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Here to provide the DC Council Opening Statements for Washington’s ninth game of the season against the Pacers in D.C. are TAI’s Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) and guest Jared Wade (@Jared_Wade), who writes about the Pacers for the TrueHoop blog 8 Points, 9 Seconds (@8tps9secs).
A.J. Price, Jordan Crawford, Trevor Ariza, Jan Vesely, Emeka Okafor
You know the scene in heist movies where the culprit-to-be is waiting for just the right moment to sneak past the rotating video surveillance cameras, or for the right time to dart past high-powered lasers as they focus their energies to burn/singe/kill intruders in another area of the fortress? Well, all that was kind of like what Jordan Crawford had to deal with as he attempted to go to the free throw line for Jan Vesely last night. Except instead of cameras or lasers, it was three NBA referees.
Let’s first take a look at the action in GIF form… Notice Crawford’s calculated, measured steps, which operate contrary to Crawford’s normal basketball modus operandi. Vesely doesn’t know exactly what to do, he just knows to accept as doctrine whatever the kid from Detroit says in this strange land called America.
The maneuver was actually successful, initially. Crawford even went so far as to make an actual free throw before parties responsible for keeping track of such things noticed. If it weren’t for the sideline referee and/or scorekeeper and/or those darn meddlin’ kids, Crawford might have gotten away with it, too. Instead, the violation was caught and corrected. Vesely, who had been fouled by Tyrus Thomas, went to the line and missed both. Actually, Vesely went on to miss four straight free throws. Actually, Vesely is 1-for-9 from the charity stripe on the season. Let’s check the extended video…
[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 6, Washington Wizards at Charlotte Bobcats; contributors: Adam McGinnis, John Converse Townsend and Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]
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What do you think, John Wall? |
In 71 total minutes over four preseason games, three starts, Trevor Booker posted the following averages per 36 minutes: 22.3 points (.567 FG%), 7.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 2.0 turnovers — per 36 numbers that faintly reflect Chris Webber’s second season as a Washington Bullet (but we’ll let the comparison stop right there). Trouble spots in Booker’s brief preseason window have included his free throw percentage (.600 — his career average is .639 and he shot .602 from the stripe last season) and fouls (4.6 fouls per 36 in the preseason, up from a career rate of 3.9). But any preseason concerns are far dwarfed by the solid all-around game Booker has shown in action that’s the first evidence of his offseason work.
Along with John Wall and Kevin Seraphin, Booker is one of the longest-standing pillars of the Wizards rebuild effort. And from that trio, Booker might have improved the most since being drafted by Washington in June 2010. Part of it is that improving efforts from Wall and Seraphin have gotten more attention. Wall was the No. 1 overall draft pick and proclaimed face of the franchise and Seraphin was an Olympian for France. Plus, when the Wizards were making their vaunted run at the end of last season with Wall, Seraphin and dashes of Nene, Booker was riding the bench. He missed the last 15 games, including the Wizards winning eight of their last 10, due to the very same ailment currently keeping Nene on the sidelines, plantar fasciitis.
“We actually had the same injury, same foot, and got it at the same time,” Booker told me on media day 2012. “I mean, it was something new to me, but we’re getting through it. I just had to stay off my feet for a little while. Now I’m back. I feel pretty good. And I’m ready for the season.”
Booker still ended up missing the first four games of the preseason with what he called a “grade one” left hamstring pull. But he’s better now. He’s ready to continue with defensive toughness, ready to show an improved jump shot, and ready to prove his worth in minutes. The “Cook Book” is ready to starting frying the opposition, and he’ll likely do so as the starting 4 to begin the season on Tuesday night in Cleveland.
Sometimes I wonder if LeBron James’ spirit animal is Mitt Romney. I’m not quite sure what this means — and not to get all ‘political’ — but just bare with me. Romney was born into a rich family, and LeBron was born rich with physical gifts that the NBA has never seen before. Both, I’m sure, had to work hard to get to where they are. Both, I have seen, are capable of having emotional expressions on their face which appear obsessively calculated and robotic. (But who doesn’t have silly expressions on their face sometimes?)
What it boils down to is this: Can you see a young “Glove” Romney having all the fun in the world with a dollar bill, a fishing lure, and an inner city street near a homeless shelter? Certainly. And perhaps that’s the visual elicited from the below LeBron GIF-ery performed against the Wizards last night. Let’s watch…
Wait, what just happened? Let’s watch from another angle…
He still has two legs. Here, on Monday afternoon, he performs a dribbling drill with assistant coach Ryan Saunders. This is a John Wall update, in GIF form.
He didn’t practice on Monday with that strained right calf muscle of his. A return is indeterminate according to head coach Randy Wittman.
“That’s one of those things that can continue to make great strides in a day or two, but then it could be a week, it could be two,” said the coach. “It’s one of those things — calf, hamstring, any kind of muscle injury — you just don’t know until it runs it course.”
[Yi Jianlian vs. Nene at the London Olympics, original image via AP]
D.I.Y. stands for “Do-It-Yourself,” and it’s all the rage amongst the hipster kids aiming to minimize reliance on others to get things done (trust funds be damned). D.I.Y. can involve noble satisfaction. Have a leaky sink? Fix it yourself. There, satisfied. In a sense, this entire self-published blog website started as a D.I.Y. But D.I.Y. doesn’t work so well on the basketball court, as Wizards fans are all too aware.
Nene is not a D.I.Y.-er, and for this, John Wall’s point guard ability will blossom. For that matter, the entire Wizards team could flourish when they relent to the reliance on others. Might you be listening, Jordan Crawford?
Nene and the Brazilian team moved to 3-1 in Group B play after deconstructing China on Saturday and will finish the preliminary round with a game against Spain today. With the 98-59 victory (Brazil doubled China’s score by halftime, 42-21), Nene didn’t even have to play in the final two quarters, resting whatever might ail him (such as his ongoing plantar fasciitis). A highly effective 11 minutes off the bench in the first half was all Brazil needed; Nene contributed six points, five rebounds, two assists, and a steal in this time span. Brazil’s entire team put on an impressive display of unselfish basketball, even with the knowledge that China, now 0-4 in group play, has little in terms of talent. Nene’s contributions to the Brazilian team could have implications on how the Wizards will run their offense next season, as they would like to incorporate the same unselfishness cultivated by Nene on the international stage.
Remember Gilbert Arenas’ final act as a Washington Wizard? It wasn’t pretty. It was self-destructiveness with a premonition. JaVale McGee’s exit act is not as egregious, but it’s so JaVale, with a twist of Wizards past to boot.
There were about 70 seconds left in Tuesday’s game at Dallas, the Mavericks holding a 107-96 lead. McGee blocked a Jason Terry shot and sprinted his hardest in the other direction, leaving his teammates to recover the ball. Jordan Crawford did, and he pushed it, eventually finding himself and McGee with a 2-on-1 advantage… Could the result be anything other than a lob dunk?
Unfortunately the oft-absent concentration was broken, McGee missed the easy dunk. Would it have made a difference in the outcome? You can never be sure (in most situations), but McGee didn’t play like that. He played within himself, as if that next offensive possession or that next block opportunity was his and his alone, and not a collection of game possessions that belonged to the team.
After McGee craned his neck to see the ball bounce behind him, he came down from high after his missed dunk and worked to run back uphill on defense. Meanwhile, former teammate Brendan Haywood, a guy who gave the impression that he wasn’t really a fan of McGee during Haywood’s own last playing days as a Wizard, positioned himself just so… in a manner to provide McGee with one last parting shot, former Wizard to future former Wizard.
#10… a guy on Iowa’s basketball team hitting a no-look, granny-style shot in practice from the opposite free-throw line…
#9… a hockey goal…
#8… a halfcourt alley-oop, Iowa basketball…
#7… DeMarcus Cousins spinning by David Lee and dunking…
#6… Russell Westbrook vicious dunk on the Rockets…
#5… bro in a backwards hat flicks a frisbee as someone pole-vaulting catches it… Read more »
[Randy Wittman could see it coming.]
When preseason theories spoke of young legs benefiting the Wizards in a lockout-shortened season, my thinking was different. They needed all the training camp and preseason they could get, and the lack of it showed many ways in the season’s early going. Now they are starting to play better, more as a team, sharing the ball, and understanding complete effort. Big road wins in Detroit and Portland gave the young Wizards confidence going into Wednesday’s game with the Clippers. But they endured for just over 32 minutes in Los Angeles until tired legs, and more prevalently, tired minds, took over. The home team on rest with more shooting focus after a tough loss in Dallas, along with the capabilities to get shooters open shots, took the game over Washington by 18 points, 102-84. There were a couple game-deciding moments.
With 3:25 left in the third quarter, John Wall assisted a Nick Young 3-pointer for the third time in less than four minutes. Young hadn’t scored a single point in front of his hometown crowd until that first three; suddenly he had nine points. Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier were openly commenting on television how most of Young’s shots looked to be pressing the issue too much, but when Wall started setting him up, it looked like the Wizards would make it a game. The Wizards tied the score at 66 with that third Young three. Within the spurt, Young also had one assist, almost two had JaVale McGee not missed a shot at the rim. Oh what a dream sequence. But then what happened?
Blake Griffin went over McGee’s back for an offensive rebound, came down, gathered himself… monster dunk, 68-66 Clippers. Could the whistle have been blown against Griffin? Possibly. Physicality in the paint can be like refereeing holding in football, it can be called just about every time. The many areas of gray mean more subjectivity comes into the equation. Did McGee even try to box Griffin out? Yes, more so than usual. Other circumstance includes McGee’s lack of help on the defensive boards by the likes of Young, Jordan Crawford and Rashard Lewis.
On the other end, as the Clippers sagged off a Lewis screen for Wall, Kenyon Martin and Chris Paul ended up with a switch, Paul covering Lewis in the paint. In a perfect world Wall hits the wide open shot that Martin left him when he didn’t care to press up, paying attention to Lewis instead. In the Wizards world, McGee waited too long to clear the paint so the Wizards could best iso Lewis against Paul. Then the timing was thrown off when Wall waited too long to pass, and Lewis couldn’t hold a seal. The result was a Wizards turnover, and the Clippers went demoralizing the other way with a Paul alley-oop to Griffin that the athleticism of Wall unsuccessfully tried to get too. John was high but far short. Some photographer has a great one of that play. Washington called timeout but didn’t score for the rest of the period. They went into the fourth quarter down 74-66 thanks to an 8-0 Clippers run.
When: Tues., May 21 - 7:30 pm
Where: Lou's City Bar - Columbia Heights, D.C.
Across The ESPN TrueHoop Network