Here to provide the DC Council Opening Statements for Washington’s 56th game of the season at home against the Detroit Pistons are TAI’s Rashad Mobley (@rashad20) and guest Dan Feldman (@PistonPowered) who writes about the Pistons for PistonPowered an ESPN TrueHoop Network blog. Dan also does freelance work for the Associated Press.
Wizards Starters (18-37):
John Wall, Bradley Beal, Martell Webster, Nene, Trevor Booker, Emeka Okafor [Nene is out with a sore shoulder.]
[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. 51, Washington Wizards at Detroit Pistons; contributors: Conor Dirks, Sean Fagan, and Kyle Weidie from behind the television screen.]
Jan Vesely didn’t score the 100th point on Sunday, Washington ended up with just 98 in their win against the Pistons (77 points), but he did end up with the play of the night. We talked about people getting down on Vesely in a recent post, and it’s those people who need to keep their eyes on sequences like in the video above. Again, Vesely is already the best Wizards big man at defending the high pick-and-roll, even more evident in him getting the steal from Detroit’s Will Bynum. But the scene of Vesely’s ability to run the floor with Wall, them sharing with each other until Jan ends up with the dunk, is a sign of things to come from the Czech rookie. No, he’s not a dazzling stud of a 6th overall pick, but he could develop into a defensive player as solid as Joakim Noah, but perhaps more athletic. Now wouldn’t that be nice to have at that draft position?
You think watching the Pistons run over the Wizards with little resistance was hard, try starting to watch it on a two-hour delay (sometimes college basketball takes precedent, especially at this time of year), then accidentally finding out the score, and then watching the second half the next day. Boy it was ugly … but at least it kinda/sorta made for quick work. Below are a couple notes I took from witnessing the carnage.
The game starts with Wizards TV guys Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier talking about Gilbert Arenas‘ jersey number change from #0 to Mike Miller‘s current #6. Let’s pick up on their conversation …
Buckhantz: “…. Agent Zero will be no longer, we’ll have to come up with something else.”
