Wizards @ Nuggets - 1/18/13 - 9:00 PM EST Nene vs McGee

[dobrojim]

Clips better not sleepwalk tomorrow.
It'll tough for us though...looks like they're resting
at home while we're flying to LA.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Beal has made 26 out of his last 42 3-point attempts. That's 62% on a pretty substantial sample size.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Kevin has been huge tonight.

At both ends of the floor.

Kevin's greatest skill could be he denies post position well.

[Upper Decker]

Went to the game, was in a section with a few other random DC'ers, chanted R-G-3 at the end. That should be the victory cigar for all Wiz wins.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

4 of 5? Oh my...

This is not a fluke.

At the start of the thread I predicted this win. Randy Wittman is a good coach. I love the way he gets multiple players involved.

Washington has a real good mix of veteran talent. They have low post scorers and low post defenders. Give Ernie Grunfeld credit. Washington has lengthy defenders on the wings. There are players who can make threes. Beal is the real deal and he's as good with Wall as any of us could have hoped.

Adversity revealed the true character of this team. Webster and Okafor, and others just kept playing. THIS COACH has been honest and he manned up following losses without throwing players under the bus. He has not given up on guys who are playing badly. Seraphin and Vesely are still in the mix. So is Singleton. Randy keeps the whole team engaged.

Nene's health is not as important as his showing up. I believe he's the inspirational leader of this team as is Bradley Beal. Crawford is a spark one way and the other. All these guys are taking the heat of the spotlight off John Wall. All Wall has to do is keep it moving as he's done. He's the backbone.

This is really good news.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

WALL WITH A HUGE BLOCK!

John on defense is a development just like Beal on offense. Good health and time is all it is going to take.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

In only 14 minutes Mcgee had a -14 on/off diff.

Damn.. EG probably getting his appetite back, and sleeping well to boot?

I believe in giving credit where it is due. This is a balanced roster and potentially a very good Wizards team.

Ernie should be feeling good because at worse he's got players other teams are interested in now. At best, this is a defensive team that is one swing man who finishes well away from being a playoff contender next season.

How many games over 30 can this team win? Is 41 wins possible?

[Kanyewest]

I put the Wizards on DVR for the first time this season. I thought the Wizards were going to lose given that Denver was playing at home especially after Lawson's 23 point 3rd quarter. But the Wizards came through.

Wall set up teammates for open jumpers (BTW it is much better watching Ariza take a set jumper rather than creating his own shot). Surprised to see that Seraphin was actually the best big on the court tonight- hopefully Seraphin can build off of this. Faried was active but looked a bit docile against the Washington bigs.

McGee looked like he was pressing. Wall and others took advantage of his pogo-stick mentality. The Nuggets tried to sneak in a few alley oops to McGee but Washington knew how to play McGee defensively.

Beal has looked really good out there. I was scared when he hit the floor but was impressed that he was able to get up after a nasty fall.

Getting a win was nice but I came away rather unimpressed with the nuggets. I would be surprised if they advance past the first round in the playoffs.

[TheBigThree]

Didn't see the game, but McGee a team worst -12? No surprise there.

I love Bradley Beal and the way the entire team is playing of late.

[Induveca]

Excited about the win, but end of the day need more than 5 games.

Without a doubt though Wall's presence has lifted the games of those around him.....all advanced stats may not agree but the confidence and attitude of both Wall and Nene on the floor simultaneously is a huge factor in our success.

Can't help but think the speed/level of play in practice has helped quite a bit as well. Wall must be pushing the pace to a level unseen thus far this year. Out of instinct and an intention to get in shape.

[Knighthonor]

1000% wrong on Beal!
I have a serious man-crush on him.
Might have to start drinking the kool-aid, this team might be really good!!!!


Our days of living in the lottery probably ends this year

Crap and wiz could have got Wiggins/Parker for SF next season!!!

[penbeast0]

just noticed the wiretap feed with the Karl wants McGee to play
like Duncan. Well, I remember Glen Consor euphemistically saying
JaVale 'struggles with concepts'. So no, I don't think he's likely
to resemble The Big Fundamental any time soon. Nothing personal.

Long as we are at it, I'd like every other big man in the league to play like Duncan starting with Seraphin and Vesely.

[fishercob]

where is fishercob with the hater shades?

Just call it like I see it, bro. Great win. Nuggets were previously 15-2 at home. Man, if we had beaten Sacto people would be lighting themselves on fire.

What I liked:

--Wiz got 24 pts and 10 boards from the SF spot.
--7 boards in 26 mins from Seraphin
--Everything about Beal, including his toughness after that brutal fall. 23 points on 13 shots in a more reasonable 32 minutes. He's the youngest player in the league.
--Wall's perfection from the line and ability to get there, his big block and FT's at the end, looking good on a couple mid-range pull-ups
-- Nene winning in his old home. Had to feel good on an emotional night
--Jafail schadenfreude
--Wittman getting a lot of guys involved as CCJ said.

What I didn't like:

--How Nene looked. Buckhantz mentioned casually that his compensation from his plantar fasciatis has led to right knee tendonitis, which is more painful. This is of grave concern given Nene's age and contract status
--Wall's 6 turnovers in 26 minutes. He MUST value the basketball more.
--Witt's bizarre (mis)use of Webster down the stretch. Unless I missed something, it looked like Witt had him on the floor for D, but not for O when we needed FT shooters on the floor. He's one of the best FT shooters in the league and needed to be out there.

Great win! On to LA.

[Nivek]

The win probability section at Basketball Reference pegs the Wizards chances of winning tonight at 19%. 1-in-5 chance? That seems about right.

Seems right to me but I am leaning toward the 1.

The points they're giving seem very generous, and like easy money if you care to wager.

Good call, CCJ!

[nate33]

--Witt's bizarre (mis)use of Webster down the stretch. Unless I missed something, it looked like Witt had him on the floor for D, but not for O when we needed FT shooters on the floor. He's one of the best FT shooters in the league and needed to be out there.

I didn't mind Wittman playing Ariza over the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter because he was using him to guard Ty Lawson, and Ariza was hot from 3-point range all night. But with 30 seconds to go and with Denver looking to intentionally foul, I was surprised that Webster wasn't in the game.

But the more I think about it, it wasn't so bad. Basically, Wall, Nene, Beal and Ariza played the entire last minute with Ariza doing all inbounds passes. The fifth player was rotated between Webster (for defensive sets since they were playing Gallinari at PF), Crawford (for offense/free throws), and Seraphin (for rebounding off of opponent free throws). I can live with that. One can make a case that Webster should be there in place of Crawford for offense too, but you could go either way with that. In general, I trust Crawford's moxie to help him hit clutch free throws, though that didn't work out last night.