John Wall’s summer league feet game.

Things I learned/witnessed at summer league in Las Vegas, in bullets:

• On Day 1, Chris Webber, an analyst for the games on NBA TV, broke out his pleated cargo shorts. It was a tough day for all of us.

• Bradley Beal can block shots… he averaged one per game over five contests in Las Vegas. Chris Singleton also threw his body around a bunch (“I feel like it’s going to help Chris Singleton out a lot,” said Shelvin Mack about the summer league 10-foul limit during Wizards mini-camp prior. “You know, he likes to foul, so he’s going to play a lot longer, so it’s good for us.”). This clip shows Beal blocking, or rather, thwarting a lob attempt off the backboard, and then Singleton diving over the first row of chairs for the loose ball:

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In their fifth and last summer league game, the Wizards beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 78-75, to leave Las Vegas with a 3-2 record. TAI’s Adam McGinnis from behind the television and Kyle Weidie, courtside in Sin City, take you through The Reaction. But first: a smooth Bradley Beal drive near the end of the third quarter…

M.V.P.

Bradley Beal might not have wowed in Vegas with high scoring outputs or super flashy highlight packages (he didn’t drop 35 like Josh Selby, but averaging 17.6 points over five games isn’t bad), but the Washington faithful can rest assured that he did not disappoint. Beal displayed the consistency on both ends that the Washington franchise has sorely lacked at the shooting guard position for years, and Beal is only a teenager. His effective style was showcased against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Wizards’ summer league finale. Beal finished with a team-high 18 points (7-for-13 field goals), six rebounds, two blocks, one assist, and one steal.

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The Wizards handled, but escaped the Memphis Grizzlies in their fourth summer league game, an 83-77 win. TAI’s Adam McGinnis, Markus Allen, Arish Narayen, and Kyle Weidie take you through The Reaction, but first…

The play of the game: Jeremy Pargo smoothness to Mitchell Watt for the dunk, and-1.

M.V.P.

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As summer-league play for the Wizards continues with game four against the Memphis Grizzlies today at 6 p.m. EDT, let’s take a glance at the video notebook.

Boarding Bradley Beal

“Some people just have a nose for the ball.” There’s that cliche, and it applies to Bradley Beal, but it’s not simply about what his schnoz is or is not attracted to… Beal possesses the intuition to put his body (and nose) in the most opportune place, which is right in front of the rim. Let’s go to the video of Brad Beal rebounding, specifically those of an offensive nature.

Here, Beal places himself at the rim and gets the offensive board and put-back… easy peasy.

I’m not quite sure why Tomas Satoransky doesn’t see Beal here, but, nonetheless, Bradley again puts himself in rebounding position and draws the foul.

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The Wizards summer leaguers must have gotten their proper rest after a weary effort in game one on Friday, because they looked more than solid against the Houston Rockets on Saturday in a 76-70 win that wasn’t as close as the score indicates. This is the TAI Reaction…

[PARENTAL ADVISORY: ICE CUBE IS PRONE TO PROFANITY]

M.V.P.

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Various notes from the Wizards’ first summer league game, a 102-82 loss to the Atlanta Hawks… But first, a video featuring Sam Cassell, Bradley Beal, Jan Vesely, and Chris Singleton…

Rest in Vegas?

One thing to consider: the Wizards probably landed close to 2:30, 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time in Las Vegas on Friday morning; they had to turn around and play at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Read more »

One up, one down. The Wizards looked good at times, in spots, but not often in a 20-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks (102-82) in their Las Vegas Summer League debut. For your perusal: the box score via NBA.com.

M.V.P.

The Washington Wizards faithful got what they came to see. No; not the Wiz getting throttled by the Hawks in Washington’s first Summer League contest — but Bradley Beal. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft dropped 22 points on 6-for-14 shooting (1-for-3 from 3-point range) in his first televised game as a pro. (His first field goal attempt, a transition layup, was blocked.) When he wasn’t finding space off ball screens, Beal was slashing into the paint for points and earning trips to the free throw line, where he missed just one of his 10 attempts. It’s easy to talk about the rookie’s versatile skillset at the two guard (handles and scoring instincts), but he really impressed on the defensive end of the floor. Beal is long, he’s quick, he’s disciplined, and he’s tough. And the best part about it: Bradley Beal is a Wizard.

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Former Georgetown Hoya Hollis Thompson was all of two-years old when Sam Cassell made his NBA debut with the Houston Rockets in November of 1993.

So, with Cassell serving as an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards, who have been putting 2012 NBA Draft hopefuls through workouts, including Thompson last Thursday, we are given a chance to crunch the age numbers as the two faced-off in a drill on the Verizon Center practice court.

Cassell will turn 43-years old this November, and Thompson turned 21 this past April; the difference between them — 21 years, 4 months and 16 days — is currently greater than Thompson’s age.

The drill was defensive in nature. Participating players were required to rotate properly on help defense as the ball was passed around. The final component involved the main defender rotating from helping in the paint to closing out on a wing player in the corner (Cassell) using proper technique.

From there, Cassell had free reign to relish the opportunity of scoring on a kid at least 50-percent less in age. And this wasn’t the first time Cassell has dueled with kids — previous battles have come against the likes of John Wall, Nick Young, JaVale McGee, and Andray Blatche — and it likely won’t be the last.

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Another day, another loss for the Washington Wizards, this time 99-94 to the Detroit Pistons… no biggie. At least they keep trying, I think. Here’s the reaction…

MVP.

Greg Monroe had the MVP numbers (18 points and seven rebounds), and Tayshaun Prince (14 points) made pump fakes look like a Picasso against Wizards rookie Chris Singleton. But why not give the MVP to Ben Wallace? Washington coach Randy Wittman tried to play Hack-a-Wallace late in the fourth quarter when the game was close, but Gentle Ben went 5-for-6 from the line (5-for-10 on the night). All Wizards assistant coach Sam Cassell could do was chuckle from the bench.

LVP.

Oh, Jordan. “If you in da D… Slide by the Palace of Auburn Hills tonight!,” Tweeted Jordan Crawford (@Jcraw55) at about 10:30 AM on the morning of Thursday night’s game. Hopefully his friends and family don’t start asking for refunds. A 2-for-13 effort from the field on this night makes him 4-for-25 in his hometown of Detroit on the season. Add Crawford’s 3-for-10 effort last season in Detroit, as a Wizard, and he’s 7-for-35 for his career in Motor City. The ‘check engine’ light is on…

X-Factor.

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[Randy Wittman could see it coming.]

When preseason theories spoke of young legs benefiting the Wizards in a lockout-shortened season, my thinking was different. They needed all the training camp and preseason they could get, and the lack of it showed many ways in the season’s early going. Now they are starting to play better, more as a team, sharing the ball, and understanding complete effort. Big road wins in Detroit and Portland gave the young Wizards confidence going into Wednesday’s game with the Clippers. But they endured for just over 32 minutes in Los Angeles until tired legs, and more prevalently, tired minds, took over. The home team on rest with more shooting focus after a tough loss in Dallas, along with the capabilities to get shooters open shots, took the game over Washington by 18 points, 102-84. There were a couple game-deciding moments.

With 3:25 left in the third quarter, John Wall assisted a Nick Young 3-pointer for the third time in less than four minutes. Young hadn’t scored a single point in front of his hometown crowd until that first three; suddenly he had nine points. Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier were openly commenting on television how most of Young’s shots looked to be pressing the issue too much, but when Wall started setting him up, it looked like the Wizards would make it a game. The Wizards tied the score at 66 with that third Young three. Within the spurt, Young also had one assist, almost two had JaVale McGee not missed a shot at the rim. Oh what a dream sequence. But then what happened?

Blake Griffin went over McGee’s back for an offensive rebound, came down, gathered himself… monster dunk, 68-66 Clippers. Could the whistle have been blown against Griffin? Possibly. Physicality in the paint can be like refereeing holding in football, it can be called just about every time. The many areas of gray mean more subjectivity comes into the equation. Did McGee even try to box Griffin out? Yes, more so than usual. Other circumstance includes McGee’s lack of help on the defensive boards by the likes of Young, Jordan Crawford and Rashard Lewis.

On the other end, as the Clippers sagged off a Lewis screen for Wall, Kenyon Martin and Chris Paul ended up with a switch, Paul covering Lewis in the paint. In a perfect world Wall hits the wide open shot that Martin left him when he didn’t care to press up, paying attention to Lewis instead. In the Wizards world, McGee waited too long to clear the paint so the Wizards could best iso Lewis against Paul. Then the timing was thrown off when Wall waited too long to pass, and Lewis couldn’t hold a seal. The result was a Wizards turnover, and the Clippers went demoralizing the other way with a Paul alley-oop to Griffin that the athleticism of Wall unsuccessfully tried to get too. John was high but far short. Some photographer has a great one of that play. Washington called timeout but didn’t score for the rest of the period. They went into the fourth quarter down 74-66 thanks to an 8-0 Clippers run.

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