Posts tagged ‘Nets’

Ok, Halloween Night, at the Verizon, ready for the Wiz to make up for last night’s loss in Atlanta. Unfortunately, the Wizards didn’t just lose the game, but they lost Caron Butler too.

Butler had an MRI and X-Ray today that revealed no structural damage; the diagnosis was a bruised kneecap. Before the game, Flip Saunders said he expected Butler to be back in the lineup against the Cavs in Cleveland on Tuesday. The official injury report is that he’s day-to-day.

In Caron’s place, Randy Foye will start; Mike Miller will move to the three-spot. Arenas obviously still starts at the point and Fabricio Oberto and Brendan Haywood will hold down the front court.

I spoke to Foye before the game. He said it will be a little bit different on out the court with the starters, but he will have the same mindset to play his game … be aggressive on offense, execute plays, and play hard on defense.

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Ball movement and DeShawn Stevenson….that’s what everyone has been buzzing about today. Well, where the hell have those two been? It’s baffling to try to explain, so I’ll give all the credit to Dee Brown.

Brown pushed the rock in transition, whipped the ball to spots in a timely manner in the half court, and even hit a couple treys. I should also mention that Brown had zero turnovers to his seven assists. He was even unafraid to stick his nose in the paint for an offensive rebound here and there.

Should Dee Brown start until Gilbert Arenas is healthy….allowing for Antonio Daniels to keep coming off the bench? I’m on board with that…..so far.

Dee Brown FYI

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In anticipation of tonight’s Washington Wizards opener against the New Jersey Nets, Mike at JoeNetsfan.com was kind enough to answer a couple questions about their team. Enjoy.

1) Vince Carter is much maligned around the league….how confident are you in his ability to lead the team? Is he more interested in being an All-Star, or getting wins?

Here’s the deal on Vince – he means well. He’s not necessarily interested in being an All Star per se, and I think he recognizes the fact that he can’t do what he once did. Having said that, Vince is a great team player, but he really doesn’t want to be “the man” and because of that, the Nets will suffer from having all the pressure on Vince. As far as leading the team, well, he always deferred to perhaps the greatest leader in the NBA today – Jason Kidd. So we really don’t know what sort of leader he’ll be. He appears to be happy to work with the youngsters, he appears to relish the role of team leader, but I don’t think it will translate into anything more than his being a great cheerleader for the rookies. When the pressure’s on, Vince’s track record is only so-so. Let me clear up one thing for the record, though – he does play hurt, and he does try much harder than his rep would lead you to believe. I’ve watched him enough to feel confident saying that.

2) Will Devin Harris make the Mavs really kick themselves? Where does (or will) he rank among the Eastern Conference point guards?

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All of us NBA bloggers recently got off the couch and collaborated to vote on the 07-08 NBA season ending awards. We then got the beer out of the fridge and went back to our couches to send our votes in via an online survey tool. My first participation in the NBA blogger vote came in this 11th and final installment. The highest commendation goes to the team at We Rite Goode for their Bobby Thigpen-like performance in closing this out. While this post concentrates on the MVP award, I strongly suggest that you check out both links below for the full results.

End-of-season Basket-Blogger Rankings [Pt. 1 - ROY, COY & MIP]
Rankings: The 7th Man of the year (oh, and MVP, too)

The masses [of bloggers who read other bloggers] have spoken…..and Chris Paul is the people’s choice for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player [that being those people who blog]. Who knows if this vote of bloggers, and not the opinion of those who get paid to assess the game [as most in the main stream media have chosen one Kobe Bean Bryant for MVP], truly reflects the voice of humanity. I say yes.

2008 CP3 All-Star Campaign Poster – yup, those are C-3PO’s limbs

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Game 4 against the Nets
Game 20 against the Nets

You know…I’ve always heard opponents of the NBA say that all you have to do is watch the final 4 minutes of the 4th quarter — most of those who use this false reasoning also think college basketball is far superior, or don’t even like basketball at all. Look, it’s okay to prefer college basketball over the NBA. I don’t. I think the NBA game is better, just a personal preference. But to just dog the NBA game? That’s sign #1 that you are an uneducated, or extremely casual, fan of basketball.

Regardless, I don’t like to wait until the end to watch a game….but I didn’t have much choice tonight. I found myself the victim of a long-running wedding rehearsal and suffering from the lack of alcohol in my blood at a dry rehearsal dinner. Oh well, these are the breaks. Suck it up and do what you gotta do. So, as a result, here are some more “notes”.

Short story long, I didn’t get home until about 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Which actually, I was more than happy to see because I didn’t think I’d be catching any of the game at all.

End of the 3rd Quarter

So…..I get in front of the tele just in time to see a Richard Jefferson FT which brings the Nets within 2, 79-77 Wizards.

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Phil Chenier and Steve Buckhantz on the 1 & 2 talking about the friendly upcoming schedule for the Wizards – 6 of 10 remaining December games are at home. Only one of those opponents is playing .500 ball right now, the Pacers at 10-10….although, the Hawks are 1 below .500 and the Wiz face the Heat twice and the Bulls once during this stretch. So, it’s not as easy as they make it out to be…then again, It’s Business Time.

Damn, it looks like the Pecan Sandies are going to win. Kids day at the Verizon Center. “Great.”

Now let’s start the show…

1st Quarter

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Watching some football, doing some work, wondering what the Washington Wizards are going to do against the New Jersey Nets tonight. The keys for the Wizards: they really need to pound it inside when Haywood is in the game. When Blatche is playing, do a little more running. Get him working the high post and using his quickness and/or passing skills against the mediocre Nets bigs. Bullets Forever with the run-down….the Wizards have actually lost 6 in a row against the Nets. Last time the Wiz beat them was in December of ’05, blew New Jersey out by 20 in DC.

So yea, what exactly is going on with Jason Kidd? I just wonder what has been in that guy’s mind lately. Let’s run through a quick timeline:

1997-2007 - Marriage, drinkin’, gamblin’, the NBA, hoes, rockin’ out in general.

Jan. 2001 - A night at the Kidd household – Jason Kidd eats a french fry from his son’s plate. His wife, Joumana, yells at him for doing so. He spits the fry right back in her face. She then ran into a door knob.

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No….not really. Wait, what I truly mean is, not yet.

Ok, what do you think of when you hear the name Jason Kidd?

• Great passer (career 9.2 assist per game average).
• Deceptively quick, one of the best in transition.
• Court vision…and he takes care of the ball, 3.18 TOs per game for his career – excellent for someone who handles the ball so much.
• Best rebounding point guard (actually, best among all guards — he’s averaged 6.7 for his career).
• He’s big, (6’4″, 210 lbs.) and this is part of the reason why he can see the court so well, rebound, and post up smaller point guards causing the opposing defense to adjust.
• Before his knee injury history slowed him down, Kidd was a premier league defender, still has averaged over 2 steals per game for his career.

The negative? Jason Kidd simply cannot shoot, and leaves a lot to be desired on the offensive end in general. Partially, this is a side effect of him being such a great distributor…he doesn’t exactly need to score. But then again, his lack of range decreases the amount of offensive spacing for his team. His career FG% is a small hair above 40%, barely 33% from 3-point range.

So, how about Steve Nash?

• Experienced. He’s a savvy veteran who knows all the tricks.
• Court vision (pretty much a prerequisite for all great pure point guards) — 2.57 career TOs per game.
• Much better scoring threat than Kidd. His shooting percentages (FG & 3P),along with his scoring average has improved throughout his career
• Great transition player, and in my opinion, he is better at getting penetration into the lane than Kidd. This is probably a side-effect of him being more of a scoring option.
• And not that Kidd doesn’t, he’s great at this also, but Nash seems more astute in knowing the passing angles, along with the timing of ball distribution (not to mention that great PGs must know their personnel. — How many times have you seen a bad passer feed the ball to a lumbering big man on the break, only to see a bumblin’, fumblin’ turnover or missed shot?

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