
JaVale McGee’s career as a Washington Wizard has been chock full of consistent inconsistency, and head coach Flip Saunders summed it up succinctly after the loss to the Charlotte Bobcats last Friday:
“JaVale has five highlight plays a game, unfortunately there’s about 200 plays in a game, and he’s gotta get more substance than style.”
Both McGee’s style and substance were on display during the Wizards’ 89-86 victory over Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night. Early in the game, McGee did an excellent job of preventing Marc Gasol from getting deep position in the paint, but then at other points, he would incur the wrath of Saunders for being out of position on both offense and defense.
This theme would also rear it’s inconsistent head in the fourth quarter, as my Truth About It colleague, John Townsend beautifully broke down. Even though Kirk Hinrich and Gilbert Arenas were having excellent shooting nights, McGee tried to take the ball to the hoop (via the dribble), was picked by Zach Randolph (not exactly a quick handed, nimble fellow), and Mike Conley picked up the ball and dashed full speed toward his basket. Luckily for the Wizards, McGee was able to zoom from one end of the court to the other and block Conley’s shot, immediately exonerating himself from his earlier sin. Substance and style in less than 30 seconds.
After the game, I ventured over to the Memphis Grizzlies locker room to get their take on the play of JaVale McGee (he finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds, three steals and three blocks). Their depiction of McGee was much different. Now, I’m not naive enough to really know that, because Lionel Hollins doesn’t see McGee in practices and games everyday, and of course I know the Grizzlies were a bit dejected because McGee had a hand in their close loss. Still, it was clear that in Memphis’ locker room, they viewed McGee has one of the main culprits in their loss. Here’s Hollins and Rudy Gay on McGee:
Tags: JaVale McGee, lionel hollins, marc gasol, memphis grizzlies, mike conley, rudy gay, zach randolph






