When Washington and Toronto matched-up in Canada last Friday night, Amir Johnson of the Raptors came off the bench to score 18 points and grab 13 rebounds in a 106-89 win over the Wizards. ”They’re making him look like an All-Star,” someone probably said, also noting that this Washington franchise has seemed peculiarly deft doing so over the years. During my time following the team since 1990, nights like Johnson’s certainly don’t seem like an anomaly. But just how good is Washington at making otherwise mediocre opponents look like All-Stars? And how does Washington compare to other teams?

I used the glorious Basketball-Reference.com database to search for answers. First I needed to set up some requirements:

1. Since Johnson is the subject, I wanted someone who has scored at least 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds off the bench. Certainly a guard could look like an All-Star with 17 points and 8 assists off the bench, as would a non-starter scoring 25 points in a reserve role (ignoring other stats), but I eliminated them for this particular exercise. Also, you could certainly have a no-name starter put up All-Star stats, but assuming he’s starting with other quality talent, his success is somewhat dimmed. A bench player it is.
2. The player’s team has to win the game. Because All-Stars, or at least All-Star efforts, always are victorious, right? (No, not right, but just another factor of elimination for this post.)

Basketball-Reference.com returned 662 instances of a player tallying at least 18 and 10 off the bench, in a win, since 1985-86, the extent of BBR’s dataset (this includes Johnson’s 18 and 13, by the way). However, the results needed to be narrowed down further: Read more »

The Wizards’ loss to the Pistons in Detroit on Sunday was a stinker on a couple levels. I planned to watch at my leisure on DVR delay, so I could chart defense as the game progressed. But at one point late into the evening, and after regulation had ended, I discovered that I hadn’t set it to record for an extended amount of time. In rather anticlimactic fashion, I was resigned to checking the box score to see that the Wizards remained winless on the road on the year at 0-6.

So that was that, never even got to see the overtime. Below, you’ll find a regulation-only defensive chronicle, above that a spreadsheet tallying point responsibilities per possession, and above that, a couple regulation game notes. But first, let’s check Nick Young getting blocked by a 51-year old Tracy McGrady, I wonder if that was special for Nick.

Regulation Notes:

• The manner in which Al Thornton conducts himself on offense lowers confidence that his attempts will actually go through the net.
• A couple times you could hear AND see McGee scream to call out screens, good to witness visual signs of him improving at communication.
• McGee can be unstoppable when very close to the hoop. And he has been showing a bit more patience on offense lately, but when he catches mid-range, he still needs to not panic and throw some crazy junk up when so far away from the rim.
• Give McGee a ton of credit for hustling lately, which in a sense makes up for his traditional lack of substance, but he’s been trying in that regard too.
• A couple of silly turnovers from McGee late in regulation kind of hurt though.
• When the ball is in his hands, Arenas has done a nice job of balancing the offense by drawing attention. He’s been making pretty good decisions. Does Flip Saunders find a way to balance this? Or is it Wall to Wall up and down all day when John returns to the court? Has Wall being hurt somewhat helped to showcase Arenas to other interested teams? Who knows.
• Running downhill on offense, but uphill on defense has become even worse for Andray Blatche, he’s doing it in the half court too. Dray is glad to drive more to the hoop like he should be doing, but he also seems glad to play matador.
• If you want to take a look at Blatche’s bad defense that allowed the game to go into overtime, click here.

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I was on a break outside the other day, catching some fresh Penn Quarter air, taking a stroll around Freedom Plaza, when this little kid came up to me, and said, “Hey Mister … don’t you know that the Wizards need another big man? Haywood, Jamison, Blatche, McGee, and McGuire aren’t going to cut it.”

“Easy lil’ fella,” I told him. “We’ll keep looking around to see if we can add someone else, but we feel comfortable about what we have currently and the depth of our ballclub.”

The kid then kicked me in the shin and ran away.

I suddenly woke up from my slumber and realized those weren’t my words, those were Ernie Grunfeld’s words. I had a mission …

can big gheorghe muresan get on the horn and find the wizards a big man?

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