Okay, back to blogging.....it's been a couple days. Overload at work, knee surgery earlier today (more on that later)....yada, yada, yada. The most important thing, I made it home just in time to catch the Wizards-Bulls game. Since I was slightly incapacitated, my boy AJ is going to help me out. But of course, I could not help taking some notes.
So let's start the show...
1st QuarterKB
Ok, AJ did not make it home in time for the 1st quarter (or second) and I wasn't up for taking notes just yet. And perhaps this should've been the case for the whole game since the 1st was the best quarter of the game for the Wizards. They came out with some energy, moved the ball well, and
Caron Butler was leading the offensive flow with 6 assists. At the end of one, the Wizards led 27-20. I believe the Wizards shot over 50% for the 1st. And then came the......
2nd QuarterKBHere, the Wizards totally forgot about and ignored all the good work from the 1st. I'm not sure if the Bulls were packing the zone in, they did get a defensive 3 second call in the 1st, or if the rotation got jacked causing the Wizards to fall out of their rhythm.
I mean, the copious amount of Js that the Wizards took in the 2nd were relatively open, they just weren't dropping. At that point, someone, anyone needs to recognize this & go inside.
In the middle of the drought, with about 4:11 left in the quarter,
Eddie Jordan subbed
Caron Butler,
Brendan Haywood, and
DeShawn Stevenson for Songaila, Andray Blathce, and Roger Mason.....that didn't help inside scoring one bit.
To sum up the ugliness, the Wizards were outscored 25-13 by the Bulls in the 2nd and shot a ridiculous 13% from the field. I repeat, ridiculous.
At the half,
Phil Chenier mentioned that Wizards got a false sense of security from their strong 1st quarter where they had a 13 pt lead at one point. But really, where does this team get off getting
any sense of security? Because of the struggle which has defined this season, they have absolutely no right.
The Bulls are not having a great season, but they are still the Bulls. A team with which (because of the playoff series a couple years ago, a pre-season fight the next season, and the ever present dirtiness of Andres Nocioni).....the Wizards have a budding rivalry. They should have been more than ready for this game.
The Wizards have had a lot of strong 3rd quarters this year, so we will see. But that last quarter was highly disappointing.
And 13 has not been a good # for the Wiz. Yea, they were up 13 at one point in the 1st. But, they only scored that much in the 2nd while shooting that number in FG%.
3rd QuarterAJ
So from my initial assessment of the game, we look a bit lethargic. We are ice cold from the floor, the transition defense is not in sync, we seem to be making some poor decisions with the ball offensively, and to top it all off Jamison just hurt his ankle.
The Wiz started the quarter 1 for 8. That certainly is not the way to continue a winning streak.
The Bulls are a strange team. They had boundless potential at the start of the year. And here they are at the bottom of the Central division looking like they are going to be missing the 2007 playoffs. Still want to entertain a trade to ‘The Windy City’ Kobe?
The Wizards can’t buy a bucket. That translates to 28% from the floor. I am sure that pull up jumpers with a hand in your face by
Nick Young can’t help the situation. I hate to be negative, but our play looks pretty poor right now.
KBYea,
Nick Young was 1-8 for the first half, Bean Burrito...errr...the "City" has been throwing up some crap.
The Bulls lead is extended to 9 to start the 3rd. 14-0 run for the Bulls in total.
9:00 - I also see
Jamison limping around.
Steve Buck says it's his knee, but I think he just caught a charley horse. Antawn waives off checking out of the game.
1st timeout by
Eddie Jordan. The Bulls run in game is 18-2 now. Wiz down 53-42.
Since they're calling it more, can we get a stat on times a player carries the ball? I bet BBNY (
Bean Burrito Nick Young) would lead the league (or at least rookies) in avg per 48 minutes.
These jumpers are starting to piss me off. Yes, the 28% makes me sick and I'm ready to blame that for my knee hurting.
Point
Caron needs to step it up and control the team himself.
AJI am hoping that
Caron’s “Hakeem like” post move will get a little run started for us.
I was right….after that shot we are on a 14-2 run and AJ is at the line to cut the deficit to two.
I really do not enjoy playing the Bulls. They present so many different match-up problems for us. We can pretty much handle them at the guard spot, but they have so many long athletic players.
Deng and
Tyrus Thomas really cause us problems on the offensive end.
KBThe bell has rung for
Butler indeed, an assist, a drive, couple 3s for
Tuff Juice. The 14-2 was definitely sparked by his energy.
The 13 pt deficit is cut to 2 in less than 2 minutes. 57-55 bulls. 5 minutes left in the 3rd.
I'm liking the lineup in the game for the Wiz at the end of the 3rd.
Brendan Haywood,
Andray Blatche,
Caron Butler,
DeShawn Stevenson, and
Antawn Jamison. This squad does not appear in the top 20 5-man floor units for the Wizards on
82games.com. I want to see it more. How about that shirt
Wizznutzz?
Bulls aren't giving up easily though...combined with 5 3rd quarter turnovers for the Wizards. Chi-Town just got their 1st turnover of the quarter with 48 seconds left. The Wiz end the quarter down 2, 65-63.
AJYea, the momentum we had after
Caron’s moves really fizzled out. On a bright note, Caron is two rebounds away from his second career Triple-Double. There must be something about me blogging and Caron dropping dimes, snatching boards, and scoring buckets!
Caron and
AJ combined for 21 of the Wizards 23 points in the quarter. That tandem is great. Only problem is that AJ typically has trouble creating his own shot, but couple him with Caron and you have something special.
4th QuarterAJOkay, so despite our rocky beginning and end to the third, we are only down two to start the fourth.
Here is my Andray Blatche rant again. This guy is a beast. He has started a nice little run with defensive presence. He just got a great block on Aaron Gray, then another on Tyrus Thomas that led to an easy Butler lay-in. The more I watch him, the more excited I get about his potential. Just imagine when he 1. gets stronger 2. bulkier and 3. more offensive moves on the low block. He could be a solid piece to that Washington championship puzzle.
Maybe I shouldn’t have started talking bout
Andray. No sooner did I finish up, the Bulls go on a 7-0 run to push back out in front.
KBMessage to
Roger Mason: NEVER fake a cut to the basket, especially in this offense. He does it at about the 8:30 mark and
D-Song's pass goes out of bounds. The Bulls lead is at 7.
Sure hope the Wiz didn't use it all up in that mid-3 quarter run.
With 6:42 left,
DeShawn hits a trey - really needed that. 77-73 bulls.
I've been a
Roger Mason advocate, but I'm not sure he should be shooting this much.
AJThey just showed a picture of
Joe Smith and
Ben Wallace. Both of those guys are connected to D.C. (Wallace played his early days here while Smith was a standout in College Park.) What most amazes me is how differently those two guys paths were yet there they are, on the same bench making roughly the same amount of money. Funny how life can turn out sometimes huh?
Somebody had best stop Tyrus "just give me the money" Thomas if we want to win. The guy has made two 15 foot jump shots and he has the Bulls all fired up here. With 5:08 to play in the 4
th the Wizards are down 4 and we don’t seem to have much energy. This looks like a much different Wiz team than we are used to seeing.
KBYea, where the heck did
Ty Thomas get that jumper from?
DeShawn Stevenson just pulled a
Zach Randolph...(I mean did you
see that move by Randolph when the Knicks faced the Warriors the other night? After getting beat on an o-bound, he thought he got fouled when on the real, cat can't jump worth a lick. I can probably count the dunks he's had in his career on two hands. Well,
ZacH started complaining to the ref while the ball was still in play, then, he turned his back on his man,
Troy Murphy, to complain some more. What happened? T-Murph knocked down a three. Ladies and gentlemen, your "Built on Character" New York Knicks)
Back to
DeeeShawn and the Wiz game.
Black Snake had it stolen on a break, he complained and/or glared at the ref and didn't get back on D. The Bulls ended up getting an o bound on their possession down the court. Sorry, but I just can't stand when players want to complain while the clock is running. What are you accomplishing here? It's not like the ref is going to change the call.
After the game, I think
Eddie Jordan was asked about this by a reporter (I couldn't exactly hear the question), but his response was essentially, "We'll have to go back and look at the tape to see if the complaints were legit." I really don't give a damn if they were legit. You don't stop playing the damn game unless the whistle blows. Period.
Roger Mason makes a trey ball with about 4:45 left. Forget what I said earlier, keep shooting young man.
Caron Butler Triple-Dub alert....he gets the basket on the other end and the Wiz finally gain lead. 80-79
AJI wonder if he has clauses in his contract that pay him a little bit more cash with statistic milestones such as triple doubles.
KBNick Young hasn't played in a while. Hmmmm.
When will people learn? The Wizards
Caron Butler commercial,
Bill Simmons..... it's
Tuff Juice, not Tough Juice.
2:19 An amazing block by
Tyrus Thomas -- on
Antawn Jamison, Ty also catches the ball coming down, and fell out of bounds, being hit as Jamison went falling. Foul on
Antawn Jamison. On the replay, it looked like AJ got fouled.
Another hack job by refs...
AJ doesn't get a call on a drive, Bulls take the ball down, score and go up 9 with 1:27 left. Debatable whether the call was legit on not by Steve Buck and Phil Chenier.
AJWhata turn of events here. The normally calm and collective AJ just picked up a tech as the Bulls finish a fast break and put the Bulls up 8. So with 1:20 left we are down nine and do not have the ball.
This is the first time that I have seen this year where the Wizards failed to capitalize on an opportunity to beat a team that is playing the second game of a back-to-back. More important than ending a four game winning streak, we lose to the Bulls at home, and we won’t see them here at the Phone Booth again this year.
Most importantly, I hate the damn Bulls. They always give us trouble and Nocioni is a prick.
So looks like today wasn’t your day KB. You got that knee cut open and you had to come home to see Caron’s triple double wasted in a 95-84 loss.
KBI mean seriously, the Wizards essentially got done in by
Aaron Gray (10 pts, 10 rebs, 5 asts) &
Tyrus Thomas (14 pts, 3 blks, 2 stls, 6 rebs).
That 11-0 run by the Bulls after the Wizards gained the 80-79 lead did the trick. The L is official.
This game almost makes me angrier than
game 16 in Philly, at least the Wiz had a chance at the end of that one. 12 second half turnovers, only
Butler and
Jamison in double figures.... on top of the wasted Trip-Dub by Juice of course. A horribly inconsistent effort all around. The Bulls played like poop and won. And how bout that?
Labels: chicago bulls, washington wizards, wizards game blog
If it seems like I show the Miami Heat 'No Country for Old Men' poster every time the Miami Heat come up, then yes, I do. If only to rub it in the face of my boy Nawaz from Miami. I always told him that renting players would lead to the downfall of his beloved Miami Heat.
