[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 70, Washington Wizards vs Memphis Grizzlies; contributors: Adam McGinnis and Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center and Conor Dirks via television broadcast.]

Go ahead and smile, John. Humbly Hungry.

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“Guys, you don’t really understand what he went through this year.”
—Randy Wittman on John Wall’s season-beginning injury.

[And now, The Reaction, a k a my submission to ESPN's Daily Dime.]

M.V.P.

John Wall. Even after Wall dropped 10 points on five jumpers in the first quarter, no one expected a career-high 47. Not against the defensive-minded Grizzlies. Not with Tony Allen on the case. But the points continued, 17 coming in the fourth quarter as the Wiz outscored the Griz by 11 to take the win. Also impressive: Wall’s eight assists and seven rebounds to just two turnovers.

X-Factor

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[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 45, Washington Wizards at Memphis Grizzlies; contributors: Rashad Mobley, Adam Rubin and Kyle Weidie from the comfort of their own homes.]

Spare Me. With 1:37 left and the Wizards down 80-72, Memphis having just gotten an offensive rebound, Comcast went black. Only poor audio was available. What we heard: John Wall missing a close layup and Tayshaun Prince making a subsequent jumper to put the Grizzlies up 10, the first time the margin reached double-digits all game. But no, Buckhantz didn’t say “backbreaker”—he knew it was already over. The broadcast returned as Martell Webster hit a layup with a minute left to bring the Wizards within eight, and then the Wizards cut it to six with 34 seconds left. But that’s all they had.

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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 25 contributors: Markus Allen (@mayminded), Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20), and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).]

Score

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Here we go again… Tonight’s Wizards-Raptors game is the third of four meetings between the two clubs. Washington and Toronto have split the 2011-12 series thus far, each team celebrating a decisive victory over the other — the average winning margin is 16 points. Although the Torontonians have been more successful on the road (5 wins) than the D.C. locals have been at home (3 wins) this season, the Raptors haven’t won a game at the Verizon Center since 2009. Consider heading to the game if you have a couple of hours to kill tonight: tickets can be scored for a buck! Raptorholic Sam Holako (@RapsFan) of ESPN TrueHoop/Raptors Republic joins TAI’s John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend) and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) for tonight’s 3-on-3 roundball roundtable. Three questions, three answers starts now…

#1) Fact or Fiction: Rashard Lewis will score four or more points tonight, joining Jason Kidd and Paul Pierce as the only players in NBA history to have scored at least 15,000 points, grabbed 5,000 rebounds and hit 1,500 three-pointers in their careers. [UPDATE: Lewis is out versus the Raptors due to what is being called a sore right knee; Chris Singleton replaced him in the Wizards starting lineup.]

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Debating which is worse, wasting two and half hours watching that putrid Wizards defensive performance against the Toronto Raptors in a 127- 108 rout, or trying to figure out what to write for a game recap. Both seem like torture for a Wizards fan, but I will at least try a bigger literary effort than Andray Blatche does at defense. The Wizards team wore red shoes, headbands, and warm ups to honor World AIDS Week, although it was pretty symbolic of the matador D that they unveiled in Canada Wednesday evening.

The Wizards did their usual roadkill performance in remarkable fashion by giving up 72 points on 32 made FGs — in the first half! With the Magic, Celtics and Hawks already destroying the Wizards this season, you could at least counter that those are playoff teams. Not the case with a sub par 6-11 Raptors team, the Wizards were lucky to hold them under 140 points.

The Raptors did shoot a blistering 67% in the first half, yet, most of them were dunks, fast-break lay-ups and easy buckets around the hoop.  Thirty of the Raptors first 40 points came in the paint (62 for the game), and they tallied 50 points in the first 17 minutes of the game, ending up with 32 fast break points. Toronto also crushed the Wiz 52-30 in rebounding.

Andrea Bargnani looked like the version of Dirk Nowitzki everyone thought he could be when the Raptors drafted him first overall in 2006. He threw down facial dunks, grabbed offensive boards at ease, and flowed in any jumper he wanted at will. DeMar Derozan did a ‘Bo Kimble at Loyola Marymount’ impression, Leandro Barbosa was Tim Hardaway in Run TMC, Jose Calderon put on a ‘Fat Lever with the Nuggets’ play-making act, and Jerryd Bayless was, sigh … you get the picture.  But let John Wall paint it for you: Read more »

Yahoo’s Marc Spears is reporting, via Twitter, that JaVale McGee will replace Portland’s Jerryd Bayless at the upcoming USA Basketball mini-camp on July 25th. Bayless will miss due to a wrist injury.

Stay tuned for more info, but this could be a very cool opportunity for young Epic Vale.

UPDATE: I ‘tweeted’ JaVale, asking him (essentially) to confirm the news … he answered, “I think so. “ And you know what that means … it means to continue to stay tuned.

UPDATE II: A Yahoo link from Marc Spears

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