Before tonight’s Wizards-Jazz game, Flip Saunders came out to talk to the media reminiscent of Johnny Cash. The coach was dressed to the nines in all black, well, until he put on his contrasting gray sport coat on for the game. One thing you can say, this season has certainly been a Ring of Fire for Saunders.
New Offense
Since the last Wizards home game against Charlotte, and the Andray Blatche affair, Blatche, to the extent that I’ve noticed, has made more of an effort to operate closer to the basket on offense, something Coach Saunders has implored him to do since early January, at least. I asked Flip about this before the game.
“We instituted/kinda put in a new offense that would make it more conducive for some of our bigger players to stay more around the basket and try to give our perimeter people more cutting opportunities, taking pressure off Andray around the basket where there wouldn’t be as many trap type situations,” said the coach, also mentioning that this new(ish) offense was instituted two days ago. Read more »
Sure it was yet another loss for the Wizards, but it was an eventful one. No, I’m not talking about Gilbert Arenas‘ number change and Mike Miller talking about it. Nor am I talking about JaVale McGee‘s thought process on being so readily available to leave his feet on defense or his career high 20 points and eight dunks. I’m not even talking about Andray Blatche getting frustrated about his turnovers … more on that to come.
Nope. I’m talking about newcomer Alonzo Gee making his NBA debut. Gee, pronounced like the ‘G’ in G-Wiz, the Wizards’ mascot, saw seven minutes of action in the second quarter, certainly no garbage time. In the process, he pulled down two rebounds, one of which was offensive and led to a quick two-hand jam from the former D-Leaguer. So while McGee’s eight dunks were nice, he didn’t score the first points of his NBA career on a dunk (they actually came on a single free-throw in a November 5, 2008 game against the Bucks in Milwaukee).
Gee did.
After the game, after all the other locker room happenings and most of the media had left to file their stories and reports, one guy who most neglected to pay attention to quietly sat in his chair tying his shoe, getting ready to go on his first “official” NBA road trip (Gee met the Wizards in Boston for a game the day he was signed to a 10-day contract).
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