Posts for category ‘2009 preseason’

5:35:20 PM: Walking to the Phone Booth for the only Wizards preseason home game. #ipodcheck ‘All I Need’ Jay-Z, The Blueprint

5:41:46 PM: “Got fiends throwing up on themselves like Willie Beamon.” #jayz

6:57:54 PM: At the Verizon Center, nothing crazy. Missed Flip Saunders’ court interview. Not much to ask the players about in the locker room bf game.

7:08:24 PM: Seen in the Wiz crowd: a bald headed white dude with a Nick Young jersey, but it’s not Dan Steinberg.

7:09:43 PM: Tweet bf Wiz-Mavs start: Stevenson starting for the Wiz, Drew Gooden at C for Dallas .. hope Haywood abuses him.

7:16:25 PM: Haywood getting offensive rebound then fouled by Gooden then crumbling 2 floor holding his ankle sends moans & cuss words through crowd.

7:17:40 PM: But Haywood OK. Also, Wiz making the 3 white guys sit @ the end of the bench again. Tuff Juice scores 7 of Wiz 1st 11 points. Jumper = Wet.

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The Wizards will play the second game of their preseason slate against the Dallas Mavericks tonight … the only home preseason game on the schedule. It will televised on Comcast SportsNet and can be heard on DC’s 106.7 The Fan.

Also, I’ll be reporting from the game, and likely doing another live Twitter post on Truth About It (of course, this time within the NBA guidelines of a three ‘Tweet’ limit during each quarter and one during each of the two quarter breaks (but no limit on pregame, halftime and postgame Tweets).

But in terms of the Mavs, fellow TrueHoop Network blogger, Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game, agreed to answer a couple questions about his team. Here that goes …

[UPDATE: Head over to The Two Man Game to see my return answers to Rob's questions.]

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An update from Thursday’s practice …

Mike Miller Playmaking Role

Mike Miller just wants to be apart of a winning team. This is clear from the selfless attitude he has taken. When asked about his role on Thursday, he said he knows he’s not going to get 15-16 looks on offense anymore … and he’s fine with that. Of course, some might contend that he didn’t shoot enough with the Timberwolves last year and that he needs to be more aggressive on offense this season. But increased offensive assertiveness doesn’t necessarily mean shooting the ball.

In comparing his two potential roles for this team, starting versus coming off the bench (which is looking more and more like what he’s going to do as Flip Saunders today said that DeShawn Stevenson will probably start at shooting guard tomorrow), Miller said, “The second unit has me more of playmaker … making other guys around me better. We have enough playmakers in that first unit, so I’m playing there, it’s going to be more of a shot maker and a guy who rebounds … still making plays for people, but not nearly as much as on the second unit.”

He went on to reiterate that he just wants to make his second unit teammates better, saying they will be playing a completely different style than the first unit. Dare I dub Miller as a ’6th Man of The Year’ candidate (which would be his second time receiving the award)?

We will see. But bringing a veteran playmaker with diverse skills off the bench, someone who Saunders can trust, might be the way to go.

Suggested Reading: Randy Foye gets “in the flow” when paired with another ball-handler [Bullets Forever]

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Caron Butler had his eye on the ball

“Shoot it boy!!”

At around the 8:11 mark in the first quarter, Arenas could have taken his first shot. He didn’t. Left wide open at the top of the key, the ball was kicked out to Gil, and he turned it down. C’mon dude, is that what the team is paying you to do now?

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Time and patience are the lessons to take from the first Wizards preseason game. They didn’t look bad on their way to a 101-92 win over Memphis, but they didn’t look particularly good either. But did anyone expect this team with so many newcomers, including a coach, to gel right away? Nope.

On the offensive end, where the Wizards are assumed to be amongst the NBA’s upper echelon, they appeared out of sync at times. Bad spacing and jumping to pass sloppiness reared their heads in spurts, but nothing disconcerting, and mostly occurring when the second unit guys were on the court.

After the game, Brendan Haywood gave the offense a C+, in terms of translating the instruction of training camp to a real game. Haywood said they weren’t smooth and were in the wrong place a lot of times, but that’s understandable because many guys on the team were in the Princeton for five years and they have a long way to go before mastering Flip’s offense.

The defensive end left the most to be desired (again, something to be expected), especially in the defensive rebounding department. Haywood called the effort “poor,” while Flip Saunders didn’t mince words by calling the Wizards’ rebounding “atrocious.”

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{There’s the Wizards home floor … transported all the way from D.C. to VCU’s Siegel Center in Richmond, Virginia}

Currently en route to Richmond for the Wizards’ preseason opener, I’m not exactly sure how I’ll be covering games this season. But for tonight I’m going to update the goings-ons of the game via Twitter, which will also update live in a post on this site (hopefully).

The game will not be televised, but can be heard over the radio on 107.6 The Fan.

So, follow me on Twitter and check back here to see anything you may have missed.

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Tonight’s match against Memphis at the Siegel Center on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA might provide the most packed crowd I’ve ever seen for an NBA preseason game.

Sure, the excitement of Gilbert Arenas’ comeback tour and the new-look Wizards are probably enough to fill the 7,500 seat arena … I mean, pictures of the Wizards are literally on the side of the building (see below).

But the main draw might be Allen Iverson, the prodigal son returning to his home state of Virginia (as a Memphis Grizzly of all things). Iverson grew up in Hampton, VA, about 80 miles away from Richmond.

I kind of heard a secondhand joke about Iverson this weekend, stating that he hasn’t been in Richmond since … [insert item from troubled past]

• … since he must have been thanking then VA Governor Doug Wilder profusely for giving him clemency and detention instead of jail time due to charges related to a 1993 bowling alley brawl (which was in Hampton, but Richmond is the state capital).

  or
  

• … since 1997 when Iverson was arrested and spent the night in a Richmond jail. Police found weed and a gun in his car after pulling it over for going 90 mph in a 65; Iverson was a passenger, not a driver.
  
  or
  
• … since 2006 when Iverson bought his mom an ABA franchise that was supposed to be called the Richmond Warriors. The team became the Ballerz before playing briefly in 06-07. They then moved to the Hampton Roads/Norfolk area, but haven’t really been heard from since.

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