The Wizards beat the Cavaliers last night. The Cavs were without LeBron James, Mo Williams and Delonte West (among others). Brendan Haywood sat out for the Wizards and Antawn Jamison got hurt around five minutes into the match, more on that later.It was just a preseason game, but hey, the Wiz won 109-104. And when it’s against Cleveland, I’ll take it.

One trend for the Wizards during this preseason has been their play in the third quarter. On Wednesday night, they outscored the Cavs 33-23. Now granted, this was against a second half Cleveland starting lineup of Boobie Gibson, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, JJ Hickson, Shaq (Arenas, Miller, Butler, Blatche and Oberto for the Wiz) … so, make of it what you will.

What I want to analyze is the third quarter offensive efficiency of the Wizards in Flip Saunders’ system. Each possession is outlined below. There were 22 total — 16 resulted in scores. 3 resulted in a turnover. 3 resulted with a missed shot (each a ‘good’ miss). 8 of the 11 FGs were assisted upon — of the three which were not, 2 came in transition and 1 came from an isolation. Pretty damn good, huh?

Before the list of 3Q offensive possessions …

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Grunfeld, circa 2000 NBA Playoffs, East 1st Rd. Gm. 5 vs. Indiana

Look at this young gent. Suave, classy … proper descriptors of this Ernie Grunfeld that your grandma could easily roll into one by saying, “He looks like such a nice boy!”

Now the goings-ons ’round the Wizards web

Candid Gil

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We’ve heard it from Ernie Grunfeld before, most recently in an interview by Mike Prada of Bullets Forever.

We were the first to make a move, so everybody’s following us (chuckles).

True, the Wizards were the first to strike when they landed Mike Miller and Randy Foye. But it’s hard to laugh, or continue to pridefully boast about the move, when the cream of the Eastern Conference crop keeps passing the Wizards by.

Let’s quickly go through what the top three teams in the East (Orlando, Cleveland and Boston), have done this off-season. Read more »

flickr/Christopher Chan

Checked out the Wizards’ foray into the summer league last night. They won, almost blew an 18 point lead to Cleveland. Andray Blatche came out shaky. His version, via the DC Sports Bog recap, “I came out real hyper, real real hyper.”

Yep, in the beginning he looked like the same ol’ Blatche … ill-advised long jumpers early in the shot clock, turnovers while trying to carelessly push the ball on the break instead of passing to a guard, etc..

Eventually, after a talking-to by Dominic McGuire and assistant coach Don Zierden, he settled down, started hitting the boards hard, and played like a summer league veteran.

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via photobucket/d_julien

It first started with a report from Gary Parrish of CBS Sports. Then it spread like wildfire: True Hoop, Slam, Deadspin, The DC Sports Bog, The Sporting Blog, The Hoop Doctors, Mouthpiece Sports, Dime Magazine, The Dagger, Waiting For Next Year, NBC, Cleveland.com, Zoner Sports, The Same Intensity, and surely many more to come …

Yes, the dunk of Xavier’s Jordan Crawford on LeBron James, a video of which was confiscated by Nike officials, has seemingly caused more of an uproar than if it were posted on YouTube with a press conference held by the “Chosen One” himself,presenting the clip for all to see.

The worst part is that according to reports, it was actually LeBron who whispered into the ears of said officials right before they accosted various videographers around the gym.

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See that fella above? That’s “Dinner Bell” Mel Turpin, a member of the cursed Washington Bullets/Wizards draft history … sorta.

Turpin was taken by the Bullets with the 6th overall pick in the famed 1984 NBA Draft … the Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and of course, Sam Bowie draft. Bowie was a teammate of Turpin’s at Kentucky, and while both are known as busts, it’s Bowie’s name that most often gets mentioned amongst NBA basketball infamy.

With Rick Mahorn and Jeff Ruland already holding down the paint, Turpin was immediately traded by then GM Bob Ferry to a team currently generally managed by his son Danny, the Cleveland Cavaliers. In exchange, the Bullets received Cliff Robinson and Tim McCormick, who was promptly sent to the Seattle Sonics, along with Ricky Sobers, for Gus Williams.

Williams lead the ’84-85 Bullets in scoring (20.0) and assists (7.7), while Robinson was fourth on the team in scoring (16.7) and second in rebounding (9.1). That Bullets team improved by five wins over the previous season’s mark to finish 40-42, but still lost to Barkley, Julius Erving, and Moses Malone in the first round of the playoffs.

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Following up on part one of Flip Saunders’ meet-n-greet session with fans, I present his top ten quotes of the night (plus one to grow on, so eleven):

#11

“Whether JaVale McGee plays the four of the five depends on who he can guard.”

#10

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[video h/t to  The Plain Dealer]

Remember that Damon Jones dude? I sure do. The guy ripped my heart out in game six of the 2006 playoffs, hitting a two-pointer from the corner with less than five seconds left, giving Cleveland the 4-2 series victory and LeBron James his first playoff series win ever … and I was at that damn game.

Ever since, I’ve been a Damon Jones hater. He’s always just been way too into himself and his fashionista ways. A lot of flash and little substance. Basically anyone can spend a ton of money on clothes, wear something outlandish every once in a while, and dub themselves a ‘fashion expert’. “Yay.”

The video above could be a perfect example of Jones being a prick. For one, he’s not on a list … but he’s thinks people MUST recognize him because he hasn’t “waited in line for 10 years” — good for Damon. That surely means he’s better than the rest of us.

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I’ve been sitting on this post for a while, almost since Eddie Jordan got fired from his gig with the Wiz. Well, now that he’s at the helm of the Philadelphia 76ers, this is an appropriate time as ever to publish.

My feeling is that a majority of Wizards fans think Jordan was unjustly fired (or at least weren’t dancing in the streets when he departed), and that even more wish him well.

Count me among both of these groups. Although, when he was terminated, I wasn’t like, “OMG! What an injustice!”

I was more disappointed with the entire landscape of the team, and later resigned to it just being ‘one of those things’, and in the end, maybe it was best that both parties moved on. But we’ll never really know.

In any case, here goes my tribute to Jordan’s basketball career (to date).

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No one is going to question Wale’s allegiance to the DMV area. As he’s worked his way up through the mix-tape scene en route to his first studio production release, the DC-born/Largo, Maryland-bred rapper hasn’t lost touch with his roots, carrying the District’s Go-Go music genre with him along the way. Wale is the epitome of an up-and-coming rapper with snowballing nationwide appeal, and genuine staying power for a long time coming.

Wale has also stays touch with the DC sports scene. He’s rapped about Alex Ovechkin, among other DC sports figures, including Gilbert Arenas and Clinton Portis. He’s also appeared on ESPN’s First Take to rep DC sports, not to mention wearing the Nats’ Curly W while taking pics wit Lindsay Lohan. Wale puts on for the sports in his city … or so it seems.

Late Friday night, Wale twittered:

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