[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. 8, Washington Wizards vs. Utah Jazz; contributors: Sean Fagan and Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center with John Converse Townsend from behind the T.V.]

No Wall, No Nene… Not an excuse. Read more »

[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. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 31 contributors: Arish Narayen, John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend), and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).

Score

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If part of the court was painted in Salt Lake City on Friday night, the Utah Jazz dominated it. Ted Leonsis’ plan is probably envious of the post toughness that populates Utah’s roster. Bigs Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, starters, along with Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter off the bench combined for 65 points and 32 rebounds, Jefferson leading with way with 34 and 12. When it was over, the Jazz had 70 points in the paint in their 114-100 win over the Wizards. Washington countered with 44.

JaVale McGee, Trevor Booker, Kevin Seraphin and Jan Vesely combined for 35 points and 18 rebounds. McGee had 15 and six with three blocks, but only really proved that his sheer athleticism is easier to contain than Jefferson’s skill. Booker was relatively invisible in 26 minutes with four points, four rebounds and two steals. Seraphin was completely lost. He checked in for McGee with 6:28 left in the second quarter, 38 seconds later Utah called timeout to insert Jefferson back in the game. Big Al scored eight points in 104 seconds against a helpless Seraphin. Vesely was Washington’s most competent big with hustle, 10 points on 5-7 FGs, five rebounds a nice assist and a steal, but he also had a couple horrible turnovers, passing to spots without teammates.

From the start, the Wizards chose to be a jump-shooting team. Only six of their 20 attempts in the first quarter came in the paint. Utah packed it in and dared Washington to shoot, and they did, going 5-14 on attempts outside of the paint. The Wizards started the night 5-5 on field-goals but finished 4-15 over the rest of the period. John Wall and Co. couldn’t get out in transition either, scoring just one fastbreak point on one attempt in the opening quarter. Utah scored 24 points on 12-17 paint attempts in the first 12 minutes. Al Jefferson had 10 points in the quarter as his Jazz jumped to a 32-20 lead. They never looked back.

The Jazz punished the Wizards in the paint further in the second quarter, outscoring them 18-10, 12 courtesy of Jefferson, who scored 16 total in the period. Jefferson tallied 26 first half points, only eight in the second half as Utah was able to spread the ball around on offense  more. By my calculations, 18 of Jefferson’s points in the game were the fault of McGee, 10 came against Seraphin, four were on Booker, and one point each was the responsibility of Singleton and Vesely.

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Mustafa Shakur, Othyus Jeffers, Hamady N’diaye, Kevin Seraphin and Cartier Martin.

Those were all of the players available for the Wizards off the bench last night in Utah. Shakur didn’t play (coach’s decision being the given reason), and N’diaye tallied just three minutes in the box score, nothing else. Jeffers, Seraphin and Martin combined for 18 points on 6-14 from the field and 17 rebounds, five offensive thanks to the bruising workmanship of Jeffers. The numbers of the bench squad with the most unique set of names ever weren’t astounding, but the Wizards made it work in their somewhat shocking 100-95 overtime win over the Utah Jazz on Monday night.

Sure, Utah was missing Devin Harris and Andrei Kirilenko from their starting lineup, instead putting out a unit of Earl Watson, C.J. Miles, Raja Bell, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson. But a Wizards starting five of John Wall, Jordan Crawford, Mo Evans, Yi Jianlian and JaVale McGee didn’t have a chance of feeling sorry for the Jazz, or themselves.

Jazz fans, however, may be feeling sorry for themselves … enough to boo their team at intermittent times throughout the game as Washington fought to gain control early, and then tried their best to relinquish it late, despite Utah’s best effort to not take advantage. It was odd to hear the Wizards television team of Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier recount just how far the Utah franchise has fallen in the year 2011. The Jazz were 27-13 when they made an east coast trip in mid-January, beginning with a game in Washington on the 17th.

Jerry Sloan’s team proceeded to lose to the Wizards on Martin Luther King Day, and then they lost five more in a row. Barely a month later, Sloan resigned after a 23-year run with the team and star point guard Deron Williams was traded to New Jersey. Now the Jazz are left in a vastly uncertain rebuilding mode with Tyrone Corbin as their coach, a six game losing streak (including last night’s take down by the Wizards), and a 36-39 record that looks to keep them out of the playoffs for just the fifth time in the last 28 years (also the fifth time in the last eight years, to be fair).

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The Wizards looked primed to follow the script we have seem so many times this season: Take the early lead, suffer through foul trouble, and collapse late in the game. However, this wasn’t the case today. Maybe history was on the Wizards’ side, having now won five of their their last six Martin Luther King Day contests.

And while the Utah Jazz were looking to build on yet another winning streak (3), the Wizards had not won two consecutive games since April 4 and 6 of last year. But the Washington Wizards showed fire, heart, and discipline — characteristics that have long been absent from the Verizon Center.

In fact, and to my great surprise, the Wizards led for 46 minutes and 41 seconds. (The Jazz only found themselves ahead of the Wizards on three occasions, for a combined five points and 1:19 of game time.)

While there were plenty of highlights – including Andray Blatche’s chasedown block on Raja Bell, another classic John Wall to JaVale McGee alley-oop, and even a JaValevator tip slam late — there was one play that really made a world of difference today, and perhaps even for the rest of the season.

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Ok, so we’ve scanned JaVale McGee’s barcode tat and concluded that on offense, when he tries to do things himself, he fares poorly. But when he plays with teammates, he excels. I’m slightly simplifying … yet combining both stats and my personal observations from watching him all year and coming to a more than reasonable conclusion.

Now, let’s scan again to see what we come up with for McGee from a defensive perspective.

It’s no secret that JaVale needs to gain strength. Some of that will come if he puts in the work. Some of that will come naturally as he fills into his long frame. He also needs to learn more discipline in realizing that he can play better defense AND still be an intimidating shot blocker while not being so ready to leave his feet.

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There were several interesting quotes from the Wizards about themselves in Michael Lee’s report from Minneapolis on Wizards Insider. I’m unsure if it’s more frustrating that they actually realize what they’re doing wrong. Let’s first read a quote from Flip Saunders:

“Guys have to be disciplined. They have to be willing to turn down a shot at time. Tonight, we had no shot discipline. Tonight, it was, ‘I haven’t taken a shot, so I’m going to shoot it.’ when you do that, you shoot 38 percent from the field.”

A reoccurring theme … the players not trusting, or deviating from, Saunders’ offense. Lets see what Antawn Jamison had to say:

“We played selfish basketball at times. On the road, you can’t do that. I don’t care who you’re playing against.”

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In the past weeks, NBA TV has been showing top games from 2008-09. I happened to catch several, one being Tony Parker’s career-high 55 point game, which came on an early November night in Minneapolis. That’s right, Mike Miller and Randy Foye had the privilege of being on the court to witness. Naturally, I perked up to pay attention, and take some notes on what I observed of the two new Wizards.

Word of Minnesota’s offense slowing down at the unspoken decree of Al Jefferson (approved by Randy Wittman) were confirmed. But at least Big Al was willing to take charges, such early in the third quarter when Miller chose a horrible angle to close out on Michael Finley at the three point line. Miller had no balance, and his hands were neither active, nor high. The 35-year old Finley easily blew by, but lost focus during his open path and plowed into Jefferson for the offensive foul.

The very next time down the court, Miller found himself helping off Finley, who was again spotted up at the top of the key. Tony Parker was curling off a Tim Duncan ball screen on the wing, so yes, Miller had to help stop the penetration. But once the ball was kicked back to Finley, Miller hesitated on the close-out, letting Finley’s previous drive to the hoop get into his head. Finley only needed that split-second of space to start drooling. The wide-open three was easy money for a shooter like him. Miller was never in a good position to even give a half-hearted contest.

Clearly, Mike Miller is not too swift on his feet … but this is something we all figured. His defense might be an issue, but not because of a lack of effort.

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flickr/Keith Allison

Haywood is a non-starter for 20 NBA teams.

by spurchief on Jul 26, 2009 4:00 PM EDT

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