Flip Saunders took an unusually long amount of time to get to his press conference after Saturday night’s 109-95 loss to Orlando. Wait, strike that, nothing has been “usual” this season, or rather consistent when it comes to how long the coach takes to get from locker room to media room.

It’s just that on Friday after the 105-99 loss to the Hawks, Flip was at his podium seat and ready to answer questions before anyone knew it. The only initial witnesses were cameramen and perhaps one, two at the most, members of the media.

Saturday the healthily attending media waited and waited, humorously speculating on what the coach could be doing. Others, myself included, looked at the box score, calling out numbers of note and then applying the proper reactionary facial expression. All of this is leading to a story about Shaun Livingston, trust me.

When Flip’s presser finally concluded, the media scrambled toward the locker room knowing it could be relatively empty. One of the games few positives, Andray Blatche, was already dressed and talking in the hallway amongst his post-game posse, meaning that pickings could be slim.

What players would be left? Only Al Thornton, JaVale McGee, Alonzo Gee and the two point guards, Randy Foye and Shaun Livingston. Gee didn’t garner any media attention and McGee was able to escape while Thornton was being questioned.

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[Mike Miller's final shot versus the Atlanta Hawks, March 11, 2010]

Your average gambling addict is probably keeping track of every game on every night, including a Wizards game. But last Thursday against the Hawks, even the most casual sports gambler was probably paying attention to the Wiz.

Even though there was a full slate of college basketball conference tournament action that night, there were only three NBA games on the schedule … the Bulls at Magic and the Warriors at the Blazers in addition to the Hawks at Wizards, which was a snow make-up game.

Heading into the night, Atlanta was favored by seven points. And with time running out in the fourth quarter, it looked like the Hawks were going to cover. Up 104-97, Marvin Williams was fouled by Mike Miller with nine seconds left. At this point, the clock could have run out, causing a push. And at this point, someone was probably thanking Miller for the foul, possibly allowing Atlanta to cover the spread.

Free-throw #1 … a miss. Free-throw #2 … a make. Hawks up eight, 105-97.

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JaVale McGee tends to be quick to leave his feet on pump fakes. You’ve probably already noticed that opponents are increasingly using ball fakes that will get the JaValevator a floor above them and then rising up when his cord is cut and the elevator gets the shaft. After the game, McGee expressed that he was willing to give up one foul for five misses. Lovely.

It’s also worth noting that McGee had a career high 20 points in a Wizards 105-99 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. JaVale was very active on the offensive end, proving he can be a great weapon for a transition team, or one that sets solid screens and has a point guard who can penetrate the lane. The elevator went eight floors up with that number in dunks to go with nine rebounds, five fouls and one turnover. Lovelier.

Inexperienced players just need to learn quick trigger jumping is not always a good idea, especially when Al Horford knows it’s coming. This is evidenced below. Photos courtesy of Adam, the new site photographer/media guy.

I WANT IT!

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“Drama, thy name is the Washington Wizards,” began a post by Joanne C. Gerstner on Off the Dribble, the New York Times’ NBA blog. The post is also titled, “Wizards Drama Continues.”

Drama again? This team certainly doesn’t need any more drama after all the unfathomable events of this season. What exactly is this drama that the NY Times speaks of?

A bizarre season already marred by the Gilbert Arenas gun incident took another ugly turn when coach Flip Saunders and starting center Andray Blatche engaged in a war of words.

A war of words? Boy, sounds dangerous. But in reality, the incident was nothing more than an intense discussion between coach and player. Something that happens at any level of basketball.

The  incident in dispute revolves around the exchange of words, among other extra-curricular activities, between Kevin Garnett and Blatche during last Sunday’s Wizards-Celtics game in Boston. Saunders, knowing Garnett, felt that Blatche should not have bought into Garnett’s bait. The coach’s point was that K.G.’s juices get flowing when his antics are acknowledged, as opposed to when he is ignored. Blatche’s defense to Flip was that he wanted to stand up for himself.

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Success of the Wizards is contingent upon the court leadership of Gilbert Arenas. This is not a ground-breaking concept. Despite looking “back” in Dallas, he’s still rusty, and he and the team have a good deal of the development “process” to go.

Nothing could have more exemplified this than the first quarter in Atlanta. As I wrote in the previous game post, Arenas had eight points, one turnover in the game’s first 6:20 and one point, five turnovers in the remainder of the first half. When the offense started to get sloppy, Arenas did not exert control on this situation to calm his team down.

Mike Prada did a good job of breaking this down on Bullets Forever:

A large part of the problem was that Arenas was breaking a lot of plays to drive to the basket.  Yes, it’s true that you want Arenas to be aggressive, in particular because it would wear down Joe Johnson.  However, that has to come more in the flow of the offense than it did tonight.  Arenas kept calling his own number instead of letting the offense run itself and then dumping the ball to another scorer.  The rest of the players were often not prepared for Arenas’ decisions and didn’t get in position to defend in transition.

The strive to achieve more balance is new to Arenas. It’s gonna take some time. All Wizards fans can do is have faith that the experience of Flip Saunders will work to correct these issues and the desire of Arenas to be a better player will make him wholly receptive to the process.

Let’s also be glad that Sam Cassell is around to put some flavor in Arenas’ ear.

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Just as holistically in-sync the Wizards looked on Tuesday in Dallas, they looked about the exact opposite on Friday in Atlanta. What gives?

Sure, the team came on late behind some yesteryear Hibachi appetizers and a little Epic Vale pogo-stick length. But when Agent Zero goes from eight points and one turnover in the game’s first 6:20 to Agent Turnover with one point and five giveaways in the first half’s remaining 17:40, the team is digging itself a hole.

Gil likes to listen to Jay-Z before games … I wonder if he was listening to track #12 off ‘Kingdom Come’ pregame at the Phillips Arena.

Not to discredit the Hawks, they are a good team. But it was less of them beating the Wizards and more of the Wizards beating themselves. Oh … and well, Atlanta was also 31-34 from the free-throw line while the Wizards shot 14-22. The disparity seems dramatic, but the Wizards migrated between trying to carelessly attack the basket and settling for jumpers. So in that regard, the Wiz really don’t have anyone to blame but themselves … but I’ll also credit Atlanta’s defense just a tad.

Looking for areas to pin blame? Point guard play and poor initiation/stewardship of the offense stand out to me. To others, it was the defensive presence of Haywood (minus-11, tied with Arenas for the second worst plus/minus) and Blatche (team worst minus-17), and their inability to contain Al Horford and Josh Smith.

There were a couple positives … a bit of sun shining on the hound dog’s ass through a cloudy Georgia day if you will.

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Lost amongst the mucky sounds and words regarding last night’s stinker versus the Hawks was this sweet ‘JaVale McGee block, Mike James recovery, pass to Nick Young who tips, gathers, and throws the ball off the glass for a McGee dunk’ combo [via Bethlehem Shoals at The Baseline].

Just watch …

Also, Comcast SportsNet has been doing a ‘My Life 365‘ series on Caron Butler.

Here’s a preview …

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flickr/art crimes

The rumors,  the possibilities … they must be tired because they’ve been running through my mind all night. It’s getting a little crazy leading up to the draft, but bloggers, MSM types, and the Internets wouldn’t have it any other way.

First of all, I’d like to remind the basketball world, despite the fact that 99% of it won’t see this post, that the Wizards are not “desperate“ to shed salary.

I’ll simply point to a Washington Times piece from late March highlighting that owner Abe Pollin would pay the luxury tax in order to win a championship. No, this doesn’t mean Ernie Grunfeld won’t be looking for creative ways to save money, he just won’t be making any wholesale giveaways in the process.

Pollin is 85 and another title is number one, two, three, four and five on his bucket list. Question the validity of Pollin’s edict if you want, but at least give it the respect it deserves. Some people don’t.

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Lake Erie, on standby until the next fire

While the association of sports punditry blowhards will bellow, “No, no, no!!! Cleveland and Washington are NOT rivals!!,” those with common sense beg to differ.

As we found out in early April, a game between a hapless Wizards team and the unstoppable force of LeBron & Co. wasn’t exactly meaningless.

The fact that these two teams seem destined to exchange barbs, not only between the members of each organization, but also amongst fans and journalists, screams rivalry on some level — contrary to popular opinion, a ‘rivalry’ is not solely defined by wins and losses.

On April 8th, Cleveland columnist Bill Livingston decided to randomly hurl insults at the Wizards franchise, for which a response was necessary: “Kicking The Wizards While They’re Down,” NBC Washington.

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The friendly bloggers (and their fans) at the Cleveland sports-based Waiting For Next Year have taken upon the task of creating a Mark Price-themed t-shirt (h/t Sporting News).

Price, the current Atlanta Hawks shooting coach, may still be right for Cleveland Cavaliers fans, but that’s far from the case for Wizards/Bullets fans.

A reminder of how the Cavs fleeced former Bullets GM, John Nash (from this May ’08 post):

Seems like I’ve heard about it before, but maybe I didn’t think much of it at the time, or just forgot, as it occurred way back in 2003, before the ‘blogging era’.

But there I found myself, coming home to an on television Friday night, checking out game six of an incredibly boring Heat-Hawks series.

Dan Marino was courtside, ESPN showed his retired jersey in the rafters. Little curious to see it hanging in a basketball arena, but okay … I’ll go with it.

I once ate at Dan Marino’s steakhouse in the gloriously classy Hooters Hotel & Casino in Vegas … or is it delightfully tacky, yet unrefined? In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Marino’s steakhouse. Plus, you gotta give the guy credit for going from the prince of coal mining country to the king of South Beach … the equivalent to Biggie Smalls going ashy to classy.

But just to the right of Marino’s jersey, there it was, red Chicago #23. Huh? None of the announcers could really explain why Michael Jordan‘s jersey was retired to the rafters. Jeff Van Gundy seemed to angrily mutter about it being unacceptable to have your opponent’s jersey retired.

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I’m a huge Antawn Jamison fan. He’s a classy dude, I’ve nicknamed him ‘The Gentlemen’ (hasn’t caught on), and the women folk say he’s got eyebrows for days.

Jamison is the current patriarchal cornerstone of the franchise. This year’s team MVP? Unquestionably. He possesses the never-quit attitude that should be infecting the locker room via leadership by example … Jamison is quite the opposite of past clubhouse cancers, like Christian Laettner.

But sometimes, everyone needs to be questioned, Jamison being no exception.

Jamison’s struggles on defense are no secret. He has aging lateral movement, and as discovered this year, he’s not an adequate substitute for Brendan Haywood‘s post defensive communication. Are we to just accept Jamison’s “unique” scoring ability, rebounding numbers, and minimal turnovers as big pluses? Or should Flip Saunders seek improved defense out of the starting lineup?

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