This is ‘Hollywood’ Jordan Crawford, courtesy of the inter-webs.

The ever-turning world of the Los Angeles Lakers comes to the District tonight, fresh off an overtime loss in Detroit last night. You think Kobe and Co. will be motivated to take care of business? Otherwise, Washington’s Nick Young will be showing off in front of his hometown team, and former Maryland Terp Steve Blake will once again be returing home, in a sense. Hey, did you know that in the 2011 calendar year, the Wizards and Lakers did not play each other? That’s the first time the two teams have gone a year without a matchup since forever (dating back to when the Washington franchise was known as the Chicago Packers in ’61-62).  Note: This happened because both WAS-LAL games in the 2010-11 season came in December 2010. The last time the Wizards beat the Lakers in Washington came on December 26, 2005… that’s like 2,263 days ago. For today’s 3-on-3, we have Andy Kamenetzy from ESPN Los Angeles’ Land O’ Lakers blog (@ESPNLandOLakers), along with TAI’s Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20) and John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend). Three questions, three answers starts now…

#1) The Lakers weren’t able to slow down Pistons PG Rodney Stuckey, who gashed LA’s defense for 34 points in a Detroit overtime win last night. It looks like an opportunity for John Wall to live up to his “Game Changer” moniker. What would have a bigger impact for the Wizards: 20-plus points or 10-plus assists from Wall?

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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 »

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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