[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 57 contributors: Rashad Mobley (@rashad20), John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend), and Kyle Weidie (@truth_about_it).]

Score

Washington Wizards 113 at Charlotte Bobcats 85 [box score]

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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 56 contributors: Ryan Gracia (@rgracia2378), Adam McGinnis (@adammcginnis), and Kyle Weidie (@truth_about_it).]

Score

Washington Wizards 98 at New Jersey Nets 110 [box score]

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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 55 contributors: Markus Allen, Ryan Gracia, and Kyle Weidie.]

Score

Washington Wizards 94 at Detroit Pistons 99 [box score]

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Good Day.

#1) Throw out this ‘Jan Vesely was the 6th pick, he wouldn’t be picked there in a re-draft’ stuff. You know what? He’s on the team now, and he’s displayed more than enough signs that he will be A-OK one day, capable of diminishing your concerns about mere draft position over time.

#2) Yea, he can’t shoot. And he’ll never be able to unless he doesn’t develop some confidence, which is why Wizards coach Randy Wittman wants him to shoot, and which is why Coach Witt will yell at young Janny when he passes up an open shot… to keep him in Czech. (See what I did there?) Let’s just watch…

Moving on…

The TNT NBA crew of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaq ripped on Wizards-Pistons highlights late last night, so I channeled my inner Dan Steinberg and transcribed…

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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 54 contributors: Adam McGinnis (@AdamMcGinnis), Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20), and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).]

Score

Washington Wizards 96 vs Indiana Pacers 109 [box score]

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With about seven minutes left in the third quarter of Wednesday night’s Wizards-Pacers game, Jan Vesely, with hyperactivity as he is wont to do, got his hand on a deflection that sparked a Washington fast break. However, as the Wizards are wont to do, the transition opportunity was mismanaged. John Wall recovered Vesely’s steal and passed the ball ahead to Jordan Crawford (Wall probably should have forced the defense to commit with a dribble). Unfortunately, Paul George, the only Pacer back, was in the right position to defend against just about anything Crawford would try to do. And what he tried to do, from my seat above section 104 at the Verizon Center, was make a lob pass (perhaps even one off the backboard) to either Wall or the trailing Vesely. George consumed whatever it was with his 6-foot-8 frame and took the ball for Indiana the other way, where eventually Danny Granger hit a jumper. The official score-keeper credited Crawford with a shot attempt; because I guess if you are going to credit George with a block instead of a steal, someone’s got to attempt a shot. Crawford didn’t quite agree. “Naw, I was passing it,” he said, “You know I shoot a lot, so they added to the field goals.”

Let’s watch the play, Jordan Crawford’s post-game response, and where, exactly, he got his Galaxy Foamposite Nike shoes.

[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 53 contributors: Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20) with on-hand coverage at the Verizon Center and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) from behind the television screen.]

Score

Washington Wizards 98 vs Milwaukee Bucks 112 [box score]

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The Washington Wizards lost for the 41st time in 53 attempts last night in a 112-98 contest against the Milwaukee Bucks; the result also marked the 219th loss in the last 299 attempts for the Wiz. TAI’s Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie are here with their reaction.

M.V.P.

-Rashad Mobley

Brandon Jennings. The Wizards (led by John Wall, who hit four free throws) began the second half on 5-0 run to pull within two points. The Bucks then went on a 12-2 run that Jennings owned with eight points and two assists. He played all 12 minutes of the third quarter, ended up with 17 points during that time (19 total on the night to go with seven assists and six rebounds), and the Bucks stretched their lead from eight to 14 points.  Meanwhile, Wall scored just one more bucket for the rest of the night after his four free-throws in the first 75 seconds of the third.

L.V.P.(s)

-Kyle Weidie

Fans during rebuilding. Can you really give any single Wizard the “LVP” tag? OK, surely some would like to designate Jordan Crawford — 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting — as such. Finding teammates for pick-and-roll dunks or drive-and-dish 3-pointers one minute (Crawford had six assists), and then taking shot jacks that only familiarize themselves with backboard glass or off-balanced attempts as if the sport was evaluated by Olympic judges looking at difficulty instead of a scoreboard the next minute, Crawford is truly a mixed bag. But don’t blame the sore thumb on a crappy team. Blame karma or whatever other unknown entity for the Wizards playing understandably unentertaining basketball featuring a bench of Cartier Martin, Roger Mason, Shelvin Mack, and Brian Cook, along with the youngest starting lineup in franchise history. This ain’t bringing a knife to a gun fight, this is bringing a wedge of cheese as protection in Kabul. Read more »

Once again the Wizards will understandably be without the services of Nene and Trevor Booker tonight against Milwaukee; the timing of their unavailability due to plantar fasciitis with the consideration of lottery balls in mind while Kentucky’s Anthony Davis squares off against Kansas’ Thomas Robinson in tonight’s men’s NCAA basketball championship game could not be more impeccable. Otherwise, the Wizards are playing for pride and the Bucks are playing for the playoffs (they are 2.5 games behind the Knicks for the eighth playoff spot in the East). For tonight’s 3-on-3 we have Jeremy Schmidt from the ESPN TrueHoop Milwaukee Bucks blog, Bucksketball, Michael Sykes from the hoops blog, What’s Left on The Floor, along with yours truly, TAI’s Kyle Weidie. Three questions, three answers starts now…

#1) Since Monta Ellis arrived in Milwaukee, the Bucks are 5-4 and averaging 105.2 points per game; before he arrived the Bucks were 19-24 and averaging 97 points per game. The Wizards, on the other end, have struggled to score as of late, especially without Nene in the lineup (they are likely to be without him again on Monday night). WIth guards like John Wall and Jordan Crawford perfectly willing, yet skillfully unable, to duel with the likes of Brandon Jennings and Ellis, how quickly could this game get out of hand for Washington?

SCHMIDT: Jennings and Ellis mean a lot less to the Bucks offense working well than guys like Ersan Ilyasova, Mike Dunleavy, Beno Udrih and Drew Gooden. Jennings and Ellis take a lot of shots and occasionally score a lot of points, but the offense works best when those other guys are leading the team and moving the ball. Ellis has cracked 20 points once since the trade. But Milwaukee has been putting the league’s bottom feeders out pretty quick lately, and they could do the same to the Wizards.

SYKES: The game could be out of Washington’s reach by the end of the first half. Ellis and Jennings are both guards who play their best when hot. If the Wizards’ backcourt tandem of Wall and Crawford allow this to happen, the game will almost certainly slip through the cracks. The Bucks are deadly in the first half, averaging 51.1 first half points throughout the season and 59.9 in their last three games according to Teamrankings.com. The Wizards must play defense without gambling to prevent open looks for Ellis and Jennings.

WEIDIE: The Bucks move the ball so well as a team, sometimes in spite of Ellis and Jennings, that I’m not sure it much matters what the hot shot duo does on the court… especially with the Wiz again starting the youngest five-man unit ever to begin a game for the franchise (Wall, Crawford, Singleton, Vesely, and Seraphin). Even if Nene was in the lineup to more intelligently anchor the defense as opposed to the inexperienced Seraphin, I don’t think Washington’s perimeter players have the moxie. or interest, in stopping dribble penetration. The Bucks tallied 26 assists against the Wiz in their first meeting this season, 30 dimes in the second. Look for Franklin D. Roosevelt coinage to keep dropping on the floor tonight against Washington’s D.

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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 52 contributors: Adam McGinnis (@AdamMcGinnis) and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).]

Score

Washington Wizards 92 at Toronto Raptors 99 [box score]

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NBA coaches are constantly tinkering with their five-man units. Whether someone starts or not really takes a back seat to the primary concern of which players work well together, and only then, how match-ups can be exploited. In the very least, lineup data can tell us which combinations of Wizards have best played together with success (must less whom they are doing it against… high- or low-quality opponents). The lineup statistics for these 2011-12 Wizards also tell of a failed plan from the start. But if the ultimate goal was to get a top four pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, then maybe Ernie Grunfeld & Co. haven’t failed after all.

Eighteen different five-man units have played 25 or more minutes together for Washington this season. Below is the distribution of those lineups ranked by minutes played, and including the plus/minus per 48 minutes for that lineup. Yes, one lineup this season played 41 minutes together and would have been down by 38.4 points had they hypothetically played an entire game together against hypothetical competition. It’s hypothetically pretty sad. I’ve bolded the five lineups with a positive plus/minus per 48 minutes, if that helps.

OK, so what if we were to rank those 18 lineups by best to worst plus/minus per 48 minutes, but hiding all names except for those of JaVale McGee, Nick Young, Andray Blatche and Nene. What if…

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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 51 contributors: Adam McGinnis (@AdamMcGinnis), Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20), and Arish Narayen.]

Score

Washington Wizards 97 vs Philadelphia 76ers 76 [box score]

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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 49 contributors: John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend), Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20), and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).]

Score

Washington Wizards 77 vs Detroit Pistons 79 [box score]

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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 48 contributors: Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20),  John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend), and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).]

Score

Washington Wizards 76 at Boston Celtics 88 [box score]

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[Editor's Note: Lukas Kuba (@Luke_Mellow), TAI's go-to for all things Jan Vesely/Czech Republic-related, today provides another translation from the Czech site www.ahaoline.cz. Vesely recently gave the outlet a brief interview. Enjoy! -Kyle W.]
 

Jan Vesely: NBA Is A Show

March 25, 2012 – via ahaonline.cz

What did surprise you in the NBA?

“It’s a show business for the audience. This includes charitable events, giving autographs. Every player has to have 12 charitable events in a year. Everything’s done for the fan.”

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