In the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, the Washington Wizards tallied just 10 points on 3-16 shooting. They turned the ball over six times, allowed six offensive rebounds and only managed two assists, which is pretty good in respect to three made field-goals. The Wizards lost to LA 92-78, their 29th defeat in 43 games.

It would be simple to cite constant themes of lacking energy and settling for jumpers and conclude that this team has quit on their coach, themselves, the franchise, and the fans. But these issues have plagued them since the beginning of the season. So, and pardon me if I’ve said this before, you technically can’t quit if you never start playing.

Early season issues arose from the players’ unfamiliarity with a new offensive system. That quickly beget reoccurring situations where they should have known the system, but didn’t trust it. The most recently evolution involves one of the team’s captains ignoring the coach and running his own play with the game on the line.

What’s next? Will Flip Saunders start sending ‘read between the lines’ messages about not having adequate personnel for his system? The scenario seems unlikely, but at this point just about anything can happen. The coach, in just his first season with the franchise, has made his mounting frustration more visible as of late. Drastic change could be right around the corner, and not much can be done when a team is playing poisoned. In the meantime, abruptly ending pre- and post-game press conferences and slamming doors to the coaching quarters might have to suffice as a release valve for Saunders. Read more »

I don’t think the Wizards have ended a game with turnover this season yet. Chalk another one up in the ‘Inventing Ways To Lose’ tally. Although, turning the ball over to lose a game isn’t a new invention, it’s just what bad teams do. What more can I say?

{fact}

Four of Gilbert Arenas’ six fouls came immediately after a turnover. Three of those turnovers were committed by Arenas himself, one by Caron Butler.

{wizards vs. clippers: 11 frames}

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flickr/Roadsidepictures

I watched the Wizards take on the Timberwolves and Clippers in the Las Vegas Summer League long ago, but am just getting my notes/observations on those two games posted.

So in the spirit of better late than never, here goes ….

(Note: I still need to get my post up on the Knicks game and hand out the summer league grades … but only to the players who ‘count’ — Blatche, Young, McGee, Crittenton and McGuire.) Read more »

Somebody asked me, “Did you stay up for the game?”

“Yea…,” I slowly answered….and then I realized (or recalled)…the Wizards lost that effing game last night.

Did they, or did they not, have any business losing?

The answer is obvious: of course.

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When he’s not speed racing, Nick Young can drop some buckets, son.

Yes, the Wizards sucked the juice out of a bar rag against the Grizzlies on Monday (hey, I think they call that a New Jersey Turnpike…..ironically enough, the Wiz play the Nets on Wednesday), but they did pick up their 10th win of the season against the Clippers on Saturday.

With seven minutes left in the 4th, Baron Davis hit a trey ball as an “inadvertent” whistle blew. They counted the shot and the Washington lead was cut to eight, 90-82. A bucket on the next Wizards possession was very crucial.

Sure, the Clips would cut the score to eight a couple times late in the game, but in this instance, Nick Young answered the call of duty to give the Wizards a 10 point lead and game changing bucket.

Here’s the break down:

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Jeff from CelticsBlog.com did the grunt work to put together a comprehensive NBA preview from bloggers ’round the ‘sphere. The order of appearance: Atlantic Division, the Southwest Division , the Central Division, the Northwest Division, the Southeast Division, and finally, the Pacific 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:

picture from flickr/gamescoreblog

Golden State Warriors

[Upside and Motor] (check the great picture too)
The Warriors jumped the shark. Two seasons ago they were a darling, last season they took a slight step back (but enough of a step to fall just short of the postseason), and now they’ll find themselves struggling to reach 11th place in the West. Welcome back, lottery balls; the Bay’s missed you. Predicted Record: 30-52

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There’s been a couple comments on this blog and on Bullets Forever pertaining to the Wizards attempting to acquire Elton Brand, who has the choice to opt of the last year of his contract just like Gilbert Arenas. Well, let’s explore some hypothetical scenarios.

The first question you must ask is will Elton Brand even opt-out. He’s been quoted in the papers that he is thinking “more and more about his future,” and that “if negotiations go right between the team and David Falk, his agent, that he will return. If so, it will probably be under a new contract.”

Brand knows another injury could be just around the corner and wants to secure his financial future. He also knows that at the age of 29, he’s still a hot commodity. Sounds like a guy who wants to opt-out and get a fat 6-year contract to me. If Brand decides not to opt-out, he stays with the Clippers for 1-year at $16,440,000 million.

It’s also worth mentioning Corey Maggette, as he could also come into play. He’s more likely to opt-out as he’s desperate to get paid and feels he’s worth more than the $7 milli he would get next year. Maggette has also had issues with Mike Dunleavy, citing lack of defense. But Dunleavy has gone on record saying that he wants Maggette back.

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Sacrifices. I wasn’t able to catch the Wizards-Clippers game in any form last night, well….. (my boy Shamus Serpico became the age of 28 the same day as our Tuff Juice…..unlike TJ, we are all working stiffs and must do our actual celebrating on the weekend, thus, Saturday night dinner)……the “form” in which I’m going to attempt to catch the game is via a practice in web surfing.

Ok, I do know the final score. Being a fan, I was obliged to check game updates on my phone. I also know there was an overtime thanks to Antawn Jamison’s 3 free-throws to send it there, thanks to my boy D-Mac…..the man behind the production of Wizards and Caps games on 980 AM.

Check one: Bullets Forever

If there’s ever been a game before now where a team has played for exactly 5 minutes and 10 seconds and still managed to win the game, I sure haven’t seen it.

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Wizards Insider reported that Caron Butler will probably sit out the NBA All-Star game. And Comcast SportsNite did, indeed, just report that Caron won’t play in the NOLA. Good. For selfish reasons, I’d rather him not play because I’ll be on a plane during the NBA All-Star game and I want to be able to see Tuff Juice play when he really shows out on the big stage…..after all, he was 1-7 with 2 points last year. But really, the rest will be good for him. He will be revitalized and motivated for the post-break. Plus, snub amends can be made with a replacement. It should be Hedo Turkoglu.

Onto tonight’s game, I’m excited about it. This team, despite 6, 7 game losing streaks, did come out to play in the last two games against two very good Western Conference teams. Yea, it didn’t turn out how we would like. The Wiz made some bonehead mistakes, but I recognize the effort. I’d say about 20 other NBA teams, if faced with a similar situation, would have folded.

Should the Wizards get mad and pick a fight? [SVP Style]

ME: Of course I would like someone to bust Stephen Jackson straight in the jaw, especially for something like this. But I like this Wizards team not trying to act like the Warriors; their bitching and moaning during that game was a little too much.

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