[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. 46, Washington Wizards at San Antonio Spurs; contributors: Rashad Mobley and John Converse Townsend from D.C.]

A Texas-Sized Beatdown.

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John Wall led all scorers with 21, but the Washington Wizards never recovered from their 26-point first half. The Wiz lost their 13th straight game to the San Antonio Spurs in South Texas, 86-96. John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend) has your rapid recap.

M.V.P.

Tony Parker. The PG double-doubled in 33 minutes with 19 points and 12 assists, also adding four rebounds to his stat line. Were you expecting anything less from the Western Conference’s player of the month? Read more »

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did some poetic waxing, to the extent that he can, about Tim Duncan prior to Monday night’s game against the Wizards. Maybe Duncan has some “strange elixir” behind his stellar play, says Popovich. This is Duncan’s 16th NBA season, he’s 36-years old, and he’s putting up a career-high PER (27.3). Pretty amazing.

Maybe Duncan’s enduring tenure could be attributed to new-age techniques.

“I guess it’s not surprising when you look at training techniques these days and how seriously these guys take it. All of us eat better than we did growing up,” said Popovich. “Our parents used to know what we all know now, so these guys are taking advantage of it. What they put in their bodies is really important to them. Contracts are big. They know somebody’s waiting in line, so they better take care of themselves. The training techniques are really advanced, and they go year-round, so it’s not surprising that [NBA players in their mid-to-late 30s] can extend their careers the way that they have.”

This is now the time where we briefly interject with the recent relevancy of Andray Blatche and the tragedy of him never acting like taking care of his body was important, of him never playing like someone was waiting in line.

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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. 12, Washington Wizards vs San Antonio Spurs; contributors: Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center along with John Converse Townsend and Adam McGinnis from behind the T.V.]

It’s Martell. Somehow Martell Webster, more than not, has become the spokesperson for the Wizards. Part of it is that he’s good in front of the mic, so he naturally attracts the media. Another part of it could be that team veterans—Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor—simply don’t always have it in them to speak up, a silence that’s indicative of their poor play this season. Ariza is often long gone by the time the media scrum arrives to the Wizards locker room after Randy Wittman’s end-of-the-night press conference. Okafor, mostly a result of his post-game routine of stretching, etc., often takes so long after games that the press has mostly moved on to deadlines and work before Okafor even starts showering. Thus, we are left with Webster, a guy making a mere $1.75 million this season who wasn’t on the Wizards’ radar until mid-August, instead of the duo—Ariza and Okafor—making around $7.3 and $13.5 million this season respectively. It is what it is. So here is the guy with the guts to say that he and his teammates are embarrassed. Read more »

Here to provide the DC Council Opening Statements for Washington’s 12th game of the season against the San Antonio Spurs in D.C. are TAI’s Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) and guest Andrew McNeill (@drew_48moh), who writes about the Spurs for the ESPN TrueHoop blog 48 Minutes of Hell.

UPDATED: Wizards Starters (0-11):

Shaun Livingston, Jordan Crawford, Bradley Beal, Jan Vesely, Kevin Seraphin
(Disclaimer #1: These starters have to change, right?)

Yes, they have changed, to this: A.J. Price, Beal, Trevor Ariza, Seraphin, Emeka Okafor

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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 40 contributors: Markus Allen, Adam McGinnis (@Adam McGinnis) and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).]

Score

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The Wizards kick off a six-game road-trip with a date near the Alamo this evening, where they haven’t sealed the deal since December 11, 1999. Back then, John Wall and Jan Vesely were 9-years old, and Chris Singleton, Kevin Seraphin and Shelvin Mack had barely reached double-digits in age (in Seraphin’s case, he was 10 by about five days). Even old Wizards such as Andray Blatche were just 13; Rashard Lewis was barely 20 with 40 games of his current 934 NBA career games under his belt. In other words, it’s been a while. To be close to specific, it’s been about 6,445,440 minutes, along with one massive fear of Y2K being put to rest, since the Wizards last won in San Antonio, Texas. Will the kids, 14.5-point underdogs, stop the streak tonight?  For today’s 3-on-3, TAI’s Dan Diamond (@ddiamond), Rashad Mobley (@rashad20) and Kyle Weidie (@truth_about_it) analyze in an attempt to predict. Three questions, three answers starts now…

#1) Which two players will most determine the outcome of tonight’s game?

DAN DIAMOND: It’s my rookie debut for 3-on-3 so I’ll stick with the kids. Jan Vesely will do his flying ninja routine and fire up the Wiz with an acrobatic dunk. Kawhi Leonard will force Nick Young into a string of more terrible shots than usual. Mark my words. Unfortunately, those plays will happen in the first half — the game will be over by the third quarter.

RASHAD MOBLEY: For the Spurs it is Danny Green. His offensive contributions are a bonus, but he makes his mark on the defensive end of the floor. He could present problems to frustrate John Wall, Nick Young and Jordan Crawford, which would basically thwart the Wizards offense. For Washington, the Young/Crawford combination will either make life easy for the Wall by spreading the floor and hitting shots, or make life easier for Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs by creating fastbreak opportunities off of their long misses.

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Why not start with a Vince Carter dunk and a Shaq reaction?

When people think back to NBA All-Stars battling on the Verizon Center hardwood in Washington, D.C. in 2001, they call it a great game. That’s slightly inaccurate. It was a great finish that came down to the very last possession and a missed attempt by Tim Duncan. But large chunks of the rest of the game were a sloppy mess, the two teams combined for 40 turnovers. Still, none of this is to take away from the great show put by Stephon Marbury, Kobe Bryant and MVP Allen Iverson, 15 fourth quarter points, 25 for the game. The East came back from being down 21 points to win 111-100, the stars trading big buckets and making Washington fans forget about how they got there.

The evening also featured homecomings of all sorts. Both Chris Webber and Rasheed Wallace, former Bullets big men, returned to Washington as All-Stars. Iverson, of course, returned to the place he called his “second home, his home away from home” after the game. And David Robinson, from nearby Manasas, Virginia, was making his final All-Star appearance.

The East had young-and-gunning guards and wings to complete — Iverson making his second All-Star appearance, along with Tracy McGracy (1st), Vince Carter (2nd), Allan Houston (2nd) Ray Allen (2nd), Glenn Robinson (2nd), Jerry Stackhouse (2nd) and Stephon Marbury (1st). Unfortunately, this crew didn’t know how to pass to each other in the game’s early going. Turnovers, often from trying to pass too much — with three courtesy of Iverson very early — resulted in the West jumping out to an 11-0 lead that was pushed to 30-17 at the end of one quarter.

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[Editor's Note: Before we all complain about the inundation with all that is LeBron -- with coverage good, bad, overall, and everything in between -- consider the fact of how such a unique character provides an opportunity to relish in how influential sports figures have become. That is to say, at least all of this is not boring. Ben Standig (Twitter: @BenStandig) writes about DMV sports all over the web, CSNWashington.com amongst them. In a TAI guess piece below, Ben breaks down a commonality between LeBron and Mike Tyson, who, by chance, is being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame today. -Kyle W.]

Once upon a time, Mike Tyson was legitimately the baddest man on the planet and in that era he delivered one of the best quotes – both figuratively and in his case, literally – depicting the nature of intimidation in the world of sports. When told before a fight that his opponent had a plan to beat him, Tyson brashly countered that “everyone has a plan, until they get hit in the mouth.”

This quote is pertinent to the NBA Finals because up until a few days ago, most of the basketball world surely would have slotted one LeBron James into that role of baddest of the bad. Not that he would land an actual haymaker to an opponent’s cranium or was the one guy in the league you wouldn’t want to cross, but his physically imposing ways surely put fear into the hearts of opponents. That physicality certainly blinded the observing world.

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The San Antonio Spurs came into the Verizon Center last night and thoroughly dominated the Washington Wizards 118-94.  They shot 58-percent for the game, 52-percent from three-point land, only trailed for 22 seconds and had six players in double figures.  They were also able to accomplish this with Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili combining for just 20 minutes and 12 points.

San Antonio’s victory was even more impressive considering that the night before, they were outplayed in Philadelphia, losing to the 76ers by shooting just 33-percent from the field, 17-percent from the three-point line, and by putting up just 25 points in the second half.  As Gregg Popovich said during his pregame presser on Saturday, “We set offensive basketball back a decade.”

“Just one?,” asked another reporter.

“Maybe two …. you’re right, I’m being too kind. It was just ridiculous,” responded the coach.  One night later, Popovich got his team to leave that ridiculousness behind. By halftime in Washington, they scored more points (72) than they had the previous night in Philadelphia (71 points total).

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