Denver Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson sat in the far stall of the visiting Verizon Center locker room (aka, the Washington Mystics locker room), picking through a styrofoam container holding his pre-game meal before facing the Washington Wizards. I approached the former North Carolina All-American and sheepishly asked for his availability to talk. Different players respond in different ways to pre-game media requests, and the process can sometimes be awkward. Lawson’s furrowed his brow, cheeks full of chicken tenders, and sternly responded, “Can’t you see that I am eating?” An uncomfortable rush shot through my body, the last thing you want to do is bother a professional athlete before he takes the court… routines, even those including chicken tenders, can be sacred. But Lawson immediately broke in it to a huge grin instead, “I am just playing, fire away with your questions.”

The diminutive playmaker is a local product from Clinton, MD and honed his skills in the basketball breeding grounds of Prince George’s (P.G.) County. Lawson is breaking out in his third NBA season, his first as a full time starter, averaging 15.7 points (47-percent FGs), 6.5 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals. More importantly, he’s led Denver to a 14-6 record, which is second best in the Western Conference. On this particular January 20th Friday night, Lawson’s Nuggets would triumph over the Wizards 108-104. He played a key role with 21 points, nine rebounds and six assists, beforehand admitting that he enjoyed being back home and predicting that his local friends and family would be vocal in the game.

“I went home and saw my mom. It just feels good to be back at home. This is where I grew up so I love it … I got  [friends and family] too many ticket requests. They will be in the stands. They will make it known that they are here.”

During the NBA Lockout, Lawson chose to play in Lithuania for one of the top clubs in the Euroleague, B.C. Zalgriris Kaunas. About his experience, Lawson said:

“I went overseas and tried to get me some Euroball … It was fun. What 22- or 23-year old can say they were traveling the world at age 23? So it was just fun. I learned a lot of things … different culture, different basketball culture. They like to play more physical over there, pick-and-roll, team game.”

Read more »

[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Game 15 contributors: Rashad Mobley and Adam McGinnis with first-hand coverage, and Kyle Weidie watching from afar.]

Score

Washington Wizards 104 vs. Denver Nuggets 108 [box score]

Read more »

At every buzzer, there are key points you can look back on when considering the outcome — a game-changing instance, a slept-on moment, an initial reaction to the final score. Sure, in a contest of ebbs and flows, moments can be subjective, but it doesn’t make it any one less important than others. In a Wizards 108-104 loss against the Denver Nuggets on Friday, these were some of those moments…

[Sam Cassell to John Wall, pregame encouragement.]

 Rashad Mobley:

“He’s maturing. Things are, you can just tell, in disarray, not with the organization, but the players on the court … He’s fighting through it. Eventually he’s going to get some players around him and show exactly how good he is.”
-Ty Lawson on John Wall

Read more »

[Ty Lawson - photo: K. Weidie]

The Wizards doubled their win total for the season this week. What’s stopping them from tripling their previous count of one? Why, the Denver Nuggets of course. Tonight’s game will be the only meeting between the Wizards (2-12) and the Nuggets (10-5), the Western Conference foe hoping to remain unbeaten on a five-game road trip. Who’s down for a little 3-on-3? Today, our very own Sam Permutt and John Converse Townsend are joined by Jeremy Wagner of the ESPN TrueHoop Network blog Roundball Mining Co. 

#1)  The ball comes out of the net, and the big man outlets the ball to the point guard to lead the fast break. Do you want that point guard to be 6 ’4″ John Wall who is athletic and fast, but occasionally out of control or Ty Lawson who is allegedly 5’11″, just as fast, not quite as athletic but seemingly more controlled when he leads the break?

PERMUTT: John Wall.  The last two games, Wall has been playing under control and finishing well on the break.  Lawson is so effective in transition not only because of his speed and decision-making, but because he usually has multiple guys running with him.  If Wall can consistently get the same kind of transition options as Lawson gets with the Nuggets (wing players running hard), his decision-making is sure to improve.

Read more »

Did you watch the Wizards play the Nuggets in Denver on Friday night? Didn’t think so. Well, if you didn’t sit through the loss, you’re in luck, because below is a recap of words, moving pictures and still pictures.

1st Quarter

10:30 - JaVale McGee chases down a long loose-ball rebound, the Wizards were scattered in their transition defense after a wide-open Denver missed shot. Upon securing the ball, McGee really has only one Nugget in front of him, Kenyon Martin. You don’t mind the breaking attempt so much — one man to beat, open court, why not? The manner is the other side. McGee contorted his body, tried to twist around Martin and made life more difficult than it should have been, as opposed to if he’d just gone strong to the rim. Martin intimidation or self preservation, after McGee missed, he loafed a bit which immediately prompted Sam Cassell to jump off the Wizards bench and yell, “GET BACK!” with a wave of his arm. Denver scored on the other end. 4-2 Nuggets.

9:52 – Nene plants himself under the rim as Danilo Gallinari misses a layup, gets the offensive board and gets fouled on the floor. It’s evident that the Wizards need to have people on the court who can clear space. Yi and McGe don’t do that.

9:07 - You can quickly tell that the high altitude is getting to McGee — him expending a lot of extra, unnecessary energy at times doesn’t help. Combined with his asthma, you got to feel for his situation. He fouls Gallinari who makes one of two free-throws. 6-4 Denver.

Read more »

I didn’t catch Friday night’s Wizards-Nuggets game live, but I did DVR it, so I was able to watch the game at my own pace the next afternoon. While I was watching, my wife happened to walk in, and without even looking at the television she asked me, “So how much are they getting killed by this time?”.  I sheepishly answered that they were being “killed” by 24 points, and she just shook her head and left.

That pretty much sums up how it feels to watch and then write about the Wizards these days.  There are instances like this past Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers when the Wizards’ young players seem to put it all together and play competitively, and then there are other nights when flashes of individual brilliance are overtaken by yet another defeat.

Friday night’s 114-94 loss to the Nuggets was no different.  The Wizards dug themselves in a hole with some cold first quarter shooting, they fought hard to close the gap, but in the end, the Nuggets were too experienced and deep for the Wizards.  But if you’re looking for positives, rookie forward Trevor Booker put on a clinic on both ends of the floor during the third quarter. He demonstrated that, even when some veterans get healthy and back on the floor, he needs to still play substantial minutes.

11:34 – 3rd Quarter

Flip Saunders called an isolation play for Booker in the post against the 6’9″ Kenyon Martin. Martin is known for his physical play on both ends of the floor, and this looked to be a challenging post-up for Booker. He faced up like a player of his ability should when attacking the basket, started right, then quickly spun back and executed a perfect jump hook over the outstretched arms of Martin to cut the Nuggets’ lead to 17 points. This prompted Wizards announcer Phil Chenier to say that Booker needs to get more touches down low.

Read more »

It didn’t seem like a winning night for the Washington Wizards as they prepared to face the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday. The movement of the team during warm-ups, the faces of the players, you could tell it was their fourth game in five nights. They weren’t exactly physically weary or mentally downtrodden in appearance, but the air of the team reflected the atmosphere in the Verizon Center, dead … like that oddly quiet elevator ride. Even Baltimore’s Carmelo Anthony being in town barely drew a response from fans, most electing to give him the Prokhorov treatment.

Toss out the box score from the game. The final was 120-109 Denver, but I could convince you otherwise. Washington led 56-46 in points in the paint, 32-8 in fastbreak points, they shot 51.2-percent from the field and made 23 of 27 free-throws. The Wizards were only out-rebounded by three (39-36), all in the defensive boards category, had the same amount of assists as Denver (23), and two less turnovers (15-13). Washington blocked nine shots, which may have contributed to the Nuggets’ 13-2 lead in second chance points, because both teams pulled seven offensive rebounds. Andray Blatche’s first quarter shot chart even looked like this:

Too bad after going 6-8 from the field in the first period, Blatche went 2-6 over the rest of the game (9-9 in free-throws on evening, though, for 25 total points).

The Wizards lost because they were the worse team. Denver was able to move around at will for the duration, earning themselves 12 made threes out of 23 attempts … essentially the difference. Washington only made two out of their 13 three-point attempts. The Nuggets always had the game in hand — winning the first quarter 33-26, the second 35-30 and the third 28-23 — because the Wizard were never really mentally around in the first place. Yi Jianlian and Nick Young each had ten points a piece in the fourth as Washington “won” that final period 30-24.

Read more »

Also note: Don’t make fun of Al Harrington for wearing K-Mart brand “Protege” shoes any more … it seems that he’s ditched those for Nikes. Now keep reading…

If you’re local to the DMV area, you’ll remember Othella Harrington. He left the South from Mississippi in 1992 to be the next ‘big’ big for John Thompson in D.C., in line with Ewing, Mutombo and Mourning. But while Othella had a productive four-year career with the Georgetown Hoyas, and a tenured NBA career (709 games over 12 seasons and five teams), a famed basketball big man he was not.

Al Harrington entered the league out of a New Jersey high school in 1999 and has appeared in over 830 NBA games spanning 13 seasons. Different Harringtons to most, a bullet point on the mental cheer sheets of a couple courtside hecklers aided by libations on a Tuesday night at the Verizon Center. As you can gather (and as the title of the post gives away), the most oft-shouted quip by said hecklers was to call Al ‘Othella’ — they really David Letterman’d it, over and over. And over.

Al took exception as soon as that magical zinger was found by the heckler’s inner heckler early in the game. He retorted, “I’m not Othella, you dummy!” to the degree where you wondered if he really thought that they really thought he was Othella.

Harrington didn’t give much reason for them to stay off his case though, especially after he’d already engaged the crowd. Through three quarters, he’d played just 15 minutes and put up six points and three rebounds, no biggie. The Nuggets were up 96-79 heading into the final period, so Al could always just point to the scoreboard as the calls of Othella continued. But he didn’t.

Read more »

[Editor's Note: Rashad Mobley has reported on the Wizards with media credentials since the 2008-09 season for Hoops Addict. He occasionally contributes to Truth About It.net, providing excellent analysis and a different perspective from his up-close coverage of the team.]

Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith ended the third quarter, by missing consecutive 24-foot jumpers, and his numbers going into the fourth were anything but impressive. He had made one of his six shots, and he only had four points, as his team held a slim lead over the Washington Wizards.

Things certainly did not get any better when the fourth quarter initially started, because Smith picked up an offensive foul trying to run through Nick Young, and then a technical foul for a delay of game violation. Still, Nuggets coach George Karl never removed him from the game, and despite some momentary frustration, Smith stayed composed.

From the 11:33 mark of the fourth quarter (when Smith picked up the offensive foul) to the final buzzer, Smith shot 6-of-10, scored 13 points and led the Nuggets to a 97-87 victory over the Wizards. He shrugged off a poor shooting performance over three quarters, and decided that he could still play a major role in his team’s fate.

Read more »

Ok, it was just one game … two games counting the win against Minnesota. With a 107-97 win over the Denver Nuggets, the Wizards have won two games in a row for just the sixth time all year (three has yet to be accomplished). Is it a reason to think this team just might do something crazy and sneak into the playoffs? Absolutely not. Is it a reason to get excited? A resounding yes.

Energy, effort, hustle and hunger were the themes tossed around the Verizon Center Friday night, the obvious reason why Wizards fans, even those who came to see Baltimore’s Carmelo Anthony, stood up and cheered for a brand of basketball that’s rarely been seen this season, if at all.

“I told guys at shoot-around, ‘We gotta play like a pack of mad dogs,’ and that’s how we played tonight,” said Flip Saunders after the game. The new guys, Josh Howard, Al Thornton and James Singleton set the example and led the way. “Thornton at 6’7″ can play like 6’10″ rebounding-wise, and Josh can play bigger, and of course Singleton. Those are energy guys,” the coach continued.

Thornton can score too, netting 17 of his 21 points in the second half. He arrived in D.C. at 2 am on Friday, and wasn’t able to participate in that morning’s shoot-around, but dug deep and found a way to play some damn good defense against Anthony. “Once Carmelo gets in a groove and gets in jab steps going, he’s very hard to guard. So, I just tried to get in him and frustrate him a little bit and make him take off-balanced shots,” Thornton said. Melo had 23 points in the game, but only five in the second half and zero in the fourth quarter. He shot 1-10 in the second half.

Yes, the Nuggets had to be tired in the second leg of a back-to-back where Anthony had hit a jumper in LeBron’s face to win the game Thursday night in Cleveland. But I’ll also remind you that Denver has the second best record in the Western Conference and these are the Washington Wizards. When asked if all of the new pieces were an advantage because opponents don’t exactly know how to prepare for these new Wizards, Saunders said, “Well, the disadvantage would be that we have a lot of new pieces and we don’t know how to prepare for ourselves.”

Read more »

[photo source: flickr/dskciado]

This is Eduardo Alonso Nájera Pérez, a Mexican victim. Probably not of the swine flu, but definitely a victim of capitalist America’s NBA luxury tax, which is designed in a rather socialist manner to penalize those who spend more money.

Many have wondered where Denver would be if they still had Marcus Camby, who was sold to the Clippers for a 2nd round pick. But watching the energy, hustle, and scrapiness of the Nuggets, led by the Birdman Anderson, it’s easy to see how a big like Nájera might fit better than the frail Camby.

Nuggets coach George Karl hated to see the Big Mexican sign a 4-year $12 million contract with the Nets this past summer, but Kiki had an edict from cost-cutting owner Stan Kroenke (even though anyone might question giving that much to a 32-year old). Still, Kroenke and his wife, a Wal-Mart heir, are both on the Forbes billionaires list (Kroenke is ranked 205 and worth a meager $3 billion).

It’s clear that Denver misses a big man to compete with the Lakers. But I’m here to say that the playoffs as a whole misses the Mexican from Chihuahua, the 10th most marketable player in the NBA.

Read more »

All you really need to know about the Wizards’ loss to the Nuggets on Friday.

One moment, Andray Blatche is going to the basket aggressively. Blatche, a wiry big man who relies too much on his guard skills, thinks he can comfortably slide by the smaller man and float up a scoop shot.

But then comes the feathered wing of a flying Birdman.

No Way.

No How.

Read more »

Well, to go from partying in DC one night, to this the next. Ahh, the life of an NBA baller on a sucky team.

Well, at least Andray Blatche has that $2,739,669 he’s making this year…..with $9,780,992 coming over the next three years.

But sheesh (pulls at collar), that Nuggets game got ugly fast. The Wiz had a seven point lead midway through the first quarter, but that lasted about the time it takes to microwave a burrito.

Dunk after dunk after dunk later, the Wizards were left with a 21 point loss that seemed closer than the game actually was.

Game Blog at Bullets Forever

Read more »

Jeff from CelticsBlog.com is doing the grunt work to put together a comprehensive NBA preview from bloggers ’round the ‘sphere. The Atlantic Division Preview was first, the Southwest Division was second, the Central Division was third, and now the Northwest Division is out. Here are the highlights from the participating bloggers for each team, click on the blog links to see the full team preview:

Denver Nuggets

[Pickaxe and Roll]
I think there are different answers depending on whether you are talking about the goals of management or the goals of the players. Management has clearly been geared towards the future. The Camby trade revolved around future cap flexibility. They traded their first round pick for a future first round pick. Older players Camby and Najera have been sent packing in exchange for younger players. Management would never admit it, nor should they, but I do not think they expect anything other than another first round exit at best from this squad. Prediction: 47-35

[The Nugg Doctor]
The goal for this team is to not be content just making the playoffs, but to finally advance in the postseason. For five straight seasons the Nuggets have been one of only four teams in the league to make the playoffs in said consecutive years and are the only team to have not made it to the conference semis. Prediction: 44-38

Minnesota Timberwolves

Read more »

Well, the Wizards are in the midst of a brutal February where they’ve lost their first 5 games of the month, 6 losses in a row overall, as well as in 8 of the last 10 games. And while their early season play without Gilbert Arenas has surprised everyone, for some to the point of questioning the value of Arenas, this latest futility is no surprise. What has become evident is that no squad can overcome the level of injuries felt by the Wizards, and that dangerous NBA teams need a guy who is able to command points in the hoop.

—-
About That Nuggets Game [live blog]

With 5:41 left in the 4th quarter, as Linas Kleiza was hitting two FTs to push the Denver lead to 12 at 96-84, Carmelo Anthony, who at the time had 40 points, checked back into the game.

Normally, I would not blame a team for bringing their superstar back to the court with a 12 point lead. Five minutes and forty-one seconds is a lot of time….we know this is the NBA. But, it’s the manner in which the Nuggets carried out the remainder of the game that makes me object. Denver’s intent was not so much to put away the game as a team, rather so ‘Melo My Man could put on an individual show and go for an individual achievement.

Eddie Jordan has his opinion on the subject: “The end part of that game I felt was a little bit on the classless side,” Coach Eddie Jordan said after his team’s sixth straight defeat. “But we all have our ways and when you get your butt kicked, the other team can do whatever it wants to do. But I thought it was very classless to close a game out like that. I have my opinion; I can say what I want to say. That’s what I thought it was.”

Read more »