So yea, I was making fun of LeBron’s penchant for the New York Yankees in a previous post, “LeBron James Lobbies to Get New York Yankees Logo Added to the Quicken Loans Arena Court.”

But would LBJ really bolt to the Big Apple?

Well, my boy AJ and I had a little gmail exchange about it….like to hear it go:

AJ:
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Ok, so the concept came from thoughts during the Dec. 28th Washington Wizards @ New Jersey Nets game blog.

Has the Jigga man been making [the New Jersey Nets] take cold showers, use duct tape to tape ankles and travel on a rickety old bus so that they will lose games and the franchise will thus have to move to Brooklyn? Plausible.

Makes me think, this year’s New Jersey Nets can definitely be compared to Major League I.

So….I decided to make the comparison it’s own entry.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you’re Major League New Jersey Nets:

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Game 4 against the Nets
Game 20 against the Nets

You know…I’ve always heard opponents of the NBA say that all you have to do is watch the final 4 minutes of the 4th quarter — most of those who use this false reasoning also think college basketball is far superior, or don’t even like basketball at all. Look, it’s okay to prefer college basketball over the NBA. I don’t. I think the NBA game is better, just a personal preference. But to just dog the NBA game? That’s sign #1 that you are an uneducated, or extremely casual, fan of basketball.

Regardless, I don’t like to wait until the end to watch a game….but I didn’t have much choice tonight. I found myself the victim of a long-running wedding rehearsal and suffering from the lack of alcohol in my blood at a dry rehearsal dinner. Oh well, these are the breaks. Suck it up and do what you gotta do. So, as a result, here are some more “notes”.

Short story long, I didn’t get home until about 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Which actually, I was more than happy to see because I didn’t think I’d be catching any of the game at all.

End of the 3rd Quarter

So…..I get in front of the tele just in time to see a Richard Jefferson FT which brings the Nets within 2, 79-77 Wizards.

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Phil Chenier and Steve Buckhantz on the 1 & 2 talking about the friendly upcoming schedule for the Wizards – 6 of 10 remaining December games are at home. Only one of those opponents is playing .500 ball right now, the Pacers at 10-10….although, the Hawks are 1 below .500 and the Wiz face the Heat twice and the Bulls once during this stretch. So, it’s not as easy as they make it out to be…then again, It’s Business Time.

Damn, it looks like the Pecan Sandies are going to win. Kids day at the Verizon Center. “Great.”

Now let’s start the show…

1st Quarter

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Watching some football, doing some work, wondering what the Washington Wizards are going to do against the New Jersey Nets tonight. The keys for the Wizards: they really need to pound it inside when Haywood is in the game. When Blatche is playing, do a little more running. Get him working the high post and using his quickness and/or passing skills against the mediocre Nets bigs. Bullets Forever with the run-down….the Wizards have actually lost 6 in a row against the Nets. Last time the Wiz beat them was in December of ’05, blew New Jersey out by 20 in DC.

So yea, what exactly is going on with Jason Kidd? I just wonder what has been in that guy’s mind lately. Let’s run through a quick timeline:

1997-2007 - Marriage, drinkin’, gamblin’, the NBA, hoes, rockin’ out in general.

Jan. 2001 - A night at the Kidd household – Jason Kidd eats a french fry from his son’s plate. His wife, Joumana, yells at him for doing so. He spits the fry right back in her face. She then ran into a door knob.

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No….not really. Wait, what I truly mean is, not yet.

Ok, what do you think of when you hear the name Jason Kidd?

• Great passer (career 9.2 assist per game average).
• Deceptively quick, one of the best in transition.
• Court vision…and he takes care of the ball, 3.18 TOs per game for his career – excellent for someone who handles the ball so much.
• Best rebounding point guard (actually, best among all guards — he’s averaged 6.7 for his career).
• He’s big, (6’4″, 210 lbs.) and this is part of the reason why he can see the court so well, rebound, and post up smaller point guards causing the opposing defense to adjust.
• Before his knee injury history slowed him down, Kidd was a premier league defender, still has averaged over 2 steals per game for his career.

The negative? Jason Kidd simply cannot shoot, and leaves a lot to be desired on the offensive end in general. Partially, this is a side effect of him being such a great distributor…he doesn’t exactly need to score. But then again, his lack of range decreases the amount of offensive spacing for his team. His career FG% is a small hair above 40%, barely 33% from 3-point range.

So, how about Steve Nash?

• Experienced. He’s a savvy veteran who knows all the tricks.
• Court vision (pretty much a prerequisite for all great pure point guards) — 2.57 career TOs per game.
• Much better scoring threat than Kidd. His shooting percentages (FG & 3P),along with his scoring average has improved throughout his career
• Great transition player, and in my opinion, he is better at getting penetration into the lane than Kidd. This is probably a side-effect of him being more of a scoring option.
• And not that Kidd doesn’t, he’s great at this also, but Nash seems more astute in knowing the passing angles, along with the timing of ball distribution (not to mention that great PGs must know their personnel. — How many times have you seen a bad passer feed the ball to a lumbering big man on the break, only to see a bumblin’, fumblin’ turnover or missed shot?

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1st Quarter

Uhhh…not an auspicious start: botched tip, albeit the Wiz got it; a missed DeShawn lay-up; and a missed DeShawn jumper.

So, at what point does Caron put the headband back on? Seems very odd to me, as many pro athletes are superstitious, that he’d lose it after an all-star year.

Haywood is playing unselfish. Passing at the right times, keeping the hustle swag up, taking charges….(and dishing them out)

I’m not saying a thing about Gil’s 3′s. Oops. Timeout, 7 minutes left. Nice start Wizards.

As long as R-Jeff is kept out of the lane and shooting jumpers, the Wiz will be alright. At least, if he gets in the lane, make him take tough shots. He’s been pretty solid for the Nets this year.

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The Live Game Blog should be in full effect for tonight.

A past Dan Steinberg DC Sports Bog post mentioned that my word count was up to 80 K through 3 Wizards games…..close, but it’s only been like 55 hundo. But game 1 went OT, and the verbiage has decreased with each game. But we’ll see about tonight.

In any case, I’m not feeling good about this one. Less to do with the current state of the team and more about what we did against the New Jersey Nets last year. Bullets Forever reminds us that two of the four losses were without Gilbert. But the way we lost the games….and that miracle Vince Carter new-ball dead-rim 3 pointer to send the game into OT seemed to set the tone for the next 3.

But last year is last year….and tonight’s game needs to be looked at like a roulette table. People always get fooled by the previous spin number board. It doesn’t matter if it’s been red 18 times in a row….(The Rock says: Repeat! It doesn’t matter!!)…the probability on the next spin never depends on previous spins. How many times have you, or a buddy, said, “well, it’s gotta land on black some-time”…and then you lose more money that you should have. Well, you ain’t Wesley Snipes and you shouldn’t always bet on black (vague Passenger 57 reference).

So, my keys to tonight’s game:

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