[Editor's note: The two interesting, or curious, developments in the John Wall injury recovery process is that he is looking into getting his own personal trainer to help with his knee, etc. issues, per the Washington Post's Michael Lee, and that he has shut himself down for an indefinite amount of time. Wall speaks with CSNWashington's Chris Miller in the video below. -Kyle]
[After last week’s Wizards loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, I asked Derek Fisher, Ron Artest and Shannon Brown their impressions of John Wall's game. Wall did not play in the defeat, but had a stellar outing in their previous match up in LA.
Brown commended of Wall’s ability, Fisher heaped high praise on John’s character, and Artest had a comedic response. -Adam]
Remember that goofy Bobby Knight “Game Face” display during some press conference long ago? Whether you do or you don’t, let’s take it to YouTube (it’s No. 2 in the countdown of top Knight soundbites):
But what about pre-game faces? Well, thanks to TAI’s Adam McGinnis, we have some of those faces from last Tuesday’s Wizards-Lakers game below. But first …
Truth About It is giving away more free Wizards tickets, this time two lower-level tickets to Saturday’s Wizards game versus the Miami Heat, courtesy of StubHub.
How do you win the tickets?Like last time, at around 3 PM EST this afternoon, Friday, December 17, I will be posting a Wizards-related trivia question on the TAI Twitter account: @Truth_About_It. The first person to email, NOT Tweet, the correct answer to truthaboutit@gmail.com will have two (2) tickets — Section 117, Row F — waiting for them at the Verizon Center Will Call for Saturday night’s 7 PM game.
The trivia question last time was: “Before playing last game @ US Airways Arena in 97, the Wash. Wizards signed a player who prev. played in 345 total gms as a Bullet. Name him”
And Brent Sanet chimed in first with the right answer, which was Ledell Eackles. What will the question be this time? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out. Read more »
[Kobe Bryant looks to discover more about Sam Cassell - photo: Adam McGinnis]
How does one evaluate a performance like the Washington Wizards gave in a 103-89 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night? They didn’t play their worst, but weren’t even in sight of the perfect game they would have needed to beat the reigning champs. Washington did their best to fight, but continued to make the same exact mistakes that fans should sadly be becoming immune to now. Each key defensive gaffe became mundane, blending in with the others.
Already severely out-manned with no Andray Blatche, John Wall and Josh Howard, Yi Jianlian went down about five minutes into the game with just about the same injury to the same knee. That’s when the Washington Post’sMichael Lee invoked the ‘Curse O’ Les Boulez’ on Twitter. Great.
Lesser than a tale of two halves, it was a tale of two quarters, the first and the second. The Wizards “hung around” in the first quarter, moving the ball well (7 assists, 11 field-goals, 0 turnovers) and playing aggressive defense. Of course, that aggressiveness combined with the aura of a champion that seems to possess referees pinned the Wizards for 10 fouls — although some of those should certainly be credited to bad defensive positioning. After the game, Al Thornton also denoted a couple early call against him as “cheap.” Pretty much what you can expect when you have to guard Kobe Bryant and his ability to draw fouls. Watching the referees pay meticulous attention to Kobe’s presence with their whistles is akin to walking by a construction site behind of bevy of Hooters waitresses.
Gilbert Arenas went 1-6 from the field to open the game, but he also had six assists as the Wizards took a 24-22 lead after one quarter. Arenas finished the game with 11 points on 5-15 shooting, dipping his field-goal percentage on the season to .392. The first quarter play that epitomized the night’s match-up happened late in the period when Andrew Bynum powered through Kevin Seraphin’s well-positioned chest on his way to the basket. Seraphin is a big dude, no question he sets the toughest screens on the Wizards, but he was reduced to mere flesh in the way by Bynum.
The first step, agreed to in principle Tuesday, is a three-team trade in which the Nets get a first-round pick from the Rockets and another one from the Lakers. New Jersey sends Terrence Williams to the Rockets and Joe Smith to the Lakers, who send Sasha Vujacic to the Nets, the people familiar with the framework of the deal said.
Vujacic, nicknamed the “Machine”, had fallen out of the Lakers’ rotation this season with the new additions of Steve Blake, Matt Barnes and the improved play of Shannon Brown.
The trade cannot officially go through until Wednesday, so Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson was unable to comment in his post game presser, but he did slyly remark that they could us a big guy named John Doe in a hypothetical question about adding Joe Smith.
Vujacic dressed in uniform for the game, did not play, and there was speculation that he might have known about his pending departure from Los Angeles. A local L.A. reporter was able to corral Sasha for comment as he exited the visiting locker room. To the disbelief of several media members, Sasha was just notified of a potential trade by Lakers PR director John Black and had not even spoken to his agent because of spotty cell service.
[Gilbert Arenas takes a bow after his 60 point game vs. the LA Lakers on December 17, 2006.]
Twenty-two down with game 23 coming tonight in D.C. against jersey No. 24 and his LA Lakers. 60 games to go on the season for the Wizards? Seems like a lot … until it isn’t. What also seems like a lot is the fact that a Los Angeles purple and gold team will be gunning to avenge the moral victory Washington recently achieved on their court … while gaining an Andrew Bynum back against a Wizards team likely to be without Andray Blatche, perhaps without John Wall, and with Gilbert Arenas “generally sore” … whatever that means.
So do you want to see the Wizards take on the Lakers tonight for free anyway? Sure you do. Because guys like Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin, a duo who helped fuel Washington’s valiant attempts in LA, are expected to see their fair share of time on the court with the swollen knee of 7-Course-Meal-Dray expected to keep him inactive. The Nick Young-Kobe Bryant Show Part II could be fun to watch as well.
Hence, TAI is giving away more free tickets courtesy of StubHub … this time, three tickets to an upper level suite (I know, three tickets is an odd number, but three is also company.)
How can you score these free Wizards-Lakers tickets? At around 3 PM EST this afternoon, Tuesday, December 14, I will be posting a Wizards-related trivia question on the TAI Twitter account: @Truth_About_It. The first person to email, NOT Tweet, the correct answer to truthaboutit@gmail.com will have three (3) suite tickets waiting for them at the Verizon Center Will Call for tonight’s game. Seems easy enough.
If you tucked yourself into bed early last night, snug as a bug on a cold December evening, nice job of letting something as silly as sleep usurp your Wizards fandom, because you missed a helluva game.
With people already checking mock drafts and college prospects for roster potentials, it’s worth notching Washington’s 115-108 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers as moral victory No. 3 on the season, after Orlando at home and Miami on the road, and last night’s game certainly holds to the top spot as the Wizards’ most entertaining game of the season, win or loss.
There were so many highlight plays by both teams that several will surely fall between the cracks (and did in the highlight video above). From a Wizards’ perspective, he’s a quick overview:
Trevor Booker is a man, and not just in physique. The four-year college player from Clemson showed veteran confidence against the Lakers on his way to 14 points, four rebounds and two steals in 21 minutes off the bench. But should he start in front of Andray Blatche? (BTW, Blatche sat out the Lakers game with a left hip bruise last night. Speaking of, why are so many Wizards sitting out with bruises lately — or “contusions” as they are called? First it was Nick Young sitting out against the Blazers and now Dray — and I’m not here to say those contusions don’t hurt and make it hard to move, but sitting out with a bruise would seemingly indicate inherent softness … just saying.) Anyway, Mike Prada on Bullets Forever writes:
“I would be careful to overreact to this game and call for sweeping changes to the starting lineup. While Booker played great, this was also a fast-paced game with a lot of instinct rather than thinking, and he excels in that kind of setting. That said, maybe it’s time to make some changes in the rotation. Less Andray Blatche, much less Yi Jianlian and more Young at small forward. I’m not talking something as drastic as a lineup change necessarily, but if Booker T and the Frenchman don’t earn more PT going forward, then you’re essentially saying playing the Lakers this close is meaningless.”
While I agree with Mr. Prada’s well-balance assessment for the most part, here’s where I would be inclined to disagree … at least in terms of replacing Blatche with Booker in the starting lineup. Sure, it’s just one game for Booker and one could certainly say that Blatche’s knowledge of defensive rotations is better for the simple fact that he’s been in the league longer (of course, Blatche could have been fooled by Kobe’s spin move just as Booker was around the 0:35 mark in the above highlight video). However, here’s what we also know: Read more »
Because I didn’t have a better title. Because I love late-starting West Coast games. Because I usually stay up late anyway. Because I’m excited to watch this match-up. Because Al Thornton sports jammies in SoCal. That’s Juice for ya.
Back in D.C. from vacation, and carrying an unfulfilled pseudo promise to find somewhere in New Orleans to watch Sunday’s Wizards-Lakers game (I said screw it and went to a place where I knew the food would be good … the Acme Oyster Company. Sure, a little touristy, but the food was still awesome, and the GF and I sat at the oyster bar where we were repeatedly slipped extra freshly shucked oysters … so no complaints there), I’m ready to jump full-on into the remaining 14 games on the schedule, starting with tonight’s home match-up against the Charlotte Bobcats. Hopefully the Wizards will either get a win this evening or tomorrow in Indiana so as not to tie the longest losing steak in franchise history at 13 games, achieved once in ’94-95 under Jim Lynam and once in ’66-67 as the Baltimore Bullets under Gene Shue.
But to recap the last game against the Lakers, we have a guest post from someone who did watch it. Below are the observations of Carter Bryant, a freelance sports journalist from the Baton Rouge area who is currently interning for Sirius/XM Satellite Radio in Washington, D.C.
Actually, one quick note first. Yesterday the WaPost’s Michael Lee reported that Gilbert Arenas’ mother recently passed away. Man, tough year for that guy. I couldn’t imagine being abandoned by my mother, and if I would even talk to her later in life given the opportunity. Gilbert at one point sounded like he wanted to reconnect with her after one chance encounter, but opted to at least put it off until his playing days are over. Now it makes one think … don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today, especially when it comes to family and friends.
{flickr/jvnunag}
The Los Angeles Lakers are clearly a far better team than the Washington Wizards. But the way the Wizards fought their way back to only lose by seven after being down by as many as 28 points has to be recognized at the end of a rough four-game road trip.
It was one of those “it is what it is” games. The Wizards gave effort and got beat by a very good team, falling 115-103 to the champion Lakers. Flip Saunders told his players that if they would have played with the same effort against the Heat and the Clippers, they would probably be looking at four wins during the now complete season long six-game homestand instead of two.
The second quarter was where the match was lost. Los Angeles put up 30 points, the Wizards put up 15. Otherwise Washington outscored L.A. by three. In the second, and for pretty much the entire game, the Lakers resembled the time-tested analogy of a well-oiled machine. Even though they were 1-7 from three in the period, they shot 56% on 14 made field-goals, got three steals, two courtesy of Shannon Brown, and shot 9-11 in the paint.
Meanwhile the Wizards turned the ball over seven times leading to nine Lakers points and only got one assist. They also gave L.A. six second-chance points in the second. Instead of a well-oiled machine, the Wizards played like they ate butter drenched popcorn for a pregame meal. Unforced turnovers served as the calling card of the hapless.
Wizards 2nd Q Lineups
>> time on court together, points scored-points given up (turnovers in parenthesis)
“How dare us (the Lakers) be complacent and lackadaisical in regular season game,”said Derek Fisher from the podium during his NBA championship winning press conference.
What regular season game was D-Fish speaking of in reference to the turning point of the Lakers’ season? Why, an early December ’08 meeting against the Washington Wizards in the Verizon Center of course.
The best part about Arest’s ejection wasn’t the quiet exit, but in the midst of slapping dejected fives to anything that moved, Ronnie tossed one the cheerleader’s way, via her pom-pom, and moved on in a matter of fact manner.
Seriously. It’s supposed to be the EENNN BEEEE AAAAA playoffs. Teams send messages to each other. Let it be.
Instead, NBA refs get to be the ones sending messages. Is that what fans want? Doubt it.
So I’m watching Ron Artest, who was having a terrible ‘crazy pills = horrible shot selection’ Ron Artest kind of night in the first place, get kicked out of game three in Houston with a flagrant 2 for no apparent reason.
Hard foul on softy Gasol, no biggie … just a sharp knock of the ball out Pau’s hands, the Euro goes flop-flying, and all of a sudden it’s D-Day. Artest gets kicked out because there is less than a minute on the clock, the Lakers have the game in hand, and because he’s Ron Artest.
“I don’t think that was a flagrant …. You know, I’m an 80s baby, so that shoulda been two shots and be done with it.” -Kobe Bryant
Back to game two.
Ronnie Artest had an intentional break down which was over-reacted upon by the refs who tossed him from the game. Here is the anatomy of that breakdown:
It was like that part in Hoosiers when Coach Norman Dale discretely asked the ref to kick him out of the game so that Shooter the Drunk could take over with a chance at redemption. Last night against the Lakers, there was no drunk, the Jazz just had their final run squashed, and Jerry Sloan asked the ref to kick him out by calling him a mutherfucker. Could Sloan’s coaching career be over? Not like Hoosiers at all.
And then Kobe & Co. ruined the undefeated home efforts of LeBron and the Cavs. Never thought the day would come where my mind would produce this equation: H8 LeBron > H8 Kobe — but here we are (I feel like I’ve relayed this information before).
1st Laker Possession: McGuire is guarding Kobe (Reggie Miller calls D-Mac a defensive “Guru” whoa…easy there buddy…let the kid develop first)….he held his ground for the most part…..but still let Kobe get deep and he just missed the shot. 1st Wiz Possession: D-Mac up top as distributor says Fratello….but Kobe is a rover and Dom misses an open mid-range J (had that hitch in his shot there)
D-Mac looks a little intimidated on D…flinching at every Kobe move.
Habit: Wiz miss their first five, all jumpers. Lakers up 7-0.
