Musings from a miserable Wizards-Kings game

Nobody likes to wait. Waiting sucks.

Let’s say you order Chinese food — some General Tso’s chicken, a pint of lo mein, perhaps some dumplings — and the friendly telephone operator says that the expected wait is 30 minutes. Standard. But 45 minutes go by and your stomach begins to growl in indignation. After an hour goes by, you begin to wonder if the MSG-laced meal you ordered is ever going to show up.

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As previously advertised, this Wizards team runs on emotional highs and lows. Last night’s 116-91 loss to the Sacramento Kings just happened to be a Comedy of Errors. Not so much in a ‘ha-ha’ kind of way, but more reminiscent of when Caron Butler used to say last year that he was laughing to keep from crying.

The Wizards, led by Gilbert Arenas and Kirk Hinrich in the backcourt, because John Wall was a late scratch, along with Al Thornton, Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin in the starting lineup (Andray Blatche was still out) — quite a surprise entry by Flip Saunders, who must be desperate by now … either for a win or to get out of “what he didn’t sign up for” — fell to 0-12 on the road for the season and 6-15 overall.

I guess this loss was beyond embarrassing, because the Washington Post didn’t even use “embarrassing” in the title of Michael Lee’s post on Wizards Insider, as the online newspaper did after losses in Boston and Atlanta earlier this season. After the Boston loss, Ted Leonsis responded in his blog, Ted’s Take, writing that he wasn’t as easily embarrassed. One must wonder if seven straight road losses since, low-lighted by take downs in Toronto and Sacramento by a combined total of 44 points, is starting to change that sentiment.

Leonsis blogs about last night’s game today: Read more »

[Last Friday night's win versus the Portland Trailblazers, in pictures. -KW]

So JaVale McGee received a pretty sweet half-court alley-oop from Gilbert Arenas, let’s watch the video:

Now let’s check what I saw from where I was located (in GIF form), which certainly seems better than Sean Marks’ perspective. Then again, he’s making NBA money.

More Pictures from the Phone Booth Floor:

[click on images to enlarge] Read more »

Due to Thanksgiving holiday travel, my pictures from the November 23 Wizards-76ers game are a bit tardy. But considering the Wizards have not won a game since, enduring two embarrassing blowouts in the process, reminiscing a thrilling victory could be a good remedy for Wizards fans. Enjoy.

John Wall & Gilbert Arenas stand out during the national anthem.

76ers top pick Evan Turner trying to get one of his threes to drop during pre-game shoot around.

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“I feel like I’ve been blindsided by Brian Orakpo. I mean, that was just … wow.”

-Wizards television commentator Steve Buckhantz after witnessing a first half of basketball in which the Wizards allowed 44 points in the paint, and let Toronto shoot 67% en route to a 72-52 lead after 24 minutes. The Raptors ultimately prevailed 127-108.

Let’s take a look at a screen-shot depiction of the fun, shall we?

There’s no place like home, evidently … especially when the Wizards play defense like Dorothy.

Oh, and these are the red shoes Gilbert Arenas wore against the Raptors for World AIDS Week.

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The Wizards played well against the Heat in Miami on Monday evening, they just didn’t have enough mustard to truly compete against superior talent. They lost 105-94 in a game that wasn’t exactly as close as the final score indicated, yet the final score also indicated the decent level at which a depleted Washington squad competed for the full 48 minutes. Hey at least the Wizards tried in tying a franchise worst 0-8 start on the road. Here’s a screen shot revue of the game … more to come.

“You’ve heard of the show ‘CSI: Miami’? How about ‘OMG: Miami?”
-Steve Buckhantz, pre-game

Buck and Phil Chenier were impassioned about their Wizards as usual on their first post-Thanksgiving road trip, and we ought to be thankful for that. Read more »

No one likes moral victories. They aren’t supposed to happen in professional sports, at least not acknowledged. Moral victories? Those are for the college underdogs, the 15 or 16-seeds in the Big Dance.

But if you’re the Washington Wizards, fighting hard against the Orlando Magic to the point where the game was decided by a Gilbert Arenas missed runner in the paint (after being stuffed like turkeys on Thanksgiving night in Atlanta), you’ll take it as one to grow on.

“Well, we competed,” Flip Saunders said, almost reluctantly, after his team fell 100-99 in the waning seconds. “Had opportunities, I thought we could have very easily hung our heads when we got in the situation and got down 12, but fought back, had some great individual play.” The coach relented his answer before even being asked a question at his post-game press conference.

Wizards fans can only hope the players see the type of effort displayed against Orlando as more positive bricks in their project of rebuilding. Saunders had an excellent game plan and his players worked hard to implement it. But the little things made the difference on Saturday night, according to the Wizards’ coach.

“It’s just the little things,” Saunders noted. “We wanted to wrap [Dwight] Howard up, not let him get layups. We gave him too many layups.”

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The Wizards’ loss to the Pistons in Detroit on Sunday was a stinker on a couple levels. I planned to watch at my leisure on DVR delay, so I could chart defense as the game progressed. But at one point late into the evening, and after regulation had ended, I discovered that I hadn’t set it to record for an extended amount of time. In rather anticlimactic fashion, I was resigned to checking the box score to see that the Wizards remained winless on the road on the year at 0-6.

So that was that, never even got to see the overtime. Below, you’ll find a regulation-only defensive chronicle, above that a spreadsheet tallying point responsibilities per possession, and above that, a couple regulation game notes. But first, let’s check Nick Young getting blocked by a 51-year old Tracy McGrady, I wonder if that was special for Nick.

Regulation Notes:

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The Wiz-Grizz ‘Play of the Game’
comes courtesy of JaVale McGee.

The Washington Wizards found themselves ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies 82-79 with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The Wizards were on the offensive, but on this particular occasion, they faced a defense playing with a little more attitude. As the shot clock winded wound down — the Wiz just couldn’t find a good look at the basket — the ball found its way into the hands of JaVale McGee. About 20 feet from the basket. Passing the ball back to PG Kirk Hinrich (1) would have been too easy … so with about six seconds left on the shot clock, McGee decided it was “go time.”

McGee (5) tried to lose Zach Randolph (x4) with a hard crossover and a spin move. Z-Bo wouldn’t stand for this and punched the ball out. Mike “Million Dollar Man” Conley (x1) collected the loose ball and took off on the break.

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Normally we’d break down a play that the Wizards ran for the ‘Play Of The Night’. But, as you know, last night’s loss to the Celtics wasn’t quite normal. Instead, we’ll break down a pretty intelligent deception play from Boston … and in the process, you’ll just happen to see the clueless ways of the Wizards magnified.

This one starts with Rajon Rondo (1) bringing the ball up the middle of the floor. Boston’s bigs, Kevin Garnett (4) and Shaquille O’Neal (5), are posted at the elbows, Paul Pierce (3) is on the right wing, elbow extended, and Ray Allen (2) is on the right block. Since this play took play early in the third quarter, the Wizards’ starters are in: Kirk Hinrich (1), Gilbert Arenas (2), Al Thornton (3), Andray Blatche (4), and JaVale McGee (5).

Out of this set, Rondo uses the pick of Garnett (which Hinrich naturally goes under) to free up space, vision and a passing lane from his position on the left side of the court. As Rondo is moving, Pierce drops just a bit lower from his position. Allen, and here’s the part you could call a deception, has his head and eyes only focused on the Garnett/Rondo action — hence, the guy defending Allen, Arenas, has his defensive horse-blinders on and is only focused in that same direction. In fact, the head of every Wizard is pretty much frozen in the direction of Rondo, including Pierce’s defender, Thornton.

As Garnett turns clockwise to open for a pop out jumper, Pierce starts to cut baseline. Thornton is aware of this cut, but he’s not aware of what’s about to happen, because neither is Arenas. Just after Pierce begins his cut, Allen suddenly turns to screen Thornton. By the time Arenas becomes aware, it’s too late to communicate. Allen sets a great screen on Thornton, who, if he was more aware, would have been able to turn his body in the right direction to trail Pierce. Instead, Thornton turns the wrong way and gets caught up on the screen. Arenas, clearly confused himself, is not in good position to help on Pierce and switch with Thornton. The Wizards are clearly pretty unaware of scouting report action items.

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