Links, commentary and video…

I’m not sure if anyone has a formula for jumpers, but I’ll make one up: one part mechanics, one part muscle memory, two parts confidence. Confidence can wane between quarters, games and possessions, it’s all about building a history of it. And that’s what John Wall is working on. He put on a glimpse of jump shot confidence in a takeover display versus the New Jersey Nets last Sunday. Let’s watch…

The knock on Wall’s jumper will continue to be the most prevalent of knocks against him, but at least he’d never pull what Rajon Rondo did recently.

LINKS.

Read more »

1-25

Before San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich led his team against the Washington Wizards on Saturday night, and as his players were coming off an uncharacteristic loss to the Philadelphia 76ers the night before, I asked him if it was a situation where he’d rather play the very next night.

“Exactly. That’s always one of the great things we all talk about in the NBA, because another game’s coming pretty quickly. Even if it’s back-to-back, you’d rather get to the next game and play and forget the one you just were so horrible in,” the coach said.

After getting poked and prodded like worn leather by the Spurs, the Wizards found them in the same situation, on a flight to Cleveland not only with the motivation of ending a 0-25 road record on the season, but also with the bad taste of poor effort spread on their breakfast toast. The Australians call it vegemite.

Well, they did it. February 13 was long ago marked as a facetious scenario for the Wizards to get their first road win — against Antawn Jamison, in front of a Cleveland crowd previously ingrained to boo the Wiz a little more than other teams, and with a nice number like 25 straight road losses, 26 dating back to last season. With life’s little symmetry in tow, of course Washington won 115-100 on Sunday evening. Ted Leonsis should be dancing, but we’ll get him doing the “Dougie” for another reason.

Read more »

The Boss Man Ted Leonsis has spoken and I concur that from now on, the troll will starve.

However, I wanted to share the following video mashup that I created surrounding the Wall Dougie Dance or as I like to refer it to: The John Wall Dance 2.0.

The video includes:  commentary from Wizards players and Wall about his Dougie, hilarious Dougie banter courtesy of Wizards TV announcers Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier, Charles Barkley’s take on the Dougie and an exclusive interview with Cali Swag District about Wall’s smooth Dougie-ability. Because why not?

Time to Dougie Out…

Read more »

Midnight Madness had ended and the Wizards were funneling out the back of the Patriot Center. Al Thornton briefly chatted with family members on his way to the team chartered bus. JaVale McGee and Cartier Martin quietly filed by. Suddenly, a loud musical voice boomed from behind me and the lyrics were easy to make out, “Teach Me How To Dougie.” John Wall was singing the Cali District Swag hit at the top of his lungs while bobbing his head over and over to a beat in his head, since he was not wearing any head phones.

Hours earlier, as the Wizards were taking part in a drill, Wall barked to Kirk Hinrich, “Get em going out there, Kirk!” I was thoroughly impressed that a rookie in his first official NBA practice was not afraid to tell a veteran to get on their teammates. The Game Changer was no shrinking violet. (Kyle Weidie witnessed something similar in the Summer League with Wall getting after JaVale McGee)

Wall’s impromptu Dougie flow displayed his bubbly personality and youth. He is a freshly minted 20-years old, and I know that at his age, I was humming along to “Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, Can’t You See?”

These incidents provided an early glimpse into his persona. With the ball in his hands, during practice or during games, he is a team-oriented player with killer instinct. He wants to pound opponents at mach-one speed and hates to lose. HATES it. Off the court, he is a normal young man who likes to have fun by singing and dancing.

Read more »

Slow steps and seconds guesses were the main themes from Saturday’s night home loss to an Antwan Jamison-less Cleveland Cavaliers. The Wizards let a very winnable game slip away as Anthony Parker, Daniel Gibson and Mo Williams all burried late key three pointers and Washington fell to 1-4 on the young season.

Coach Saunders regretted sitting a hot Al Thornton (23 points on 10-16 field-goals) for the final nine minutes of the game.

“I said to Al that I made a mistake….I question myself the last three minutes about not having Al in there.”

Flip went to the long anticipated three-guard lineup of John Wall, Kirk Hinrich and Gilbert Arenas for the fourth quarter. The trio led the Wizards to a 90-85 lead with five minutes to go in the game after Arenas fueled a 3-on-1 fast break that ended with a flush by Andray Blatche.

Read more »