{photo: A. McGinnis}

There are two prevalent visiting locker room atmospheres that I have encountered while covering Washington Wizards home games this season. The team is either distraught due to losing to the lowly Wizards, Charlotte is an example, or the opposing squad is in a professional, low-key mood after picking up a business like win. The Lakers and Knicks games come to mind.

After Indiana Pacers 113-96 shellacking of Wizards last Tuesday night, I witnessed a new hopeful and joyous environment. Pacers’ players were exchanging jovial banter, with Dahntay Jones leading most of the jester activity. After starting the season 17-27 under former coach Jim O’Brien, and then going 9-3 under new coach Frank Vogel (8-3 after beating the Wizards), you could sense the game was fun for them again. Contributing to the happiness was a completely balanced effort from their starters and bench (nicknamed the Goon Squad) in the blowout win with all 12 active players impressively scoring.

Vogel, who was an advanced scout with the Wizards in 2006-07, has changed their style of play, rotation and attitude. The players are buying into the belief that they are a good team and the fresh approach has produced success. Go listen to Vogel’s passionate talk after his team’s victory over Portland a few week backs to get a better sense of his philosophy.

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{photo: A. McGinnis}

It’s only the first game after the All-Star break, but one in which the Washington Wizards looked to be heading in the opposite direction of will than that of their opponent, the Indiana Pacers. Frank Vogel’s team beat down the Wizards 113-96 on Washington’s home court Tuesday night, making Indiana’s record 8-3 since a coaching change tabbed Vogel as the new head man. The Wizards, on the other hand, plod forth.

“[Jeff] Foster,” began a post-game sentence from Washington coach Flip Saunders. (Yes, Jeff Foster, of the Pacers … that Jeff Foster … being mentioned in a post-game sentence from an opposing head coach. Go figure.) “We started that second quarter,” Saunders continued, “you know, JaVale [McGee] was matched up on him [Foster], they had 10 to one rebounds, he had six rebounds in the first three and a half minutes. That right there kind of set the tone for the rest of the game. We were up 35-30, and they just came out and mauled us.”

Indiana would outscore Washington 33-19 in the second quarter and never look back; besting the Wizards 32-19 in the third quarter was simply the nail in the coffin. And to get technical, Foster grabbed seven rebounds, five of the offensive variety, in six minutes and 47 seconds of action in the second period.

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On Wednesday night, the Wizards were able to defeat the Pacers 104-90 despite shooting 39.8-percent from the field, mainly because they forced the Pacers into 17 turnovers while only committing eight of their own. On Friday, on Indiana’s end of the home-and-home matchup, the Wizards basically shot the same percentage (38.8-percent), and the Pacers again turned the ball over at a high rate (23 times to be exact).  The difference, and the reason the Wizards lost 96-85, is that the Pacers shot much better (48.7-percent from the field) and the Wizards turned the ball a lot more (22 times).

John Wall led the Wizards with 25 points; 17 of them came in the third quarter when the Wizards unsuccessfully attempted to cut into Indiana’s lead.  Unfortunately, Wall also led the team with seven turnovers.  Andray Blatche and Nick Young, who were so instrumental in the Wizards’ victory over the Pacers in Washington, were non-factors, and they seemed totally out of sync.  Blatche was scoreless in the first half, but did manage to finish with eight points (4-16 from the field), 12 rebounds and six turnovers.  Young shot just 2-11 from the field and finished with eight points as well.

More observations from the game

• Darren Collison did not factor in the outcome of Wednesday’s game, but on Friday he had 18 points and six assists, and seemed to get into the lane at will.  The combination of Wall still trying to get his wind back and Kirk Hinrich being out with a thigh bruise had to factor into Collison’s improved numbers.  I can’t help but to think back to Flip Saunders comments after the Wizards took on the Rockets earlier this week:

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The odds were definitely stacked against the Indiana Pacers prior to last night’s game against the Washington Wizards.  The night before in Indiana, the Pacers led the Boston Celtics for three quarters before Ray Allen and Marquis Daniels stepped up in the fourth and led their team to victory.  On top of being demoralized by that late loss and having to deal with the fatigue that goes with playing the second game of a back-to-back on the road, the Pacers were also in the midst of a six-game road losing streak which spanned the entire month of December.

Despite the stacked deck, Indiana played well enough to stay in the game for three quarters once again. But in the end, the Wizards were deeper and more athletic.

After the game, the Pacers locker room looked completely dejected.  You’re probably saying to yourself, ‘Well damn, a post-loss locker room is always dejected, that’s how it should be,’ and you are right.  But the level of dejection and depression I saw in that Pacers locker room was enough to suck the Christmas/New Year’s spirit out of anyone.

Danny Granger (15 points, nine rebounds and two steals) sat in front of his locker with both of his legs in water, and he twice rebuffed the media’s request to talk to him (but finally agreed to talk 15 minutes later — after I left, of course), and barely paid attention when assistant coach Walter McCarty tried to offer words of encouragement.  Tyler Hansbrough sat at his locker room with the same dumbfounded look, and T.J. Ford (eight points and three assists) just kept looking at the final stat sheet and shaking his head.  But no player was more dejected than former Georgetown Hoyas center Roy Hibbert.

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It was late in Wednesday night’s Wizards win over the Indiana Pacers. John Wall had just used his all too familiar quickness to dart past Darren Collison and then shuttle the ball to Nick Young in the far left corner for a three-pointer that put the Wizards up 100-84 with 2:23 left in the game. But in the process, Wall took a hard tumble to the floor — thanks to some Pacer I assumed at the time — I just remember Wall’s reaction. He flipped the referee an incredulous look, searching for a reason why he didn’t blow the whistle.

The next thing I knew, after a whistle had blown for another reason on the other end of the court (Andray Blatche fouled Tyler Hansbrough while shooting), Wall was in Josh McRoberts’ face, directly in front of where I sat on the baseline taking photos.

Why was he so angry? Why was he getting in the grill of a dude six inches taller and 45 pounds heavier? It had clearly had something to do with Wall’s crash to the hardwood on the opposite baseline. The referees quickly broke up the bout of chest bumping and words and assessed Wall with a technical foul. But his emotion wouldn’t let it go; he looked and gestured toward McRoberts and the Pacers’ bench as the two teams went into a timeout. Wall’s teammates and coaches had to restrain him. Cooler heads ultimately prevailed, and the Wizards held off the Pacers in that last stretch of the game. Let’s go to the video to see exactly what happened…

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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. Read more »

Recently I had a chance to interview Clark Kellogg over the phone. It was set up by a PR team in conjunction with promoting the Capital One Cup, which is a new award to be given out to the top men’s and women’s collegiate athletic programs (you’ve likely seen commercials about this on ESPN).

Points for the Cup will be accumulated according to how schools fare across 13 tiered men’s and women’s Division I sports programs (Men’s: Tier 1 – football, basketball, and baseball; T2 – soccer, swimming & diving, outdoor track & field, and lacrosse; T3 – cross country, wrestling, ice hockey, indoor track & field, golf, and tennis; Women’s: Tier 1: volleyball, basketball, and softball; T2; soccer, swimming & diving, outdoor track & field, and lacrosse; T3: cross country, field hockey, indoor track & field, golf, tennis, and rowing — Tier 1 sports are worth three times the points, Tier 2 sports are worth two times, and Tier 3 sports are worth their actual point number. Sports are tiered to “reward success in sports with the most student athlete participation and fan interest.”).

Schools with the most cumulative points across all men’s and women’s sports will each be presented with a trophy, $200,000 to fund student-athlete graduate-level scholarships, and will be honored at the ESPY Awards held in July. Top 10 finishers for men’s and women’s sports cumulative point totals will also each be recognized.

Kellogg was selected by Capital One to be an advisory board member for the award along with Doug Flutie, Brandi Chastain, Lisa Leslie, Robin Ventura and Rece Davis.

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Ok, so we’ve scanned JaVale McGee’s barcode tat and concluded that on offense, when he tries to do things himself, he fares poorly. But when he plays with teammates, he excels. I’m slightly simplifying … yet combining both stats and my personal observations from watching him all year and coming to a more than reasonable conclusion.

Now, let’s scan again to see what we come up with for McGee from a defensive perspective.

It’s no secret that JaVale needs to gain strength. Some of that will come if he puts in the work. Some of that will come naturally as he fills into his long frame. He also needs to learn more discipline in realizing that he can play better defense AND still be an intimidating shot blocker while not being so ready to leave his feet.

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Skates. They can be roller or ice.  But they can also happen on the basketball court.

“Putting someone on skates,” means to initiate an offensive move which makes the defender appear like he’s wearing one of the aforementioned … like he’s sliding (or rolling) in a direction beyond control.

Recently, Duke’s Josh McRoberts, who plays for the Indiana Pacers in the present day, gave young JaVale McGee, of the Washington Wizards, a pair of skates. With a couple hard dribbles to the right and a cross behind the back to the left, McRoberts sent McGee slippin’ and slidin’ all over the court. Let’s watch in GIF form.

Now, to McGee’s credit, the youngster immediately bounced back up and attempted to block McRoberts, but was ultimately unsuccessful, sending the Pacer to the free-throw line for two shots. That was McGee’s third foul in just under six minutes of action in the first quarter. He was subsequently summoned to the bench. Let’s look at another angle…

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{Immediately after giving him pre-game a fist-bump, Flip Saunders gave his embattled 23-year old forward a pat on the backside.}

How about we talk about some basketball for a change? I mean, that is why we all are here, right? Seems like nothing but bad, non-basketball court related Wizards news to talk about lately. Well, aside from the impending Ted Leonsis takeover. But let’s get back on the court and talk some roundball!

Oh wait … the Wizards are in the midst of a 13-game losing streak, the worst in franchise history and the third time such a streak has occurred.

Dan Steinberg put out a great account of the previous 13-game losing streak on the DC Sports Bog, my favorite is loss number five,  which involved a personal 11-2 run by the Miami Heat’s Khalid Reeves. My favorite loss from this current 13-game losing streak would have to be loss number three against the Celtics in Boston … you know, the JaVale McGee ‘Fish Out of Water’ game.

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