left only to see the Timberwolves snatch the game from their grasp 109-97, it’s not as concerning as how they started the night. It was an all-to-familiar situation for Flip Saunders, one that probably had him invoking the basketball gods, as he’s done before when his Wizards lose a close game late after starting poorly out of the gate. Flip has never wanted his players to scorn the deities of James Naismith’s game, but now with a baffling 0-19 on the road, he’s probably wondering what he did to deserve all of this.

The Wizards are clearly not yet in a position where they can take games. And give Minnesota a lot of credit. In the end, they found their rhythm, they moved the ball well, they played like they wanted to be winners. Washington did not. After the Wizards took that four point lead late in the game, followers of the team on Twitter began to believe … it was their night, finally. Not so fast.

After around a minute and a half where neither team scored, here’s what went down: Darko Milicic making a drive on Yi Jianlian from the three-point line, dribbling behind his back and then hitting a spinning, running hook shot in the lane; Kevin Love stopping on a dime and pulling up for a three as the trailer in transition; great ball movement freeing Darko for a hanging-on-the-rim dunk; same excellent ball movement (eight passes!) getting Wayne Ellington sprung for a three in the corner — these were all head-scratching events, somewhat. Sure, they were playing the Wizards, but all of this came from the Timberwolves?

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Figured a picture of Pookie via New Jack City was apropos considering the title of this post that features commentary and links…

But, unrelated, here are some pictures of Wizards…

The thought had entered my mind before Flip Saunders said something along the sentiment in his post-game press conference after the Wizards’ “thrilling” 136-133 overtime win over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. Could, in some strange way, a game almost blown several times over by the Wizards actually be good for the team going forward? Maybe, just maybe, if the Wizards fight through mistakes at home and win, despite emptying the entire chamber of bullets into their own feet, then perhaps they can get over that hump on the road. It’s all about Flip Saunders pounding that rock, I suppose, and maybe there’s a more considerable amount of cracks in it now.

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We may never know who Kirk Hinrich really is … at least personality-wise. Maybe that can mostly be summed up with three concepts: Basketball, Iowa, Coach’s Son. His game is beyond vanilla, but it isn’t flashy either. He is Kirk Hinrich … under the radar, yet completely noticeable.

Kirk is even more noticeable now that he plays with glasses. They now encapsulate his ‘flair’ … as much as a pair of Oakley spectacles can I suppose. But who is he? (In those glasses.)

On a recent ESPN Daily Dime chat session, friend of the blog and a proprietor of HoopSpeak, Beckley Mason, likened Hinrich’s glasses look to that of a character in the movie, Team America: World Police.

I can see it … and yes, I do wish Hinrich’s shades had a yellow tint to them. Him smoking a cigarette during the Wizards’ wacky new pre-game routine instead of participating would be a blogger’s dream bonus. (And yes, Hinrich probably has good reason to appear to not like a routine that involves players throwing their teammates (the game’s starters) out of a huddle before games … folks can get hurt that way.)

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During last Friday’s Washington Wizards win over New Jersey Nets, Comcast’s Chris Miller had an in-game interview with JaVale McGee’s mother, Pamela. The questions centered around her thoughts on JaVale being selected for the All-Star dunk contest. She talked about how proud she is to see his growth as a basketball player, his love of dunking, and shared a story where JaVale touched the top of backboard in street shoes at his pre-draft workout for Cleveland. Hilarity ensues at the 1:08 mark of video when Pam interrupts her backboard story to yell this to a passerby:

“Hey dude, we’re on TV … We’re on TV dude!”

There’s no video of the funny exchange, only audio while highlights of JaVale are shown, so the identity of the interview interrupter is unknown, but Gheorghe Muresan is sitting in the background. Miller later tries to prod Pam, a former WNBA player and Olympic champion, into revealing if she would be involved in any of McGee’s dunks. She coyly indicated that she would be on-hand for the festivities, but stopped short from officially announcing her participation.

Andray Blatche got a haircut. Finally.

I wasn’t a big fan of Andray’s spiderweb hairstyle. So, as you can imagine, I was delighted that he introduced that maze of hair follicles to a pair of trimmers. Tweeted Kyle Weidie before last night’s game versus the Sacramento Kings:

“No more rollercoaster hair-do for Andray Blatche folks…”

Because this season has been as dizzying as an old-fashioned barber shop pole, Blatche’s haircut was of the utmost importance — it signaled a return to normalcy.

“When everything goes back to normal, I’ll have a straight haircut,” Blatche explained last week. “Hopefully my life will get in order and I’ll have a straight regular cut.”

The swirling trade rumors must have stirred Blatche up. But with a fresh cut, he’s feeling like a new man. Straight and regular, with something to prove. “Normal” has been regrettable for the Wizards this season, but hey, it’s a start … of something. That counts, right?

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One of the more unique experiences I’ve had in my three short years of covering the Washington Wizards came during the 2008-2009 season.  Eddie Jordan had been fired, Ed Tapscott was the interim head coach, Gilbert Arenas was out for the majority of the season with a knee, and that all added up to a dismal 19-63 record.  But the locker room dynamic was fascinating to watch, particularly after a loss.

During his post-game press conferences, Coach Tapscott’s comments did not focus on whether the Wizards won or lost, but he focused on who played well, how hard his team fought, and the lessons that could be learned.  I did not know whether it was Tapscott’s demeanor, or if he was taking that stance because he knew his time as Wizards head coach was temporary.  I just knew he preferred the diplomatic approach as opposed to, say a Flip Saunders, who is much more pointed with his comments.

Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler and Deshawn Stevenson were the veterans of the locker room that season, and I always respected how they carried themselves after a loss.  They were somber, angry and frustrated, but most of the time they would answer all questions thrown at them.  It was clear they really did not want to talk to the media, but they understood it was their duty as professionals.  It was also obvious that all of the losing was taking a toll.

Nick Young, Andray Blatche and Dominic McGuire (I would include JaVale McGee, but he was relatively mute during his rookie year) were the youngsters of the team, and their collective attitude in defeat came in stark contrast to the veterans.   By the time the media hit the locker room, they would be laughing, smiling, comparing attire and having a good time.  I did not know whether they simply didn’t care about the mounting losses, or if they just had the ability to quickly move on and not dwell on them.  I just knew that on certain nights, the veterans were visibly upset that the entire locker room wasn’t as affected by the losses as they were.

I saw that same type of locker room atmosphere after the Sacramento Kings lost to the Washington Wizards 136-133 in overtime on Tuesday night.

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I challenge you to watch the range of emotions expressed by Nick Young after scoring a career-high 43 points and not like the guy … he’s made for Hollywood … he’s Nick the Thriller.

No “typical Wizards’ losing ways” from the media…
No ranting writers calling for heads…
No outrage of radio call-in shows…
No bloggy posts about how Nick Young is like the worst passer, ever…

Winning is the big differentiator. The Wizards did so, 136-133 versus the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night … barely.

[BTW, did you know, including Tuesday night's whopping three assists, Young has accrued 17 total assists in the last seven games -- since the Dec. 29 home win versus the Indiana Pacers. Those 17 assists represent 7-percent of Young's previous career assist total ... SEVEN PERCENT! ... Over 261 games!]

It’s almost like Nick is making even more progress … in other departments. What kind of bizarro world are we living in?

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The below video is silly, inane, goofy … so why even post it? For those very reasons.

Andray Blatche’s recent hair stylings (and how they somehow reflect his ‘rollercoaster’ life) have been well-documented. Nick Young has also displayed a sweet hair-do game this season. What does it all mean? That maybe Nick & Dray should start a Hair Club For Wizards.

Upon Rashard Lewis’ arrival in Washington, Flip Saunders lauded him as a professional. Ernie Grunfeld called him a lead-by-example veteran. But these terms easily get demeaned amongst the press conference speak. They are used almost too often to describe just about any veteran who is victim of a trade from contender to bottom-feeder, perhaps as a proclamation of what’s expected from them. But what Lewis has made of his new challenge several games in has given real meaning to these proclamations.

We all know what ‘professional’ means. On the surface, yes, it means you get paid to do a job. A lot of people get paid to do a job but aren’t exactly earning their money … it happens in every profession. Being ‘a’ professional is about more than just earning your keep. For NBA players, it means consistent performance on the court and measured, but worthy, comments in the locker room.

Antawn Jamison was the last professional the Wizards had with an all-star pedigree; some called him the Gentleman Jamison. He was surprisingly consistent for his age, which was only accentuated by the way his game sneaked up on you. In post game media sessions, Jamison could fill a tape recorder with clichés, but he would also give long-winded answers, so one was always sure to find a good quote in there somewhere.

Much of what got lost in the reverberations from the Gilbert Arenas trade was that in Lewis, the franchise might have found their new Jamison. But in a weird twist of circumstance, Lewis means much more to this current group. Toward the end, Jamison was hanging on to hope in an uncompromising manner. He wasn’t on a rebuilding team, he was on a broken team … and he was trying to shoulder the load amidst futility. That philosophy reared its ugly head in the form of a paltry 1.2 assists per 36 minutes for Jamison as a Wizard during 2009-10, a career-low aside from the season he won the Sixth Man of the Year Award as a Dallas Maverick.

Jamison was never much of a passer, however. It just wasn’t what he was often called on to do, he’s always been a scorer instead. Lewis’ game has been similar in many ways, at least as far as career passing numbers are concerned — Jamison with 1.7 assists per 36 minutes over 898 career regular season games, and Lewis with 1.9 per 36 over 883 games. But the difference can be found in what Lewis has done since donning a Wizards uniform.

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If you follow this site, you probably know that we’ve given away a ton of tickets to Wizards games this season (courtesy of StubHub) — I think 12 total tickets to the Miami Heat game on Dec. 18, four suite tickets to the LA Lakers game on Dec. 14, and a couple other random game giveaways, such as the Dec. 29 Pacers game, etc.

Perhaps you can call me a shill for StubHub for giving away these tickets … not entirely accurate. I get nothing from it, other than the satisfaction of sending good, honest Wizards fans to games for enjoyment (while yes, StubHub gets free advertising/marketing). Yes, there is a separate advertisement for StubHub on this site, but that comes as part of the arrangement with being the Washington Wizards affiliate in the ESPN TrueHoop Network. Not that any of this really needed clearing up, just felt it was appropriate … and such a disclaimer isn’t my point.

Why I am writing this post is to announce yet another free ticket giveaway. At 10 am EST tomorrow, Tuesday January 11, I will post a Wizards-related trivia question to the @Truth_About_It Twitter account. The first person to email the correct answer to truthaboutit@gmail.com will win two lower-level tickets to see John Wall and his Wizards crew take on Wall’s college teammate at Kentucky, DeMarcus Cousins, and the Sacramento Kings Tuesday night at the Verizon Center (7 pm start time). Pretty simple … Remember: 10 AM EST tomorrow, Wizards Twitter Trivia.

But speaking of tickets we’ve previously given away, Jacob Holtz was one of two winners who received free Wizards-Heat tickets back in 2010 for submitting one of the best answers to a couple questions that I had asked. A couple days after that December 18 game, Jacob wrote to say thanks and to describe his general experience. With Jacob’s permission, I am now posting what he wrote below:

I just wanted to thank you again for the tickets. The game was nothing like I thought it would be and more at the same time.  I hadn’t been to a Wizards game since Game 6 against the Cavs and I’d almost say there was more energy in the Phonebooth last night than there was that night two years ago, but maybe that’s just the present-ness talking. I’ll be real honest and say that I was surprised at just how many Heat ”fans” there were at the game too, but I guess I shouldn’t have been.

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