While trying their best to win against the Blazers on Wednesday night, the Wizards were also trying their best to lose. That’s just the way it is with this team. A negative? Washington, after getting up 15 points in the fourth quarter, didn’t score a basket over a span of almost seven minutes as the Blazers made a 16-0 run to steal the lead, 80-79. The positives? Randy Wittman adjusted and the Wizards didn’t concede victory.
Here’s the coach talking about his main adjustment: putting Chris Singleton back in the game to guard LaMarcus Aldridge in an effort to minimize a “bad matchup” in the pick-and-roll when a bigger, slower Wizard was checking the Blazers All-Star.
But also… Why on EARTH did Singleton snag a defensive rebound, when the Wizards were up 84-82, and call a timeout with 0.5 seconds left? The “hero ball” we speak of in the title of this post is not the standard “hero ball” you’ve come to expect from the Wizards—the likes of Nick Young or Jordan Crawford taking a contested fadeaway on a one-pass possession with 17 seconds left on the shot clock. But this move could’ve thrown the hero defense by Singleton that was lauded by Wittman into the belly of the goat. Because Wizards.
“We just broke through the ice. That ice was about—I’ve lived in Minnesota for 15, 17 years—that ice was four to five feet deep, but it’s broken through now.”
—Randy Wittman
You break through the ice, you can breathe. Now the Wizards need to learn how to swim. Every player knows how close they came to blowing that game against Portland, but they won. Now they don’t have to focus on that zero in the win column. Hopefully they can more focus on basketball. These are your Wednesday night winners after breaking through the ice… Jordan Crawford, Bradley Beal, Nene, Martell Webster, Trevor Ariza, Emeka Okafor, Chris Singleton, and Randy Wittman, head coach.
[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. 13, Washington Wizards vs Portland Trail Blazers; contributors: Kyle Weidie and John Converse Townsend from the Verizon Center and Arish Narayen from behind the T.V.]
“Charles is going to be Charles.”
Martell Webster on Charles Barkley calling the Wizards the Washington Generals.
[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.
[Editor's Note: dedicated Wizards fan, TAI reader, and current Atlanta resident (but from Maryland), Conor Dirks, attended Wednesday's heart-breaking loss to the Hawks at the Philips Arena. Below is Conor's account from the experience. Follow him on Twitter: @ConorDDirks. -Kyle W.]
The pre-game scene in the ATL.
The process that I undertake in order to watch each Washington Wizards game here in Atlanta is a complicated one, and often mirrored in its tedium and futility by the game itself. But when the team comes to town, streaming the game on my television through a laptop propped upside down to keep it from overheating and having to get up every fifteen minutes in order to keep the screen saver from interrupting the crushing defeat just isn’t enough. So on Wednesday night, I ventured to Philips Arena to see my hometown team play a better team in a town I’ve lived in for the past three years.
But not before listening to some pre-game music: “Unhappy” by Atlanta’s own Outkast.
[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. 10, Washington Wizards at Atlanta Hawks; contributors: Adam McGinnis, Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]
[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. 9, Washington Wizards vs. Indiana; contributors: Rashad Mobley and John Converse Townsend from the Verizon Center with Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]
[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. 8, Washington Wizards vs. Utah Jazz; contributors: Sean Fagan and Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center with John Converse Townsendfrom behind the T.V.]
[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. 7, Washington Wizards at Dallas Mavericks; contributors: Rashad Mobley, Arish Narayen andKyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]
[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. 6, Washington Wizards at Charlotte Bobcats; contributors: Adam McGinnis, John Converse Townsend andKyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]
