Blake Griffin is not perfect, you know. He has the makings of just about every other great, but young player. After he does something, anything on offense (because he can often be seen lazily swiping at the ball from behind or watching the action on defense), Griffin trots down the court with a look on his face somewhere between a smirk and stoic, but more subtle.

Other times he glares at opponents (evident by the above picture of him staring down Yi Jianlian after the Wizard tried to take a charge against one of Griffin’s teammates, followed by Blake verbally encouraging Yi to, “Get the f*ck up”).

Griffin often hangs his mouthpiece from his lips and chews on it as he runs the floor or during a stoppage in play, the gnawing and teeth aiding the menacing conveyance Griffin seems to go for in order to counter his over-grown schoolboy looks. In a sense, Blake Griffin is kind of a dick.

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Randy Wittman seems to be a guy who likes to color within the lines. And sure there is an occasional twitch, a little jerk that sends his coaching marker beyond expectations – take for example his colorful exchange with JaVale McGee, which left both men red in the face.

But slip-ups like that, at the very least, let you know that the guy is human.

“Trust me, I don’t want to be standing here talking with you guys,” he said with a smirk before Wednesday night’s game versus the Golden State Warriors, filling in for Flip Saunders, who was with his ailing mother who recently passed away. Even with his disarming smile, you could tell that there was a fire in Wittman’s words, a communication of purpose. Such passion is expected from a man who has lived and breathed basketball since the ’70s, I imagine.

“The effort has to be better, obviously,” said Wittman during his pregame presser. “It can’t fluctuate. […] To win in this league and be a winner in this league you can’t have fluctuations in your effort, energy, and desire playing. Chicago kind of took that out of us … they kind of took the will to win away from us and that can’t happen.”

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The picture show run down from last Saturday’s Wizards game versus the Atlanta Hawks…

The Wizards organization hands out free 3D glasses to fans so they can enjoy the 3D pre-game introductory montage that’s shown on the jumbo-tron for select home games.

The team sometimes has a random fan shag balls during warm-ups,
and I can only imagine the excitement of this youth throwing the ball to John Wall as he dons his jersey.

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I spent some time last night charting the Wizards responsible for each point scored by the New Orleans Hornets as Washington fell 97-89, putting their road record on the season at 0-25. Some of the blame assignment certainly comes via judgment calls, but from watching some plays countless times, I think the chart below gives an accurate survey of the landscape.

As you can see, exactly which Wizard was responsible for how many points a specific Hornet scored is listed. The PA column indicates how many total points were allowed by each Wizard on the night; PPM indicates the points allowed per minute of court action — sure, points per possession might paint a more accurate picture, but all Wizards fans have is time … so seeing what a player does with his time on the court defensively still tells a story.

[Link to Wizards defensive charting vs. the Hornets, 2.1.2011] Read more »

When the name Denny Green is mentioned, the first image that comes to mind is the one you see above, and with good reason.  He’s flustered, he’s angry, he’s mumbling, and after 40 seconds or so, he stomps away from the podium.  But five years before that outburst, Green had every reason to be just as angry when he was fired by the Minnesota Vikings, despite leading them to the brink of the Super Bowl just three years earlier.  However, at his I-just-got-fired press conference, Green displayed nothing but class (with a splash of third person):

“If you’re looking for Denny Green, look on the high road, because that is where I’ll be.”

The same concept applies when examining the Washington Wizards 24th straight road loss to the Dallas Mavericks last night. It is easy, and dare I say lazy, to focus on the list of errors that led to their 102-92 defeat.  Everyone saw their 61.3-percent free throw percentage (Dallas shot 67.6-percent), the poor shooting nights for Andray Blatche and Nick Young (a combined 10-37), and the lack of a consistent go-to guy in the fourth quarter.  Those shortcomings, and others very similar to them, have been present throughout this road losing streak.

That being said,  there were plenty of positives to take away from last night’s loss, and if they are bottled up and carried into tonight’s game in New Orleans against the Hornets, perhaps the Wizards can get a win before they get loss number 25.  So join me on the high road as we examine a few positives a bit closer. Read more »

[Yi Jianlian thwarts a Ty Lawson foray into the lane.]

“From the standpoint of what we’re trying to do — it’s tough to say when you’ve lost 24 in a row — but we’re doing things because we know where we were when the season started. We’re doing things based on where we’re going to be next year and in two years.” -Flip Saunders after losing to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, putting his Wizards at 0-24 on the road.

“We’re going to get one, hopefully sooner than later,” the coach eventually concluded in his post-game session with the media, as seen on Washington’s Comcast SportsNet. The Wizards are building hope on a 0-24 road record, but it is worth taking a closer look at some nuggets of development from the Wiz Kids.

Trevor Booker struggled in the stat sheet with early foul trouble in the Wizards’ 102-92 loss to the Mavericks. But he was assigned to guard Dirk Nowitzki, so 11 minutes, zero points, three rebounds, four fouls is understandable since he held his defensive ground on several possessions (but the two free-throws he missed didn’t help). Hopefully “Cook Book” added some new recipes to his defensive capability after matching up against the German All-Star, who scored 24 points on just 11 shots, because the Wizards are expecting Booker to be able to guard anything from a 3-man to versatile bigs like Nowitzki, and more. Overall, Booker’s 33 points on 14-19 shooting with 24 rebounds, three turnovers and 10 fouls over the first two games of the current four-game road trip (against Oklahoma and Memphis) is an encouraging sign toward his development and could be a threat to Andray Blatche’s minutes.

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“Synergy” is an over-used buzzword, but it’s also a damn fine NBA statistics web site. So let’s use Synergy Sports Technology to take a quick snap-shot of some Wizards numbers to date.

This season, the Wizards’ defense has often been better than the offense. With the ball, on plays that have ended in a FGA, TO or FTs, Washington has tallied 0.89 points per possession (PPP), ranked 27th out of 30 NBA teams. They score 42.9-percent of the time and turn the ball over 13.7-percent of the time in these situations.

Washington’s overall offensive rating (ORtg – points produced per 100 possessions, which is calculated differently and likely includes other factors outside of plays that end in a FGA, TO or FTs) sits in line with these focused numbers; their 102.6 ORtg also ranks 27th.

The Wizards are particularly bad at scoring on post ups — which comes as no surprise considering the roster construction — chalking up a measly 0.70 PPP over 318 opportunities, a rate that’s ranked dead last in the league. Andray Blatche has produced 0.64 PPP on 121 post up opportunities, JaVale McGee has produced 0.66 PPP on 64 post ups, Yi Jianlian 0.50 PPP on 28 post ups … you get the point, the cupboards are bare, the well is dry and the children are starving.

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Some leftover pictures, commentary, and links at the bottom…

Kevin Seraphin.

At some point during the Celtics game, mid-third quarter, John Wall expressed dismay about a questionable call that didn’t go the Wizards’ way … that’s a $50 fine face, perhaps.

On Boston’s subsequent out-of-bounds play, Wall did what he usually does in bouts of heightened emotion, good or bad … he pulled his shorts up.

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It didn’t seem like a winning night for the Washington Wizards as they prepared to face the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday. The movement of the team during warm-ups, the faces of the players, you could tell it was their fourth game in five nights. They weren’t exactly physically weary or mentally downtrodden in appearance, but the air of the team reflected the atmosphere in the Verizon Center, dead … like that oddly quiet elevator ride. Even Baltimore’s Carmelo Anthony being in town barely drew a response from fans, most electing to give him the Prokhorov treatment.

Toss out the box score from the game. The final was 120-109 Denver, but I could convince you otherwise. Washington led 56-46 in points in the paint, 32-8 in fastbreak points, they shot 51.2-percent from the field and made 23 of 27 free-throws. The Wizards were only out-rebounded by three (39-36), all in the defensive boards category, had the same amount of assists as Denver (23), and two less turnovers (15-13). Washington blocked nine shots, which may have contributed to the Nuggets’ 13-2 lead in second chance points, because both teams pulled seven offensive rebounds. Andray Blatche’s first quarter shot chart even looked like this:

Too bad after going 6-8 from the field in the first period, Blatche went 2-6 over the rest of the game (9-9 in free-throws on evening, though, for 25 total points).

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[Editor's Note: Beckley Mason provided Verizon Center coverage of Saturday night's 98-95 Wizards win over the Toronto Raptors for TAI. You can usually find Beckley at the TrueHoop Network general NBA blog, HoopSpeak.com. You can also find him on Twitter: @BeckleyMason. -Kyle W.]

“Yi has a great set of skills. When he dunked it tonight I was like ‘OK China.’” -Andray  Blatche

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