By the time the referee threw the ball up to signify the start of the game against the Orlando Magic, the Washington Wizards knew they would be without Rashard Lewis and Nick Young.  Lewis continues to battle knee tendinitis and Young was a late scratch with swelling his knee.  Their absences meant the Wizards had to somehow account for the 30 points they usually bring to the starting lineup.

From scoring the first points of the game on a layup 42 seconds in, John Wall demonstrated that he was in an offensive state of mind and capable of picking up the slack by scoring 13 points in the opening period.  Seemingly all of his baskets on the evening would follow this sequence:  Wall would take the outlet or inbound pass, he would run by the Orlando big men, and then he would outmaneuver the Orlando guards en route to a layup.  He peppered in a couple short jumpers, some free throws, and one three-pointer later in the game, but the majority of his damage was done in the paint.  He finished with 27 points, five rebounds, two steals and just one assist.

It can be argued that Wall, who averages nearly 10 assists a game, wasn’t doing his job as a point guard if he only dished out one dime. False.  Dwight Howard kept pressure on Washington’s big men by often catching the ball deep in the paint (thanks to repeated poor post position from JaVale McGee, lack of strength from Hilton Armstrong or lack of experience from Kevin Seraphin), and forcing them to foul.  Howard went 8-11 from the free-throw line and 12-15 from the field to tally 32 points.

Wall kept pressure on the Orlando defense by repeatedly getting into the lane and ending up with a layup or a trip to the foul line.  So what happened when the Magic actually stopped him and other teammates were forced to step up?

Kirk Hinrich got off to a hot start in the second quarter by scoring eight points, and looked to be headed towards a productive game.  Unfortunately, he only shot the ball nine times and scored just two points after the second quarter.  He did shake the living daylights out of J.J. Redick, forcing him to fall backwards, but he never provided Wall with consistent help.

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The lead from a New York Times article published on April 15, 2005:

Five years ago, Andray Blatche was a laughingstock as a basketball player. Today he is considered a probable first-round draft choice in the National Basketball Association.

‘Late Bloomer Is Ready to Join N.B.A. Early’ by Mitch Abramson continues:

Blatche did not play organized basketball until he was in high school, and he was on the junior varsity until midway through his sophomore year at Henninger High in Syracuse.

Unlike wunderkinds like LeBron James and Sebastian Telfair, who were labeled prodigies almost from the moment they picked up a ball, Blatche failed miserably at first.

“He wasn’t very good as a ninth grader; I’ll be honest,” said Tom Atkins, his junior varsity coach. “He didn’t take adversity very well. He was pretty emotional, just a tall clumsy kid who didn’t know how to play the game yet – very raw.”

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Not all is well in Wizards land these days with the team’s 0-21  road losing streak approaching a record level for futility and receiving unwanted national attention, a key player publicly feuding with the fanbase on local sports radio, endless injuries, more gossip surrounding their jettisoned ex-superstar and now D.C. is digging out from a heavy thundersnow storm. Now, there’s no better time for a positive distraction.

Awhile back, I spoke with several Wizards about technology. My questions included asking them about Internet usage, favorite web sites, if they’re a PC or Mac guy, where they go online for news and whether they Google themselves. Find out which player loves the website Media Takeout, which one admits to Google-searching his name, who only gets the news from his wife and who searches his name on YouTube.

Part two of the technology interviews will be forthcoming and will cover the players’ thoughts on social media, what type of cell phone they roll with, and how many read sports blogs (hint…not many).

Websites Mentioned: Read more »

Maybe it’s a good omen that the Wizards won their last home game in 2010 as we go from the year of the tiger to the year of the rabbit in 2011. Great, more missed bunnies at the rim … kidding.

So let’s begin to kick-off the new year on a more positive note by looking back at some of the pictures from Wednesday night’s 104-90 win versus the Indiana Pacers that I took from the baseline. But first…

Congrats to Jennifer Lin, who was the first to correctly answer the Twitter Trivia for free tickets to the game (courtesy of StubHub), which was:

In Wizards-Bullets franchise history, 6 players from U. of Maryland have been drafted by the team. Name 3 of them.

Jennifer’s answers were Steve Blake (’03), Juan Dixon (’02) and Lawrence Boston (’78). Len Elmore (’74), Howard White (’73) and Will Hetzel (’70) were also franchise draftees from UMD-College Park.

Pictures with captions.

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Before Tuesday night’s thrilling OT victory over the 76ers, I gathered up comments from JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche, Hilton Armstrong, Cartier Martin, Trevor Booker and Al Thornton about the Thanksgiving Holiday. I asked the players what they were thankful for, what food they would serve at dinner, about their fondest memories of the holiday growing up and got them to provide a short greeting to the fans.

Since the team is in Atlanta for a game against the Hawks tonight, they will eat a meal together Thursday afternoon. Thornton, who hails from Georgia, will be able to spend some time with his family and friends.

Enjoy the video and everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Before Wizards-Rockets match-up last Wednesday, I informally polled a couple of the more veteran Wizards on A) who has been the toughest guy for them to defend during their time in the league, and B) who in the league sets some of the hardest, toughest screens. Here are their answers:

Al Thornton

Toughest Cover:

“Definitely Kobe, Tracy [McGrady] … a couple years ago, Vince [Carter], there are a lot of guys. Rip [Hamilton], Tayshaun [Prince] …”

I asked Al if any guy really stood out to him: Read more »

NBA players like their fashion. With so much disposable income, it’s only natural. So why not ask some of them about their favorite fashion items … and shoes, because it’s gotta be the shoes, especially what shoes they were into growing up.So, watch the video below if you want to find out …

• Which Wizard has a brand new pair of basketball shoes with his mom’s name on them. (He wore them for the first half on Tuesday, but then changed into his old shoes at halftime because he’s still breaking the mom pair in.)
• Whose mom bought him a pair of leopard skin Gucci shoes … that he hasn’t worn just quite yet.
• Which Wizard has a hat collection that’s 300 and counting.
• Who wore some skinny, tight Wrangler jeans back in the day when he was 13-years old … back in the day being 1996/97.
• Which Wizard calls his ‘Fruit of the Loom’ underwear his favorite clothing.

A run-down of Tuesday’s home opening win with pictures, links and video …

NOTE: Rashad Mobley and I will be taking turns writing a weekly column on the Wizards for the DCist. Check out the first one by me here.

Cartier Martin celebrates the win after the final buzzer in OT.

Prelude to a meeting in the paint …

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After a thrilling overtime victory over the 76ers on Election night  in the nation’s capital, the Wizards players and coaches appeared  in an upbeat mood at practice on Wednesday morning. Then again, this year’s team always seems to be in good spirits. The Four Bigs ‘(Dray Blatche, Yi Jianlian, JaVale McGee and Hilton Armstrong) were playing a rotating game of one-on-one with coach Gene Banks at one end, while other Wizards took part in a game of 3-on-3 on the side baskets at the other end. Gilbert was in this game and he looked pretty healthy.  John Wall, against a wall, was chatting with Coach Saunders and observing both workout contests. The big topics post-practice were Cartier Martin’s off-balance three that sent Tuesday’s game into an extra period and the spectacular play of Wall.

Check out the video mix:

Observations:

• Blatche bet assistant coaches Sam Cassell and Don Zierden that he could make six baskets in a row. Both took that friendly wager and when practiced concluded, Dray faced up against McGee. I believe Dray had made three or four straight before losing; an elated Sammy-I-Am jumped up for joy.

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Cartier Martin is like Clockwork. You need him to be that guy? He’ll be on time. Play defense, hit a corner three, box out and keep the other team from getting a second possession, hit a last-second, game-tying three? He’ll do it. I don’t know if “Clockwork” will stick, but that’s what I’m calling him.

Beautiful shot by Cartier last night by the way. He only sent the game into overtime, no biggie. Kirk Hinrich was supposed to be the decoy, Nick Young the first option and Martin the second, according to Flip Saunders. Let’s take a look after the jump:

To be a Debbie Downer for a second, that buzzer beater allowed the Wizards to have 34 points in the fourth quarter, bringing their total to 106. The Sixers had the same total at the end of four, but scored 40 points in the final period.

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My DVR knew what was happening. At some point very late in the game, it decided to stop recording the Wizards-Magic in favor of a show it’s programmed to record, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. In the process, the game as captured up to that point got lost in the DVR stratosphere, putting a halt to my ability to go back and further analyze the game visually.

Probably for the best though, re-watching the low-lights of a 112-83 blowout loss isn’t exactly the most productive thing in the world. In most senses, it’s a game that Flip Saunders and his team (and Wizards fans) should just forget and move on (but not without an intense film session, one would hope — after all, Washington has to face Orlando three more times this season).

But in other senses, there were some very concerning displays last night. The season’s debut of several players who have been with the team the longest represented nothing more than the status quo, which either means little progress was made by them over the summer to more closely connect to the game cerebrally, or that they just have a low capability/potential to do so in the first place. Observations on those players and their situations will surely come (and you can read some thoughts from Rashad already).

No, this post is dedicated to the only player who really played worth a damn Thursday night. When your average Joe looks at the box score, he might assume that Cartier Martin got all of his points in garbage time. No sir. One only needs to look at a huge block Martin had against Dwight Howard to know that’s not true:

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As a Washington Wizards blogger, I really never thought I’d write this, but for some perspective on the Wizards loss to the Magic tonight, fans should look no further than LeBron James and the Miami Heat.

Despite all the promising offseason moves the Miami Heat made, there was a lack of chemistry on display in their opener against the Celtics. Wade, Bosh and LeBron were battling unfamiliarity, Mike Miller was injured, there were jitters,  and they were facing a  Celtics team whose core had been together for three years.  The Heat looked out of sync much of the night, and although they were in great position to win the game towards the end, they fell just short of victory.

That night, everyone picked the Heat apart, and discussed why they couldn’t win it all and why they would not dominate as so many of those same writers and bloggers had picked them to do before the season. Then the very next night, the Heat rolled to victory over a Sixers team who presented much more favorable match-ups, and the opening night loss to the Celtics was temporarily forgotten.

So let’s bring this around to the Washington Wizards.

As Kyle pointed out earlier in the week, the Orlando Magic present matchup nightmares for this Wizards squad.  McGee is not strong enough to guard Dwight Howard, Blatche isn’t quick enough to guard Rashard Lewis, no one on the Wizards roster can guard a motivated Vince Carter, and Jameer Nelson is savvy enough to cause problems for rookie John Wall.  When you throw in the fact that Gilbert Arenas was unavailable due to injury, this match up had all the ingredients of a blowout..and it didn’t disappoint.

The Wizards shot and defended horribly, they never utilized their strength, which is the running game, and they were blown out of the gym 112-83 by a team that promises to contend for an NBA title.  But it’s just one game.  Saturday night they play an Atlanta Hawks team that isn’t nearly as good, and then on Tuesday night, Arenas will be back (hopefully) and they will play a 76ers team that’s weaker than Atlanta. The bottom line?  There’s no need to panic. Read more »

{flickr/draggin}

The Intro.

- by Arish Narayen

Over the past several years, NBA organizations have increasingly integrated advanced statistics into their decision-making. But exactly how teams employ these statistics in personnel decisions — that is privileged information. The NBA’s trend towards quantitative analysis is seemingly personified by Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey. It is easy to see why Morey is a darling to stat nerds everywhere: he never played in the NBA, and he got his bachelor’s degree (in Computer Science) at Northwestern, and an MBA from MIT. Morey also serves as chair of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytic Conference. As NBA teams, and media (bloggers) seek new ways to evaluate players, attendance at the Sloan Conference has grown.

In Michael Lewis’ NY Times profile on Shane Battier in February 2009, Morey and Lewis had the following exchange: Read more »

A D.C. pic, links and commentary …

[Dupont Circle Metro, NW D.C. - K. Weidie]

The Wizards are going to start the season with a roster of 15 that includes Cartier Martin, Lester Hudson and Hamady N’diaye. On a developing team, this was the exact, right thing to do. Anything less would have been uncivilized. And if it happens where the Wizards need an extra roster spot to complete an unbalanced trade, I’m sure something can be figured out when and if the team reaches that juncture.
[Wizards Insider]

So Gilbert Arenas shaved his beard. For the record, I think Beards > Long pointy sideburns.
[Gilbertology]

Michael Lee has another good player profile, this time on Kevin Seraphin, which includes a funny quote from someone familiar with the French speaker, Rodrigue Beaubois of the Dallas Mavericks. Beaubois says, “He’s a beast. Physically, he’s amazing. He’s very strong. He’s a big baby, that’s for sure. I really think he’s going to be good for [the Wizards].” A big baby.
[Washington Post]

Now check out Seraphin’s rap in Creole.
[Wizards Insider]

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The atmosphere around the Verizon Center practice court was light and playful for once, and the Wizards players and coaching staff looked completely at ease.  John Wall and Gilbert Arenas shared jokes while shooting free throws. Kevin Seraphin worked on his post moves with Gene Banks, trading jokes at the same time. Even the normally stoic Yi Jianlian could be seen cracking a smile while shooting free throws with JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche.

There was no talk about Arenas, his beard, his smile or his behavior, no visible residual sadness regarding the departures of Sean Marks and Adam Morrison, and no lingering effects from the loss in Detroit two nights earlier.

Earlier in the day, John Wall, Andray Blatche, Josh Howard, Nick Young,  Hamady Ndiaye, Trevor Booker, members of the Wizards coaching staff as well as front office personnel, hosted a “Salute to the Stars” in honor of NBA Cares Week of Service.  The Wizards staff served 200 combat veterans as well as wounded men and woman from various branches of the military.  Josh Howard commented on how the event went:

“Soldiers give back to us all the time, so its nice to see the Wizards along with Morton’s [Steakhouse] come together and NBA Cares as well. It’s a great organization…”

In terms of how practice went, what the preparation will be for the next week until the opener against the Orlando Magic, and why Morrison and Marks fell short of making the team, Flip Saunders handled that.

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