The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[StillUnknown]

Butler has completely usurped Webster, he even trolled Beal during his post-game interview.

[Going Commando]

Kobe is loving life. Sure the Lakers suck, but he can literally do anything he wants on the court. Jack up all the bad shots. He's living a chuckers dream. Can never be benched or chewed it.

Without counting tonight, Kobe's taken 78 more FGAs than the next highest player in the NBA, Monta Ellis. Or to put it into context, that's 24% more FGAs than Ellis.

Kobe is also second in the NBA in FTAs with 155. The shots those come from aren't counted in his FGA number.

The amount of chucking he's done has to be historic when you adjust for pace. It's going to be his most spectacularly selfish season ever. It's unwatchable.

[Destino]

From the ESPN recap

Pierce was impressed that Humphries had so many rebounds.

"I told Humphries, that's the reason he got paid. It wasn't that jump shot," Pierce said.

lol

[Going Commando]

We killed them on the glass. That was a big part of the win. +10 rebounding margin and Humphries, Pierce, and Gortat just ate them alive on the offensive boards.

[Going Commando]

56 to 20 points in the paint advantage too. Twice as many assists as them and 2 fewer turnovers. The score was only ever close at any point because of all the bad threes they drilled and all the bad calls they got in the third. The Lakers play awful basketball. Their offense is just heinous. I don't think their coach can actually have them do anything on that side. I don't think they've got set plays.

[Going Commando]

Didn't even realize Beal had 7 assists.

When he and Wall play like they did, and our front court dominates the boards like they did, we can beat anyone.

[Switchgear]

[Warhead36]

In fairness to Kobe, who else on that team is going to shoot?

[Skin'emAlive]

I dont understand all the hate on Kobe. His team blows. People are harping on him not passing this game, but in the last 2+ games he was dropping outstanding numbers ( including assists). Today Lin went 0-10. No one else did much better. And the game was within 2 until the last 2 minutes thanks to pretty much Kobe.

 

Anyways... Great game Bullets! Wall has really started to figure out how to change the game with his passing the last few games. Beal is getting in on the passing as well. Webster is getting healthy and is in no need to rush back right now. All things are looking good.

 

Question: With Pierce looking to be hurting just a tad, should we start Porter friday? I think he needs the confidence boost from playing with Wall.

[MonkFan8]

 

Question: With Pierce looking to be hurting just a tad, should we start Porter friday? I think he needs the confidence boost from playing with Wall.

 

If Pierce is out there is no way you don't start Butler right now. He has been absolutely killing it. 

[Skin'emAlive]

Butler has been playing the 2 more than the three, and scoring is needed from the bench. But yea, he's been killing it.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Skin'emAlive

[Going Commando]

In fairness to Kobe, who else on that team is going to shoot?

That's not an excuse to chuck and play lazy, terrible basketball.

Lots of star players spend seasons playing for bad teams, but they don't use it as an excuse to chuck 15+ awful shots a night.

The Lakers don't run a real offense. They don't work through possessions to get good shots. Instead they pass it to Kobe and he becomes a black hole, forces up a contested shot more often than not. And that sets the tone for the rest of the team too. NY sees it as an excuse to chuck awful shots. Nobody else on the team gets going. Ball movement becomes non-existent. One pass or zero pass and shoot possessions become the norm. Opposing defenses have to do almost no work. And the 5-14 is the end result.

Kobe uses playing on bad teams as an excuse to play terrible, selfish, lazy basketball. LeBron has played on some crap teams. So have Dirk and CP3. So have Dwyane Wade and Steve Nash. None of them used it as an excuse to gun and play crap basketball. All of them anchored and elevated those teams way past where they would have finished otherwise.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

I wonder how Jordan's two seasons with us compare to Kobe this year. Just trying to think of superstar players over the years who played on **** teams and that was the first to come to mind.

[Kosher Ham]

I don't think Jordan played the minutes that Kobe does. Congrats on the win, I expected it.

 

When you play zero defense and refuse to get good ball movement. Your team will typically fail. That is the Lakers this season.

[Forehead]

Meanwhile, Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters are still the best young backcourt in the NBA, right?

[GOSKINS_08]

I'm not going to hate on Kobe for doing what he has to do to try to win. He knows his team is **** and if he doesn't try to do the majority of the scoring chances are they won't beat anyone. And I know he has 16 assists the other night and won but that was against Detroit. Maybe it's just because Kobe is my all time favorite non Wizards player but I still enjoy watching him play, why else would anyone want to watch a lakers game?

[TradeTheBeal!]

Me, getting out of bed this morning.

 

Edited December 4, 2014 by TryTheBeal!

[Kosher Ham]

haha. That's one of my favorite moments from the game.

[Going Commando]

I'm not going to hate on Kobe for doing what he has to do to try to win. He knows his team is **** and if he doesn't try to do the majority of the scoring chances are they won't beat anyone. And I know he has 16 assists the other night and won but that was against Detroit. Maybe it's just because Kobe is my all time favorite non Wizards player but I still enjoy watching him play, why else would anyone want to watch a lakers game?

Chucking bad shots is bad basketball period. That doesn't help the Lakers win. That's one of the biggest reasons they suck.

Kobe (and others) shot the Lakers out of the game last night. And he didn't play defense well. He's contributing to their losses.

[Popeman38]

https://vine.co/v/Ovg9KWuUvJt

 

Wall does the shimmy

Welp, we all know what ESPN radio is gonna talk about all day:

 

Colin Cowturd: I know the Wizards beat a terrible, terrible Lakers team last night. But that team, ANY team led by a wanna be point guard that does the Dougie, and a bad one at that, before pregame introductions, and then has the gall to do a shimmy after hitting a clearly lucky three pointer over an obviously hurting Kobe has zero chance; I repeat zero chance; of doing anything memorable in the playoffs. None. They just can't win trusting their offense to a player that selfish. It's not all about him. And he's not even that good. Can't shoot, but he can dance before the game. I'm not saying John Wall is a bad player, I'm not. O'm just saying he isn't a good player, and you need great players to win in the playoffs. You just do. 

[Gamebreaker]

Welp, we all know what ESPN radio is gonna talk about all day:

 

Colin Cowturd: I know the Wizards beat a terrible, terrible Lakers team last night. But that team, ANY team led by a wanna be point guard that does the Dougie, and a bad one at that, before pregame introductions, and then has the gall to do a shimmy after hitting a clearly lucky three pointer over an obviously hurting Kobe has zero chance; I repeat zero chance; of doing anything memorable in the playoffs. None. They just can't win trusting their offense to a player that selfish. It's not all about him. And he's not even that good. Can't shoot, but he can dance before the game. I'm not saying John Wall is a bad player, I'm not. O'm just saying he isn't a good player, and you need great players to win in the playoffs. You just do. 

 

Cowturd is trolling Washington fans. Even he isn't stupid enough to not realize Wall is a Top 5 PG in this league, and likely the best PG in the league in another 2-3 years. 

 

I listen to his podcast on occasion, and he never mentions Wall when he does well, he'll wait until Wall has a six point game before he starts throwing his digs in. Anyone who knows anything about basketball and has at least watched ONE Wizards game, can see Wall is not a selfish player and he's very mature. Yet Cowturd can't get over the dougie in his first pre-game. He'll be hating on Wall all the way to the ECF, and then he'll say he'd never get there without Beal/Pierce/possibly KD. 

[JoeWolf990]

I dont understand all the hate on Kobe. His team blows. People are harping on him not passing this game, but in the last 2+ games he was dropping outstanding numbers ( including assists). Today Lin went 0-10. No one else did much better. And the game was within 2 until the last 2 minutes thanks to pretty much Kobe.

 

Anyways... Great game Bullets! Wall has really started to figure out how to change the game with his passing the last few games. Beal is getting in on the passing as well. Webster is getting healthy and is in no need to rush back right now. All things are looking good.

people just hate Kobe. It is what it is at this point. Its 19 years of Kobe greatness and people are mad.

He was the only reason that game was close yesterday.

 

Question: With Pierce looking to be hurting just a tad, should we start Porter friday? I think he needs the confidence boost from playing with Wall.

Butler seems to have taken his minutes tho

LeBron has played on some crap teams. So have Dirk and CP3. So have Dwyane Wade and Steve Nash.

the only one that played on a team this bad was DWade. That's it.

And he mentally quit halfway through the season.

Kobe's play is selfish but that team is terrible.

[Popeman38]

Cowturd is trolling Washington fans. Even he isn't stupid enough to not realize Wall is a Top 5 PG in this league, and likely the best PG in the league in another 2-3 years. 

 

I listen to his podcast on occasion, and he never mentions Wall when he does well, he'll wait until Wall has a six point game before he starts throwing his digs in. Anyone who knows anything about basketball and has at least watched ONE Wizards game, can see Wall is not a selfish player and he's very mature. Yet Cowturd can't get over the dougie in his first pre-game. He'll be hating on Wall all the way to the ECF, and then he'll say he'd never get there without Beal/Pierce/possibly KD. 

Just to be clear, that was totally tongue in cheek and made up. 

[Warhead36]

Cowherd is a troll. Literally. That's his schtick. He knows he can troll the Washington market because we don't get his show here, we get Kornheiser from 10-12 and then Sheehan and Loverro after noon.

[Going Commando]

the only one that played on a team this bad was DWade. That's it.

And he mentally quit halfway through the season.

Kobe's play is selfish but that team is terrible.

Dirk, LeBron, and Nash played on bad teams too. The difference is they make their teams look and perform better than they actually are. They bring out the best in their teammates. Kobe doesn't.

Bad basketball is bad basketball. What Kobe played last night--what he's played most of the season--is bad basketball. He played lazy, low IQ basketball. And what's more, there is zero accountability for him. The coaches can't say a word to him. His teammates can't say a word. And when you have the leader of the team playing the way Kobe did, it encourages everyone else to follow suit.

People aren't hating on Kobe, people are making excuses for him when he's playing crappy basketball. He's not helping the Lakers win. He's part of the problem. If he were actually playing to win, he would work to get his teammates involved early. He would work through possessions to find the best shots. He would work his ass off on defense. He would actually lead his team and set a good example on the floor with his own play. He's not doing any of that.