Now, this dunk wasn’t on, on Australia’s Andrew Bogut, but we’ll include him for diplomatic reasons. Turkey’s Ersan Ilyasova getting smacked around by Los Angeles’ Nick Young is really the big winner here.

One of the first things that comes to mind when looking at a picture like this is that there’s no way he’s making it to the rim.

He did.

You’d think some big time NBA advertising partner would want to sponsor a secondary dunk contest. Wouldn’t that haul in some bank on television? TNT, are you there? I understand the desire to make the official dunk contest on NBA all-Star Saturday night an elite and exclusive event, but there are too many good dunkers in the NBA not to have more than four participants.

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It’s hard to pin-point exactly where the Wizards lost road game number 20 to the Milwaukee Bucks. They came out with a very strong first quarter … that was the easy part. The Bucks hit a couple jumpers and the Wizards didn’t score until three minutes had gone by in the game, but once they got going, they really got going. When all was said and done, John Wall had seven assists to zero turnovers and the Wizards had a 27-19 lead.

The second quarter … not so good, but the Wizards held it down. They went into the half with a 49-47 lead, whittled into by the old bones of Earl Boykins and Corey Maggette — those two combined for 23 points in the first half. Add in what Keyon Dooling offered and you have 32 points from an unlikely Milwaukee trio.

The Wizards started and ended the third quarter poorly. Usually coaches have a saying along the lines of beginning and ending all quarters well — maybe even Flip Saunders has cited that crafty philosophy before (I’m sure of it) — but these young Wizards are not yet in the position to do much less than the opposite at crucial points of the game away from home. The Wizards were out-scored 28-17 in the third and scored 13 of those points in a four-minute span from around the nine minute mark to the four minute mark of the period. Otherwise, not much doing.

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[Editor's note: Stephen D. Riley covered the Wall-Jennings matchup on TAI from John's perspective, now here's Rashad Mobley with a look from Brandon's perspective in his series "From The Other Side." -Kyle]

By the time John Wall’s name is announced as the Wizards’ starting point guard on their home opening night against Philadelphia 76ers, he will have received more than enough advice.  His family is telling him how to manage his life, his friends are telling him how to spend his money and where to hang out, his teammates are saying get me the ball in my sweet spot, the coaches (especially Sam Cassell) are telling him how to be an effective point guard in the NBA.  Hell, I’m sure even his twitter following has chimed in with their clueless, but well-intentioned advice.

After my visit to the Milwaukee Bucks locker room before their preseason matchup with the Wizards, it looks like Wall will have two more people to take advice from:  Head Coach Scott Skiles and second year guard Brandon Jennings.

Skiles coached Jennings during his rookie year, so he knows first-hand about the ups and downs involved with a rookie running the show.  But prior to that, Skiles enjoyed a 10-year career in the NBA (including one year with the Bullets), where he averaged 11 points and 6.5 assists, and dished out 30 assists in one game (an NBA record).

Jennings, much like Wall will do this year, was given the responsiblity of running the Milwaukee Bucks in his first season.  He exceeded expectations in the regular season by averaging 15.5 points and 5.7 assists, and then in the playoffs he continued his solid play by raising his scoring average to 18.7 points (his assists dropped to 3.6, but Andrew Bogut was hurt, so he gets a pass).  Much like Skiles, Jennings also picked  up an NBA record along the way, by dropping 56 points on Golden State–the most ever by a Milwaukee Bucks rookie.

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A local scribe brought his two young boys to Friday night’s Wizards game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Both in the age range of four to six I would guess. Probably should have asked, but I was too curious about the dire appearance of their situation.

Plopped down on the floor against the cold white wall, limbs askew, the hoods of their coats over heads. The parts of their faces I could see looked to be some of the saddest in the building at the moment. Not as bad as their puppy just dying, but worse than being dragged to the ballet or church. The Verizon Center seemed like the last place in the world they wanted to be.

Other media members, those whose job is mainly to cover the Washington Wizards, joked, “You two look like how I’ve felt all season.” This comment, mind you, was made by two separate reporters independent of each other. Their situation had become an inherent punchline out of necessity. And this scene took place before the game even started.

“Gotta laugh to keep from crying,” said Caron Butler at one point earlier this year. He would later laugh all the way to Dallas. Others have had to stick with the same coping ability back here in the District.

“Don’t ever think it can’t get any worse, because it can,” is another quote from Flip Saunders after a late December home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. It certainly did get much, much worse with guns and trades and perhaps culminating with Josh Howard’s season-ending knee injury as the steam arising from the cow pie, or in other words, the icing on the cake.

I wouldn’t classify Friday’s 102-74 loss to the Bucks, after just having lost to the same team in Milwaukee 100-87 two days earlier, as a continued digression. Those who know better knew there would be days like this with the current squad. It was, however, the worst effort since the trades, and piggy-backs upon what was perhaps the most boring home game of the year. It was Date Night at the Phone Booth, one can only imagine how many disappointed happy endings the piss-poor basketball game led to. Toward the end, the boo-birds were flying higher in the Verizon Center than they had all season. Hard to imagine them not killing any love birds in the process.

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Hey! James Singleton made the Game Time cover!

Wonder if this is a first for his NBA career.

Ok, almost the same drill as when these two teams played on Wednesday.
My three keys (for what they are worth):

1. The Wizards need to match Milwaukee’s intensity on defense. Good luck.
2. Flip Saunders’ squad is not an offensive juggernaut, clearly, and that’s why they need to take care of the ball.
3. Please, someone score of the bench. Dare I say this is a breakout night for Nick Young? (only to be, perhaps, followed by more stretches of futility)

In other news …

The Wizards are pushing for their season ticket holders to renew their plans. They’ve already put out a letter from Flip Saunders. Tonight, most of the Verizon Center personnel are wearing t-shirts telling plan holders where they can renew. Read more »

Some people have a poker face.
Flip Saunders has a turnover face.

As previously mentioned in the last screen shot post of Wednesday’s Wizards-Bucks game, Washington had the same amount of turnovers in the third quarter as they did points. And that common number would be 12. For the heck of it, let’s chronicle each turnover (and a couple of other things) in screen shots and words.

It’s cold in Milwaukee. These turnovers are colder.

TURNOVER #1 – 10:04 >> You can’t see Randy Foye in his picture, but he is right behind the defender in the white circle.

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Ok, a screen shot post. I don’t do these often enough,  here goes …

First, a disclaimer: Sometimes an opponent makes good, (relatively)unstoppable plays, and sometimes the defense isn’t up to snuff. Since defense wins championships, these screen shot posts tend to concentrate on the correctable defensive plays. So, sorry NBA millionaires if you are criticized and nitpicked too often. That just how it goes.

Because of the 8 pm start time, and then Duke-Maryland, I could only muster myself to re-watch the first half of last night’s Wizards-Bucks game, one where the Wiz lost 100-87. I’ll likely try to watch and chronicle the second half tonight, but I’m sure that a third quarter where, I believe, the Wizards had the same amount of turnovers as points (12), will be especially “fun” to watch. And yes, I realize this re-watching of Wizards defeats makes me seem a tad insane.

The Bucks are the Bucks. They are a playoff team, in the Eastern Conference … where sixth place is equivalent to “on the outside looking in” in the West. Still, no one thought the Wizards would really win last night. But they fought hard. They sorta tried. And as expected with this still young team, they more so got in their own way of winning than the other team. Although, do give Milwaukee credit.

{1st Quarter}

11:19 >> On the first play, Andray Blatche, bless his heart, acted like and NFL wide-receiver, perhaps Braylon Edwards. When the pass was coming he turned to make a move, and not when the pass was arriving. The ball was fumbled away — turnover #1 of 21, which was, of course, blamed on the passer, Mike Miller, in the stat book. This is one of the rare occasions where it isn’t always the passer’s fault.

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The Milwaukee Bucks game seems like it was ages ago. And when deciding which aspect of the game to break down, I was conflicted at first. Should it be what happened after Gilbert Arenas went down at the 7:12 mark in the fourth quarter, specifically, the 9-0 run that occurred in the two minutes after that?

Naw, why focus on the positive? This team will only improve if they continue to recognize and remember what went wrong. And with the Wizards, there’s usually a lot to choose from. What obviously came to mind was the 32 points scored by Michael Redd, his first 30+ point effort since January 16, 2009.

If I posed to question to you, ‘Who was responsible for letting Redd have his way on the offensive end, including him getting to the free-throw line so much, where he went 15-15?,’ you would probably say, ‘Randy Foye.’ And I would say, ‘You are a correct, astute observer of the Wizards, sir.’

Everyone is certainly happy that Foye has recently arisen from the depths or irrelevancy … probably not enough for Ernie Grunfeld to retain him after the season … but there’s a lot of season left and victories in the small battles are worth feeling good about. Still, Foye is a poor perimeter defender, and the Wizards have a plethora of inefficient perimeter defenders.

So, despite all of these foregone conclusions, I decided, what the hell, let’s break-down how Redd was able to get each of his 32 points. Read more »

The Wizards beat the Bucks 109-97 on Wednesday night. Here’s some of what happened in 12 frames.

Pretty nice scene, huh? Well, not as nice … last night’s game was on CSN+ in D.C., not CSN HD. Heart-warming nonetheless. After the game I tweeted that beating the Bucks 109-97 was the first ‘feel good’ win for the Wizards in a long time. Mike Prada of Bullets Forever called it the best win of the year.

And the scene above captures it all. Gilbert Arenas goes down after an errant Bucks knee to his leg, not to mention losing a tooth, Earl Boykins comes in to save the day, and the two leave the court arm-and-arm and all smiles. Arenas started it with 13 points, three rebounds and seven assists, to only a single turnover, in the first quarter, and Boykins finished it with 12 of his 15 points in the final period.

It looked pretty bad when Gil went down. But after seeing him hold his thigh, and the replay, it was clear there wasn’t a reason to fear for his knee. Although, those thigh bruises do hurt. The Wizards have two days off, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Arenas sat out of Saturday’s game in Minnesota. It all depends on how deep the bruise is. He was noticeably limping right after it happened, and those things only stiffen and get worse.

So with that win, the Wizards, and their fans, will have a holiday that’s just a little bit better. But what would be this team’s ultimate Christmas (or holiday, or whatever you celebrate) wish?

Here’s what I wrote for ESPN’s Daily Dime: Read more »

I experienced a “first” on Wednesday night.

In the Wizards locker room before the game, I noticed a stack of duPont Registry magazines under one of the huge flat screen televisions. If you aren’t familiar with the duPont Registry, it’s a publication full of fancy/luxury cars, etc. that only really, really rich people can afford. One of my friends had a duPont Registry once, but it was just for lookin’, not for buyin’.

So … Wednesday night was the first time I was in the vicinity of the magazine while also being in a room full of dudes who could purchase something from it.

So I have that going for me.

After Wednesday’s win over Milwaukee, I was all ready to write about Earl Boykins, as was everyone else in the world (and I kinda did … below), but life/work got in the way of a more formal game write-up. It happens.

I’ll be going to/reporting from the Toronto game tonight, and … IT’S FRIDAY!

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Gilbert Arenas’ frustration with what he perceives to be a lack of calls in his favor seemed to culminate on Tuesday night in Toronto. Late in the first quarter, he was given a technical foul by referee Greg Willard for arguing a non-call.

On a drive to the basket, Arenas left his feet for a shot and initiated contact with Toronto’s Amir Johnson. Johnson had his arms straight up, but his body did come into contact with Arenas to the extent that Phil Chenier, Wizards television color-analyst, said he was “incensed” because a foul was not called.

When the whistle wasn’t blown, Arenas circled past the ref on the baseline, clapped his hands together and yelled, “Come on!” This did not warrant a tech. But when Arenas clapped his hands a second time, looking back at the ref and saying something else while running down court, a line was drawn. Willard wouldn’t let Gil continue any further and blew the whistle, adjusting his hands in a perpendicular fashion.

Arenas continued to make impassioned pleas to anyone who would listen. Not as impassioned as Scott Skiles when he was given two technicals and an ejection Wednesday night in the Verizon Center, but it was an issue that continued to be on Arenas’ mind nonetheless, including during the game against the Bucks.

Just past the midway point of the second quarter against Milwaukee, Arenas tried to aggressively attack the basket on three straight offensive possessions. Attempts one and two resulted in blocks by Carlos Delfino and Andrew Bogut. A good case for a foul call could have been made on at least one of those attempts.

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I watched most of the Wizards game before heading out for the night. They simply didn’t entice me to stay with their lack of energy, effort, and patience/ball movement on offense. So, watching the rest of the game on Sunday, I pick the game blog up here:

5:00 left in the 3rd, the Wizards are down 13 on the road….do they have what it takes?

Well, to start off, Songaila is scrapping, in the paint on the floor, in the midst of a fray of humanity, and comes away with the ball for an assist from his back to Caron Butler for a dunk. 72-61 Bucks.

4:16: Wiz get another turnover….Butler jets down the court, goes straight under the rim, puts Charlie Bell on his back and becomes a very easy target for a pass from Mike James. 73-63 Bucks.

Mbah a Moute muscles Butler under the rim…Blatche goes to help and that leaves Gadzuric available for the put-back. 75-63 Bucks.

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Some will tell you that Michael Redd killed the Wizards with his All-Star play, especially that huge three he hit to put the Bucks up 93-89 with 1:20 left (Dominic McGuire got caught on a screen and Andray Blatche didn’t help like he was supposed to).

Some will tell you that Andrew Bogut was a heavy-weight in the paint with 18 points and 10 boards (sure he was trouble, but at times, the Wizards guards focused on him too much, losing sight of perimeter assignments).

I will tell you that the #1 problem in my book was one which has consistently plagued the Wizards’ defensive efforts for years: backcourt defense. During crucial moments of the game, it seemed that either Luke Ridnour or Ramon Sessions were getting their way against the likes of Javaris Crittenton and Mike James.

The ball handling duo for the Bucks combined for 14 assists and only 2 turnovers (both on Ridnour, who had 10 of the assists). The quick offensive movement they spawned was contagious to their teammates…..and it was the poor down-the-stretch defense of the Wizards which helped thwart any easy chances to be had on offense.

But in reality, one could point to a number of reasons and be correct. They all add up to a choking mentality, and that’s the tragedy with which this Wizards team is faced. It’s not the way they play, it’s the way they think.

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Against the Milwaukee Bucks, Andray Blatche brought the ball up the court in transition and passed it to absolutely no one……save for some dude on Milwaukee’s bench. If you want to see video of said incident, click away.

As the Wizards headed into a timeout, Caron Butler gave Blatche a “look” as if to say….”Really?….. REAlly?“

Some contested that Butler was just turning his head. Some say that it’s hard to tell what Butler is doing with the crappy quality of YouTube. How best boil this down? A screen shot. Sure, it’s silly and perhaps pointless to do so, but I’ve got nothing better to do while watching football on a Sunday.

In any case, the evidence speaks for itself…..that is a stink-face right in the direction of one Andray Blatche.

“Double-U. Tee. Eff?”

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