Since the season is over and the Wizards aren’t in the playoffs, time for posts of a random nature that really aren’t that random.

Ever wondered what NBA scorekeepers use to keep score? I haven’t. I just trust that they’ll do their job.

Of course, if you Google “NBA scorekeeper,” you’ll come across Deadspin’s “Confessions Of An NBA Scorekeeper,” about a scorekeeper who once juiced the stats worse than a Baltimore cop … which only goes to show you that not only are the stats kept for basketball incomplete (as in, many things go un-tracked and hence the inexact science of advanced basketball statistics cannot possibly accurately depict everything), but they are also subjective.

Hey, that’s life. Maybe one day the inexact science will be less inexact and those who base entire theories on it will be a little more right. In any case, here are some pictures of the Washington Wizards score-keeping consoles … granted, not the ones used to track detailed stats, but the ones that control the in-game arena clocks, scoreboard, etc. … which kinda makes these pics a little anti-climactic from the previous paragraph. Drat. Read more »

Ok, so the Wizards blew a game against the Knicks tonight. Maybe Earl Boykins and Fabricio Oberto have played their last road game in the NBA … come bid them farewell at home on Wednesday. But really, what’s fun about writing about a game in which I couldn’t quite force myself to root for the Knicks (or against the Wizards), but don’t mind that they won, keeping Washington’s futile draft lottery hopes drinking from a glass slightly more than half full?

So, in lieu of writing about Andray Blatche putting up good numbers while kinda, sorta trying, I present a photo-blog from last Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. For that game, I changed places with Adam Douglas, the TAI site photographer since the last time the Wizards faced the Hawks in D.C., and sat baseline to capture the game from up close. Here that goes…

JaVale McGee no hands ball kiss.

Read more »

Evidently while in New York to face the Knicks in the Wizards’ final road game of the year, JaVale McGee stopped by FAO Schwarz to go shopping for some toys. We know this because he Tweeted it and shared the above pic of himself and a stuffed acquisition resembling his likeness … in Muppet form.

I could totally see JaVale trying to recreate that piano scene from Big while he was there … if he even remembers that movie. It came out the year he was born, 1988.

But the imaginary fun doesn’t end there. Cue the genius of the WizzNutzz in Tweet form …

Read more »

Editor’s Note: Adam McGinnis is the new photography assistant for Truth About It.net. Occasionally he also contributes with some excellent writing. Previously he wrote about Emir Preldzic, a Euro-stash player the Wizards acquired in the Ilgauskas-Jamison trade. Below, Adam writes about his first game on the job, the March 11th Wizards-Hawks blizzard make-up game, and his observations of a certain NBA referee.

Reflecting on my pictorial under the hoop debut at the Phone Booth and the Wizards loss to the Atlanta Hawks with Mr. Truth About It, I made a comment on how one official made some really bad calls that both teams were complaining about.

The most egregious were two inadvertent whistles in the fourth quarter that left players and coaches scratching their heads.

Read more »

Flip Saunders took an unusually long amount of time to get to his press conference after Saturday night’s 109-95 loss to Orlando. Wait, strike that, nothing has been “usual” this season, or rather consistent when it comes to how long the coach takes to get from locker room to media room.

It’s just that on Friday after the 105-99 loss to the Hawks, Flip was at his podium seat and ready to answer questions before anyone knew it. The only initial witnesses were cameramen and perhaps one, two at the most, members of the media.

Saturday the healthily attending media waited and waited, humorously speculating on what the coach could be doing. Others, myself included, looked at the box score, calling out numbers of note and then applying the proper reactionary facial expression. All of this is leading to a story about Shaun Livingston, trust me.

When Flip’s presser finally concluded, the media scrambled toward the locker room knowing it could be relatively empty. One of the games few positives, Andray Blatche, was already dressed and talking in the hallway amongst his post-game posse, meaning that pickings could be slim.

Read more »

[Mike Miller's final shot versus the Atlanta Hawks, March 11, 2010]

Your average gambling addict is probably keeping track of every game on every night, including a Wizards game. But last Thursday against the Hawks, even the most casual sports gambler was probably paying attention to the Wiz.

Even though there was a full slate of college basketball conference tournament action that night, there were only three NBA games on the schedule … the Bulls at Magic and the Warriors at the Blazers in addition to the Hawks at Wizards, which was a snow make-up game.

Heading into the night, Atlanta was favored by seven points. And with time running out in the fourth quarter, it looked like the Hawks were going to cover. Up 104-97, Marvin Williams was fouled by Mike Miller with nine seconds left. At this point, the clock could have run out, causing a push. And at this point, someone was probably thanking Miller for the foul, possibly allowing Atlanta to cover the spread.

Read more »

Turnovers have been an issue for Andray Blatche lately, and you can sense it’s starting to frustrate him.

In the 12 games Blatche has started since Antawn Jamison was traded, he’s averaged 24 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.8 turnovers per game, but has also had two games with five turnovers, one game with eight, and on Thursday night against the Hawks he had seven.

Dray’s Usage-percentage during this time has been 29.7%. USG% is an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he is on the floor.

As you heard in the video above, Blatche keeps telling himself that his current role of increased playing time and being the focus of the opponent’s defense is new to him. He says turnovers will be an issue until he learns, whenever that may be.

And Dray will learn, the line of questioning wasn’t necessarily to pick on him, but rather an attempt to gather what his mental process is when trying to correct. Less light was shed than frustrations were expressed.

Read more »

“Drama, thy name is the Washington Wizards,” began a post by Joanne C. Gerstner on Off the Dribble, the New York Times’ NBA blog. The post is also titled, “Wizards Drama Continues.”

Drama again? This team certainly doesn’t need any more drama after all the unfathomable events of this season. What exactly is this drama that the NY Times speaks of?

A bizarre season already marred by the Gilbert Arenas gun incident took another ugly turn when coach Flip Saunders and starting center Andray Blatche engaged in a war of words.

A war of words? Boy, sounds dangerous. But in reality, the incident was nothing more than an intense discussion between coach and player. Something that happens at any level of basketball.

Read more »

Of mice, of men … the Hawks were the predator and the Wizards were the prey. Early, both teams were cold. I’ll concur with a comment of Wiz broadcast TV HOFer (or at least he should be if he’s not … if that type of thing exists), Steve Buckhantz, who said that unlike versus the Pistons, the Wizards started against Atlanta with energy. They just couldn’t buy a basket, and neither could the Hawks in the beginning.

The Wizards should have felt at home though, the Phillips Arena looked dwarfed by the Verizon Center in capacity. After getting down by as many as 22 points, 40-18 with 3:43 left in the second quarter, the Wizards made the game competitive, getting as close as two points, 66-64, with 11:41 left in the game. But they never could get over a seven point hump late in the fourth quarter.

The Wizards were bested by only 43.5% shooting from the Hawks and a couple ineffectual turnovers. They lost to the better team, and not necessarily because of lack of effort, but because they are not very good.

It’s worth observing that their reason to play inspired basketball has drastically dwindled. If two things plague this team most, one is lack of discipline, which is on the account of the players inconsistently following Flip Saunders’ game plan and often free-styling at crucial points of the game. The second is that the Wizards are not hungry, as in, ‘Did you see D-League call-up Mario West hustle his ass off?’ West had four offensive rebounds in 12 minutes.

Read more »

Success of the Wizards is contingent upon the court leadership of Gilbert Arenas. This is not a ground-breaking concept. Despite looking “back” in Dallas, he’s still rusty, and he and the team have a good deal of the development “process” to go.

Nothing could have more exemplified this than the first quarter in Atlanta. As I wrote in the previous game post, Arenas had eight points, one turnover in the game’s first 6:20 and one point, five turnovers in the remainder of the first half. When the offense started to get sloppy, Arenas did not exert control on this situation to calm his team down.

Mike Prada did a good job of breaking this down on Bullets Forever:

A large part of the problem was that Arenas was breaking a lot of plays to drive to the basket.  Yes, it’s true that you want Arenas to be aggressive, in particular because it would wear down Joe Johnson.  However, that has to come more in the flow of the offense than it did tonight.  Arenas kept calling his own number instead of letting the offense run itself and then dumping the ball to another scorer.  The rest of the players were often not prepared for Arenas’ decisions and didn’t get in position to defend in transition.

The strive to achieve more balance is new to Arenas. It’s gonna take some time. All Wizards fans can do is have faith that the experience of Flip Saunders will work to correct these issues and the desire of Arenas to be a better player will make him wholly receptive to the process.

Read more »