[Editor's Note: What was formerly the "Rundown" in the preseason is now 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. For the season opener, in addition to my first-hand game coverage, we have two guest contributors, Gregg Cobert and Sam Permutt. More on both of them at the bottom of this post. -Kyle W.]

Score

Washington Wizards 84 – New Jersey Nets 90 [box score]

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The Washington Wizards open the season at home versus the New Jersey Nets this evening. Seems weird that it’s already here. Even after all that lockout deliberation, it kind of crept up on me. It’s a quiet December 26 Monday in D.C., and that has something to do with it. But I’m now more realizing that tonight is like a starting gun, once this game is played there will be no looking back. Three questions from Adam McGinnis, new dad Rashad Mobley, and myself, Kyle Weidie… and three answers from those same people. This is 3-on-3… Leggo.

Adam McGinnis: Kris Humphries was noted as the most disliked player in the NBA by Forbes.com, and was booed relentlessly in his preseason debut at Madison Square Garden. How do you think Wizards fans will treat him in the season opener? 

McGINNIS: Kim Kardashian’s well documented record of public manipulation should bring the brunt of public contempt on her, not a random NBA forward like Kris Humphries. However, Team Kardashian’s campaign to make Kim the victim and Humprhies the evil one is showing prosperous signs. J.J. Reddick, Lebron James and Kwame Brown are all opposing players that the Wizards home crowd loves to boo (sans Blatche of course); Humphries’s situation lacks the circumstance of those three, so I seeing Wiz fans ignoring his existence.

MOBLEY: Humphries will certainly be booed, but only because D.C. fans saw New York Knicks fans do it first. This, of course, is assuming tonight’s Verizon Center crowd will be large enough to summon that type of emotion.

WEIDIE: There might be faint smatterings, but I don’t think anyone cares much. Seems silly that the poll was not based in the opinion of true basketball fans, but I get it… Paparazzi-type B.S. Otherwise, I don’t think the demographics of basketball fans in D.C., as opposed to NYC, care much about the trials of the Kardashians. But what do I know?

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It seems that the Wizards lost a tough 127-119 double-overtime game to the Los Angeles Clippers last night. Unfortunately, I was unable to watch live, and unfortunately, the DVR was not set to record that much extra basketball. Still, that won’t preclude me from studying the portions of the game I was able to record tonight.

“They’re hurt in there,” Flip Saunders told the media after the game. It can’t hurt for too long, however, because not one of the remaining 12 games on the season will be easy. And the 17-51 Wizards need three more wins so as not to tie franchise records for losing futility in an 82-game slate. Getting to 20 wins is, however, unlikely.

It’s conceivable that Washington’s 98-92 win over the New Jersey Nets at home last Sunday will be their last of the season. Sure, they’ll have good chances to score Verizon Center wins over Cleveland (April 1) and Detroit (April 5), or even their second road win in the last game of the season versus the Cavaliers (April 13), but why not throw a bit of pessimism in the bag with optimism and realism?

Because as much positivity that was pumped after that good win over the Nets — as it should be — there were also some glaring issues, ones that have been seen many times before, which really must come to a halt before the team can proceed with winning in the future. The same issues likely kept the Wizards from winning against the Clippers, even though they hung tough til the end. So let’s start with JaVale McGee versus the Nets…

McGee can do a lot of great things (like crazy blocks), as long as he hustles and focuses, this we know. But those great things aren’t exactly helping the Wizards win games now. It’s McGee’s losing basketball that hurts … when he gets tired, stops hustling, loses focus and seems to just not care.

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The New Jersey Nets had a road record of 3-16 going into last night’s game against Washington, and although that is not quite as bad as the 0-17 road record the Wizards are sporting, it still is not something to be proud of at all. Avery Johnson might not have been able to coach his team to a successful road record, but prior to the game, he laid out a blueprint on how it could be done:

So let’s break down what the Nets did against the Wizards Friday night using Avery’s formula:

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Each game brings countless stories, instances and things to digest. The Wizards’ 97-77 win over the New Jersey Nets on Friday night was no exception. Surely you’ll hear about the team learning from a battle between buffalo and lions shown to them by Flip Saunders, or about Rashard Lewis’ compete game (16 points on 5-11 shooting, 3-6 from three, 13 rebounds, six assists, three steals, a block and zero turnovers), or about Nick Young tying his career high five assists, or John Wall’s nine assists to zero turnovers, or JaVale McGee’s five blocks in the first half (six on the night), or the Wizards’ jovial pre-game routine and loose attitude in the midst of losing. Anything of the sort, in multitudes. But I’m here to talk about our friend Andray Blatche.

It’s a simple game … or at least it can be. And for all the transgressions we may point out about Blatche, and deservedly so, sometimes you got to point out the good things he does. And maybe we should get extra excited about Blatche doing the simple, little things. These are the small victories with him … something to believe in (even though, let’s be honest, at this point there’s no reason not to believe that the feeling could be fleeting). Nonetheless, through roller coaster haircuts and radio air-clearings with Mike Wise, let’s take a look at couple photos I took during the Wizards-Nets game that highlight something rather simple from Mr. Blatche.

Blatche certainly seems to be setting a good screen here … he doesn’t have a reputation of always doing so, at least according to Gilbert Arenas’ departing critique of the Wizards’ big men. But then again, who can believe what Arenas says?

And John Wall seems to be doing a good job of using Blatche’s screen. So what’s Brook Lopez doing? Well, he’s playing off Blatche, a known shooter, and throwing his concentration toward Wall without Devin Harris. I bet you expect Blatche to pop out around the three-point line for a jumper, don’t you?

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Sebastian Pruiti, founder and editor of NBAPlaybook.com and NetsAreScorching.com, has had the opportunity to watch Yi Jianlian for the past two seasons and in a conversation with Truth About It, said:

Yi is an incredibly inconsistent player.  There are days where he looks like he finally solved the puzzle and will turn into a pretty solid offensive player and then the next game he will go 2-15 from the field.  Something he has always been ripped for was [his] lack of aggression, and last year he tried really hard to dispel those thoughts…maybe too hard.  Most times he made the catch he wouldn’t even look for the shot and he’d put the ball on the floor, but teams started to pick up on it.  If he can find a happy medium he might do pretty well offensively.

On the defensive end though, he is absolutely lost.  That is part of the reason I think the Nets traded him besides the cap relief.  I don’t think he would have got much minutes this upcoming year, just because Avery wouldn’t allow his terrible defense to hurt the Nets.

That isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of the 22 (or is it 24?) year old stretch four.  To sort out any misconceptions and better determine Yi’s worth, it’s time for another installment of CHECK MY STATS, unofficially sponsored by Synergy Sports Technology.

OFFENSE

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{flickr/Buou}

Mere minutes after the introductory press conference of 2010 draft picks Trevor Booker and Hamady N’Diaye ended, rumors began to surface that Ernie Grunfeld had another trade up his sleeve to absorb the Wizards’ cap space while gaining misspent potential in the process.

The team has officially announced that they will acquire 2007 sixth overall draft pick Yi Jianlian from the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Quinton Ross. New Jersey will also send Washington “cash considerations,” estimated to be $3 million.

Ross recently exercised a player option that will pay him $1,146,337 next season. Jianlian is set to make $4,050,499 in 2010-11 with a qualifying offer of $5,403,366 for 2011-12.

The Nets obviously swing this trade because Yi has been a disappointment and they’re hungry for cap room to acquire a top tier free-agent or two (aka The Race for LeBron). The Wizards gain a player who is still a prospect, one who certainly has more promise than Quinton Ross, for essentially nothing since they are getting cash from New Jersey.

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Give Andray Blatche credit. On Sunday evening he achieved a career-high eight assists in just the first quarter. Blatche’s passing to start the game against New Jersey set an example for his teammates and established a tone of ball movement for the entire night. Andray finished with 13 assists and his team had 28 total on 38 made field-goals en route to beating the Nets 109-99.

As you can imagine, Blatche being the post player that he is, one who often leads the Wizards in scoring and shots (20 points on 5-18 FGs on the night) and one who can rebound when he applies himself, probably came pretty close to achieving his first career triple-double.

It wasn’t to be, he finished one rebound short.

With 24 seconds left in the game, one excruciating chance for 10 boards presented itself, but Blatche fouled Brook Lopez going for a long Yi Jianlian three-point miss. Rats. Andray skipped down the court in frustration after the blown whistle while Lopez, of the 11-win Nets, simply waited for the game to be over.

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Some quotes and pictures from before today’s Wizards game versus the New Jersey Nets …

Flip Saunders on Andray Blatche:

“Dray, his scoring production in the fourth quarter isn’t what it is in the first three quarters because teams lock in more.”

“Early in the game Dray’s definitely a lot more ready to take cuts, work a little bit harder … late in the games, he gets pushed out a little bit.”

“The number of minutes he’s played, he hasn’t played this. All these guys are going through a huge learning experience of playing more minutes and going through situations and learning through that whole process.”

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I could have taken a number of quotes from the above video of locker room interviews after Saturday night’s loss to the Jazz and turned it into the title of a post.

“Obviously it’s not any fun, you know it’s frustrating.” -Mike Miller

“Well obviously you have fun playing basketball, but you play to win.” -Mike Miller again

“We all have jobs, you know. My job is to play my game and to do my job.” -Andray Blatche

“I don’t feel like the freedom is there to … if I get physical, I don’t get to be able to be physical back, offensively at least.” -JaVale McGee

But none of those quotes are as “fun” as Nick Young’s. The SoCal product is right. No one wants to be like the New Jersey Nets, the absolute worst team in the NBA.

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{flickr/Bari D}

The last time the Wizards faced the Nets in New Jersey, Earl Boykins hit a game winner with 0.4 seconds left. The first time these two teams meet this season was the Wizards’ home opener in D.C., an old-fashioned blow out. Different times back then.

So, the Wiz are 2-0 against New Jersey this year, but haven’t faced them since the team was blown up … nor have these two teams faced since Michael Wilbon supposedly said that New Jersey would go undefeated against this current Wizards team (at the time, Josh Howard was still healthy — see the comments section of this post). Ok, so that has yet to be determined, but I will go on record saying that Wilbon is full of hot air regardless.

But in anticipation of today’s game in the Garden State (6 pm est start time), I exchanged a brief Q&A with Mark Ginocchio of the fellow TrueHoop Network blog, Nets Are Scorching.

Mark asked me two questions:

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After a horrible start, the Wizards, a rather dysfunctional team themselves, came back to beat the New Jersey Nets, the worst team in the NBA. Good for them. For the 81-79 win, Flip Saunders need the 5’5″ Earl Boykins, a mid-November pick-up, to hit a jumper with 0.4 seconds left. Jarvis Hayes, a former Washington Wizard, badly missed a shot at the buzzer for the Nets.

The secondary storyline to the Earl of Last-Second Heroics is the fact that not one of the Wizards’ starters, Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood, scored in double figures, something that hasn’t happened to an NBA team so far this season and perhaps beyond.

The starters combined to shoot 15-42 from the field and not one of them finished with a positive plus/minus (-14, -1, -7, -11 and -5 respectively in the previously given order).

Other the other hand, the reserves, Boykins, DeShawn Stevenson, Nick Young, Andray Blatche and Fabricio Oberto, were responsible for 43 of the Wizards’ 81 points. Boykins (15), Young (10) and Blatche (14) were the double-figure scorers for Washington and each reserve finished with a positive plus/minus (+17, +4, +7, +13 and +7 respectively in the previously given order).

So in a season where just about anything has happened on and off the court, Wizards fans, the ones who are left, have been exposed to yet another new adventure. At least this time their team won. Read more »

{Post Game Locker Room Video}

{Best Web Cuts}

There’s so much out there on the web … to filter through it all, I provide the best web cuts from the Wizards-Nets game:

[Mike Jones - Wizards Outlet, Washington Times]

Andray Blatche was feeling good tonight, and for good reason. After the game he got dressed in a snazy suit and tie, accented by giant diamond studs and to top it off, a pair of dark shades. He playfully strutted through the locker room and joked that he didn’t feel like doing an interview, then bust into a laugh and sat down and said, “Alright, let me get for real. What’s up, y’all?”

[Jake Whitacre - Bullets Forever]

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Andray Blatche looked more comfortable than he ever has in a Wizards uniform en route to a new career high 30 points and a Wizards 123-104 win against New Jersey. Sure, he had Yi Jianlian and Eduardo Najera guarding him. But Wiz fans are used to Blatche being his own worst enemy, and not necessarily a Halloween nightmare to whomever is guarding him.

After the game, Flip Saunders praised Blatche for his methodical offensive movement, his ability to read the defense, and overall, his consistency to this point of the season. But no one is going to get too excited over the Blatche they’ve seen so far.

“As a player you have to understand that every game is a building block. I hope he continues to give us that consistency offensively but more importantly defensively,” said Saunders. When asked about the visions of Blatche that people haven’t seen before, Saunders responded, “He hadn’t seen it either.”

On media day, Blatche spoke first and foremost (and second-most) about a summertime concentration on his jump shot. One couldn’t help but wonder, ‘Is that really what he should be talking about?’

Evidently so. With the fluidity and smoothness seen in his jumper on Saturday night, it’s easy to understand why he was bragging so much about the work he’s put in.

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Ok, Halloween Night, at the Verizon, ready for the Wiz to make up for last night’s loss in Atlanta. Unfortunately, the Wizards didn’t just lose the game, but they lost Caron Butler too.

Butler had an MRI and X-Ray today that revealed no structural damage; the diagnosis was a bruised kneecap. Before the game, Flip Saunders said he expected Butler to be back in the lineup against the Cavs in Cleveland on Tuesday. The official injury report is that he’s day-to-day.

In Caron’s place, Randy Foye will start; Mike Miller will move to the three-spot. Arenas obviously still starts at the point and Fabricio Oberto and Brendan Haywood will hold down the front court.

I spoke to Foye before the game. He said it will be a little bit different on out the court with the starters, but he will have the same mindset to play his game … be aggressive on offense, execute plays, and play hard on defense.

Foye will likely matchup against New Jersey’s Courtney Lee. He said he played against Lee last year and knows he’s a slasher who also likes to shot the corner three. His main goal, as with most any defensive assignment, is to make it tough on Lee before he gets to ball so that he can’t get in a good position to score.

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