Wizards guard Nick Young recent joined some very exclusive company– we’re talking a club that only has 20 members over the course of NBA history (the time period being since 1979-80 when the 3-point line was officially introduced to the league). With his three 3-pointers made to just one assist against the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, Young now has 316 made 3-pointers for his career to 315 assists. There are now 20 players in NBA history who have: played in 300 or more games, played 7,000 or more minutes, and have more made 3-pointers than assists. This exclusive list, via Basketball-Reference.com, includes the likes of Rashard Lewis, Kyle Korver, Quentin Richardson, Peja Stojakovic, Jason Kapono, Matt Carroll, Tracy Murray, Charlie Villanueva, Matt Bonner, Matt Bullard, Eric Piatkowski, Andrea Bargnani, and a handful of other cats. Young ranks 12th amongst the group in career 3-point percentage (38-percent) and is tied with five others for eighth most assists per 36 minutes (1.5 per 36 minutes). So… Congrats Nick! Otherwise, the Wizards play the Blazers in Portland at 10 pm EST tonight, and for today’s 3-on-3 we have none other than ESPN TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott (@TrueHoop), along with TAI’s Adam McGinnis (@AdamMcGinnis) and Sam Permutt (@sammyvert). Three questions, three answers starts now…

#1) While reports indicate that Nate McMillan will not make a lineup change for the game against Washington on Tuesday, there are issues of concern that might need to be addressed; to be exact, removing struggling point guard Raymond Felton in favor of Jamal Crawford or someone else. Whatever the case, is any Portland point guard equipped to stop John Wall? Or does it not really matter given the surroundings that the PGs from each team have to work with?

HENRY ABBOTT: Almost nobody in the league can stop that short list of speed freaks one-on-one. But the team approach works well. Portland’s defense, in general, is as good as it has been — fourth in the league at defensive efficiency so far. So, the Wizards will have trouble scoring, regardless. The guard issue that worries me, as a Blazers fan, is on the other side of the ball, where Crawford has always been shoot-first, ask questions later, and now Felton has been looking gassed, with a five-game stretch of hitting 23 of his last 61 attempts, with a mighty seven total rebounds to go with 15 turnovers. But I’d play Felton, simply because he has to develop great chemistry with LaMarcus Aldridge if this team is going to make noise in the playoffs.

ADAM McGINNIS: Felton’s shooting percentages (37-percent FG, 20-percent 3P) are abysmal and his last game highlighted these woes, as he went 4-17 from the field in Portland’s double-OT loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Jamal Crawford never has been any team’s answer at point, where his strengths are instant offense off the bench and closing out games with his big shot-making ability. I would give rookie Nolan Smith a shot at starting since Linsanity over the past week has taught us that you never know what can happen, and especially since Smith displayed defensive prowess at Duke. The Philadelphia 76ers executed the most successful defensive game plan against John Wall. They crowded the lane with bodies, calling it ”Building a Wall to stop Wall,” so the Trailblazers will clearly need a team effort as well.

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No Al Horford, no problem for the Atlanta Hawks as they defeated the Washington Wizards 99-92 at the Verizon Center on Saturday night, their 12th in a row over D.C.’s pro basketball franchise. The All-Star big man Horford sat out the contest with a bruised tailbone after a scary spill versus L.A. Clippers on Friday, but the Hawks still pounded the Wizards on the glass with a 45-33 advantage in rebounding, 10-7 on the offensive boards. Aside for a few minutes in the third quarter, the Hawks led throughout. The Wizards managed to keep the game within striking distance but were never able to get over the hump.

Josh Smith was dominant, finishing with 29 points on 11-19 from the field along with 16 boards, Marvin Williams went for a solid 15 and 12, and Joe Johnson contributed a very quiet, yet smooth 21 points on 7-12 shooting. Nick Young led the Wizards with 21 points, but got to that tally by taking 17 shots, and John Wall tallied 18 points with six rebounds, six assists and two turnovers.

The consecutive daggers came with three minutes remaining. The Hawks were up five when Smith abused Andray Blatche on an spin post move with the And-1 harm. Blatche did score three straight buckets for the Wizards from the five minute to the three minute mark of the fourth to keep the Wizards down just 88-83, so perhaps his defense suffered after his burst of points. After an empty trip by the Wizards on the offensive end after Smith put Atlanta up 91-83, Damien Wilkins, (yes, Damien Wilkins!) scored on a strong baseline move to push the Hawks to a 10 point lead with 2:10 left. That was essentially the ball game.

Another deciding factor in Hawks’ victory, other than a 13-2 edge in second chance points, was their work at the charity stripe. Atlanta nailed 26 of their 35 free-throw attempts, 13-13 in fourth quarter alone. The Wizards ended up a putrid 8-18 from the line, going just 1-6 in the final period. Washington actually shot better from the field (51-percent) then they did from free throw line (44-percent). Ouch.

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Ok, so the Wizards blew a game against the Knicks tonight. Maybe Earl Boykins and Fabricio Oberto have played their last road game in the NBA … come bid them farewell at home on Wednesday. But really, what’s fun about writing about a game in which I couldn’t quite force myself to root for the Knicks (or against the Wizards), but don’t mind that they won, keeping Washington’s futile draft lottery hopes drinking from a glass slightly more than half full?

So, in lieu of writing about Andray Blatche putting up good numbers while kinda, sorta trying, I present a photo-blog from last Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. For that game, I changed places with Adam Douglas, the TAI site photographer since the last time the Wizards faced the Hawks in D.C., and sat baseline to capture the game from up close. Here that goes…

JaVale McGee no hands ball kiss.

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Just released: Team President Ernie Grunfeld announced that the Wizards would exercise the contract options on Nick Young and JaVale McGee. Young will be retained for his fourth season (2010-11) for an estimated $2,630,503, and McGee for his third season (also 10-11) for an estimated $1,601,040. [Salary Source: HoopsHype]

Now on to the preview of tonight’s game … back to the ATL already?

The Wizards were in Atlanta just over 10 days ago for a preseason game that was disappointing … to put it simply. Of course, they were without Gilbert Arenas and Mike Miller due to the flu, and Antawn Jamison due to a shoulder subluxation. Still, lack of effort is lack of effort.

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