Jump to content
Washington Football Team Logo
Extremeskins
Forum Rules and Guidelines

The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

BRAVEONAWARPATH

By BRAVEONAWARPATH
in The Tailgate

 Share

Recommended Posts

Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

I only got to watch like 10 minutes of this game and it looks like I missed a good one. Stats make it look like it was a point guard show, Wall and Jennings went off.

It was close, but I wouldn't necessarily call it good. It wasn't clean. The story of the game was really poor perimeter defense by us for most of the night. Jennings didn't have to do a lot of tough shot making. He and KCP were on fire from three and that really powered Detroit's offense. And then we had a ton of trouble guarding PnRs and Jennings got a lot of easy lanes to the rim.

Offensively, we played pretty well as a team. There were ugly stretches, but for the most part, Wall was excellent and we didn't turn the ball over and most of the team was shooting pretty well. We did a very good job on the boards and I think that's really where we decisively outplayed them--surprising because they're one of the best rebounding teams. You have to work hard to win when the other guys are scorching from the three point line and you aren't making them. We did a good job cleaning up on the offensive glass and converting the extra possessions into points. It was a nice dirty work game.

And there were some offensive possessions involving Wall, Pierce, Nene, Butler, and Gortat that were downright pretty. The passing was excellent.

Defensively, it was pretty ugly. Gave up a lot of easy shots at the rim. Detroit does not have a good offense, but we made them look good. There were some possessions here and there where our D got dialed in and really looked good but then we'd take a lead and the defense would relax. We really seemed to let up immediately after line up changes and Detroit would rip off runs real quick that made us have to expend a lot of energy to recover each time.

The main disappointment outside the defense was how Porter, Seraphin, and Miller failed to get involved tonight, especially since they'd been doing well in the preceding games. But we've got something in Humphries. He's a high quality player to have coming off the bench. The difference in quality of bench players gets looms large in the postseason. Humphries is showing us he's essentially a rich man's Booker. Better shooter, better motor, better rebounder, better screener, and better defensive player. His energy is infectious.

Once he, Porter, and Miller get used to each other, that's the foundation for a terrific bench. Especially if Webster comes back strong or GRJr gives us something. We will have a bench capable of running strong ten man rotations in the postseason.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

Miami faltered tonight, at home, playing in front of an empty house against that Indiana team that made us work hard to win the last one. We shouldn't feel bad about nearly losing to them.

Right now Toronto looks like the best bet to get the one seed. We'll be in the hunt, but we're probably too inconsistent to win the 56+ games it'll probably take to do it. But aside from Cleveland entering the mix later in the year after they grow into a team that's actually good, I don't see any other team in the East being in the Toronto/Washington tier. I don't buy Chicago's legitimacy, nor that they're as good as us or Toronto. And I think Miami is going to fall off pretty hard eventually (but still be a tough playoff draw for any higher seed).

Unless John gets hurt or there are catastrophic injuries all over the roster, I think we're going to win the East this season. And when that happens, the KD2DC talk is going to really gain the feel of legitimacy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kosher Ham

Kosher Ham

Posted
Posted (edited)

Beal comes back...man oh man, your team will be in a good spot. Good luck guys.

Wall was...damn tonight. Impressive. Great game.

As most of you know I am not a Wiz fan, but a genuine fan of the game.

 

Side note: Why not have another thread for games... Individual games ? Is that frowned upon ? I read this thread mostly for news, not for individual games.

 

Ehh...just throwing it out there.


Adding, I forgot that my wife tried to buy me the Lakers version of that sweater as a joke.

 

Thank goodness they did not have them. I do not wear sweaters.

Edited by Kosher Ham
Link to comment
Share on other sites
G.A.C.O.L.B.

G.A.C.O.L.B.

Posted
Posted (edited)

Side note: Why not have another thread for games... Individual games ? Is that frowned upon ? I read this thread mostly for news, not for individual games.

Ehh...just throwing it out there.

We used to have game threads back when the basketball section of the site was active. For whatever reason we stopped using that and just posted in here. As far as I remember it was never discussed, just happened. I don't think anyone wants to pollute the Tailgate with new threads all the time, plus it's a lot of work and I think we like building up this thread, hence why it's so damn long Edited by G.A.C.O.L.B.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
pjfootballer

pjfootballer

Posted
Posted

I thought our bench was going to be deep this year, but I never counted on Butler to get in the mix. Just makes us better.

Steve, Humphries was probably my favorite signing. I remember a couple of years ago when he was with the Nets, dude was unstoppable against us. He had a 20-16 game. He was all over the place. I think he was our best signing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

I thought our bench was going to be deep this year, but I never counted on Butler to get in the mix. Just makes us better.

Steve, Humphries was probably my favorite signing. I remember a couple of years ago when he was with the Nets, dude was unstoppable against us. He had a 20-16 game. He was all over the place. I think he was our best signing.

Between Humphries, Pierce, Gooden for cheap, Gortat, and keeping the door open for KD in '16 by not overspending for Ariza (and using his trade exception to get Hump and Blair), we had a great FA class. Blair is going to help us out eventually too IMO, there just aren't minutes for him right now.

The only way FA could have gone better for us is if we'd somehow gotten Ray Allen too. We could sorely use his three point shooting right about now and he would have fit in pretty seamlessly here IMO. Would have given him a chance to play for a top seed again too. But I'm pretty sure all we can offer is a min contract and I don't see him working that cheap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

It's nice seeing us finish close games for a change. So many OT games last season. So many more that ended up losses after a late collapse in the final seconds. If we can keep playing well in winning time and digging out these kinds of wins, we're actually going to hit my ambitious preseason prediction of 54 wins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

So far everyone on the team is pretty much performing according to prediction. Pierce will probably improve as he finds his role with us, but that's about it. Porter is pretty much where I thought he'd be after a promising summer. He'll put together several good games then have an invisible game here and there.

I hope Nene gets better though. He has zero lift right now and can't finish inside over any sort of length. He's too heavy and needs to lose weight next summer.

For me the only major unknown about this season is Beal. Does he make the leap to AS caliber play this season? Or is that still down the road? If he makes that leap, that changes our ceiling. 21 years old, I'm leaning towards the leap coming next year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rocky21

Rocky21

Posted
Posted

When they were down by 12 or so in the 1st quarter I was thinking this was the Raptors game all over again. And good grief Jennings was going off. I didn’t see him miss all game. I think he missed one but I was looking away at the time so I’m not even sure it happened.

When Buck said we hadn’t started a season 6-2 in 40 years I was cringing. Thinking the jinx was on but the second teamers kept them in the game and Butler made some key buckets down the stretch. Nice win.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

When they were down by 12 or so in the 1st quarter I was thinking this was the Raptors game all over again. And good grief Jennings was going off. I didn’t see him miss all game. I think he missed one but I was looking away at the time so I’m not even sure it happened.

When Buck said we hadn’t started a season 6-2 in 40 years I was cringing. Thinking the jinx was on but the second teamers kept them in the game and Butler made some key buckets down the stretch. Nice win.

It was different for me. When we went down against the Raptors I felt hopeless. Tough team on the road and our confidence was shot after that horrific start. Whereas against the Pistons I was just like "who is going to lead the come back?" I expected Jennings to cool off from three and/or go into heat check chucking mode and for Detroit's offense to slow down. And I expected us to come alive. The team is good enough now that we can expect that against bad teams.

Although I will say that Detroit is better than their record.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...