GT #4: 76ers @ Bullets 7 PM (MonSportsNet/106.7 FM)

[Zonkerbl]

looking at the box score, CJ went 4-14, ouch. But the sixers took 16 more free throws, that's the game right there. Which, by the way, is exactly the number of free throws Maxey took. The most free throws taken by a player on the zards side was Middleton and McCollum with 4.

So, either the refs basically gifted the game to the sixers, or McCollum can't play defense for crap. Or whoever was guarding Maxey. Probably a combination of both.

[9 and 20]

Great loss last night. Evidence - ran tankathon a bunch of times and nearly every time, got a top 4 pick, either our own or the Suns' pick.

Sarr, Kyshawn, and Tre plus one of the top guys next year looks very promising. All eyes on the prize.

[doclinkin]

That lineup of CJ, Bub, Tre, Kispert, Bags... wow... I'd like to find the +/- for that lineup.
CJ shot jacking and refuses to play D.
Bub doing his best to cover for CJ and his man but is limited.
Tre doing his best with a bad back and is still learning.
Kispert cant really play D but gives effort.
Bags in there for the rebounds.
6'4" and under at the perimeter, 6'7" dude who plays D like he is 6'3" inside.
I was LOL

It was a great tank loss. I wanted to win this but am over it now.
Look at all the great moments! Sarr with a 31/11 game! Kyshawn with a 20/9 game. Tre with 10 and Cam with 9. The future looks bright.

http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20251028&game=PHIWAS

Yeah there were a few tankalicious lines. That one was -4 in the brief time they were out there. If Kispert doesn’t hit open shots he has absolutely no use out there except to look like he’s trying. Bags gives no protection in the paint. CJ is toothless but poised in his ineffective play. Gets open, can’t hit. Cam watches the action unless he has the ball. Is not a PF, playing a position he doesn’t understand. Tre is a rookie. Guaranteed loss every minute they’re on court together. Tanktastic.

[closg00]

looking at the box score, CJ went 4-14, ouch. But the sixers took 16 more free throws, that's the game right there. Which, by the way, is exactly the number of free throws Maxey took. The most free throws taken by a player on the zards side was Middleton and McCollum with 4.

So, either the refs basically gifted the game to the sixers, or McCollum can't play defense for crap. Or whoever was guarding Maxey. Probably a combination of both.

That’s the difference between having guards who can penetrate all the way to the cup, and not having them. Maxey had 16 FTA’s, Bub 2.

[dobrojim]

Great loss last night. Evidence - ran tankathon a bunch of times and nearly every time, got a top 4 pick, either our own or the Suns' pick.

Sarr, Kyshawn, and Tre plus one of the top guys next year looks very promising. All eyes on the prize.

The pick swap elevates the importance of keeping
the pick. No pick, no swap. Double or nothing.

[GoneShammGone]

I expect to see a lot of losses like this before the deadline. CJ and Khris are going to get minutes, and CJ in particular looks pretty bad. After the deadline, with CJ gone, it could get more interesting. I'm also really curious what is going to happen when Bilal comes back. CJ is second on the team in minutes played right now, and with Bilal I don't think that can continue.

[Zonkerbl]

I expect to see a lot of losses like this before the deadline. CJ and Khris are going to get minutes, and CJ in particular looks pretty bad. After the deadline, with CJ gone, it could get more interesting. I'm also really curious what is going to happen when Bilal comes back. CJ is second on the team in minutes played right now, and with Bilal I don't think that can continue.

Agree, might as well give the vets minutes so they can establish their value, if any. If they suck, lots of losses, which is fine. If they're good, they provide veteran leadership and some trade assets.

I would love for Bilal to force the coaching staff to give him more minutes than Middleton. I don't think he's competing with CJ, that's Bub, who's not making a great case at the moment. And Tre to a lesser extent. I feel like Tre and Bilal will be competing for whatever scraps are left by Middleton at the moment, which sucks.

[Rafael122]

Perfect tank loss: youngsters showed out, played hard, and lost. That's all I want to see.

[dckingsfan]

All I can say is PHUCK YOU Keefe.

For better or worse it's obvious what Keefe is trying to do.....and I hate it.

Keefe: Play badly and I will play you. Better yet, jack up shots and don't play D and you will get in the game. Do you hear that Justin?

[Kanyewest]

looking at the box score, CJ went 4-14, ouch. But the sixers took 16 more free throws, that's the game right there. Which, by the way, is exactly the number of free throws Maxey took. The most free throws taken by a player on the zards side was Middleton and McCollum with 4.

So, either the refs basically gifted the game to the sixers, or McCollum can't play defense for crap. Or whoever was guarding Maxey. Probably a combination of both.

There was a play where Embiid hit a player on the head and there was a no call. Grimes was also getting superstar calls against Tre. Not to mention the offensive foul that Embiid committed that should have been a flagrant. That being said, the Wizards ended up losing ultimately because they had plays where they shot themselves in the foot.

[Kanyewest]

I also don't understand the hate for Keefe. He is the tank commander. He probably won't be around when the team competes in 2027-28. The thing our youngsters seem to lack is consistency. Saar is not going to put up those numbers in the next game. Embiid is like a cone defensively now and Drummond is 320 pounds. Good for Alex.

Whitmore is truly a black hole. Scores 9pts, 0 rebounds and 0 assists at 6-7, 250.

Whitmore was attempting to pass a few times which was good but actually lead to turnovers on back to back possessions at one point in the game. Also had to take a shot once with the shot clock coming down. I also believe one of his misses came from an alley oop.

[doclinkin]

All I can say is PHUCK YOU Keefe.

For better or worse it's obvious what Keefe is trying to do.....and I hate it.

Keefe: Play badly and I will play you. Better yet, jack up shots and don't play D and you will get in the game.

Ah Bullfeathers. CJ is the only high minutes player who fits that description. All the starters were positive in +/- except George who absolutely was trying hard. Too hard even. He played 40 minutes.

Why are we crying? The young pups and all played well, we were up by 19 before substitutions let the game slip out of hand.

I get if we were trying to make the play in games it’d be better to play JC than Kispert or Cam at forward. But we’ve seen that movie for a decade add a half under Grunfeld.

Yes it feels good to win. Yes you want to reward the effort shown in the first hand with wins at the end of the game. But they closed the game with the lineup that won them that lead. The fact they fell short while Maxey carved them up just reminds you we don’t have that high talent closer yet. We get that guy maybe if we pick high in the lotto.

They’re doing fine. Developing and growing on court in season. Sarr had a monster game against two powerful Centers. George is playing like a grown man. Even Bub showed up better. Let’s take the wins quarter by quarter. If BK is following the directive to handicap the team a bit early then okay. He’s not going to bench CJ while we’re trying to let him rehab his value. At least Middleton still looks like he can play.

[doclinkin]

Other than Middleton and the guys who got us the lead all played ~35 minutes and up. Sarr played 34 but I get the sense he’s on some kind of restriction based on their biometric gurus.

[dckingsfan]

For better or worse it's obvious what Keefe is trying to do.....and I hate it.

Keefe: Play badly and I will play you. Better yet, jack up shots and don't play D and you will get in the game.

Ah Bullfeathers. CJ is the only high minutes player who fits that description. All the starters were positive in +/- except George who absolutely was trying hard. Too hard even. He played 40 minutes.

Why are we crying? The young pups and all played well, we were up by 19 before substitutions let the game slip out of hand.

I get if we were trying to make the play in games it’d be better to play JC than Kispert or Cam at forward. But we’ve seen that movie for a decade add a half under Grunfeld.

Yes it feels good to win. Yes you want to reward the effort shown in the first hand with wins at the end of the game. But they closed the game with the lineup that won them that lead. The fact they fell short while Maxey carved them up just reminds you we don’t have that high talent closer yet. We get that guy maybe if we pick high in the lotto.

They’re doing fine. Developing and growing on court in season. Sarr had a monster game against two powerful Centers. George is playing like a grown man. Even Bub showed up better. Let’s take the wins quarter by quarter. If BK is following the directive to handicap the team a bit early then okay. He’s not going to bench CJ while we’re trying to let him rehab his value. At least Middleton still looks like he can play.

My response is implied in my original post.

[Frichuela]

It’s blatantly obvious Keef is under strict orders to tank. Take this as an example:

Read on Twitter

?s=46

As many have noted, this is fine as long as both vets (and Kispert) are gone post trade deadline.

[AFM]

All I can say is PHUCK YOU Keefe.

For better or worse it's obvious what Keefe is trying to do.....and I hate it.

Keefe: Play badly and I will play you. Better yet, jack up shots and don't play D and you will get in the game. Do you hear that Justin?

Yeah I agree. I don't mind tanking but why not just play the rookies then. Why force feed CJ and Khris and have us lose that way?

I guess they are playing CJ for his eventual trade value but what's actually happening is he is tanking his trade value. TGW is right, he will probably just get bought out and we are giving minutes to him for no reason.

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

With all that’s going on in sports with sports betting being a part of the equation, I often hear the word “rigged” used to explain an inexplicable outcome, I won’t used “rigged” to describe what I felt while watching the Wizards give up the lead to Philly, up a lot with 3 minutes left to play, instead I’ll use ‘staged’ because that’s how it looked and felt.


There is no way that no one on the team had the wherewithal to establish composure as the collapse was happening. It was strange to me how no one on the team really looked too perplexed at the possibility of losing the entire game, when saving the win would’ve been so easy, even if only winning by a single point.

Just utterly bizarre how accepting of the loss Brian Keefe was in the postgame interview, and really the whole team for that matter; I don’t recall seeing anybody that looked dejected.

[AFM]

With all that’s going on in sports with sports betting being a part of the equation, I often hear the word “rigged” used to explain an inexplicable outcome, I won’t used “rigged” to describe what I felt while watching the Wizards give up the lead to Philly, up a lot with 3 minutes left to play, instead I’ll use ‘staged’ because that’s how it looked and felt.


There is no way that no one on the team had the wherewithal to establish composure as the collapse was happening. It was strange to me how no one on the team really looked too perplexed at the possibility of losing the entire game, when saving the win would’ve been so easy, even if only winning by a single point.

Just utterly bizarre how accepting of the loss Brian Keefe was in the postgame interview, and really the whole team for that matter; I don’t recall seeing anybody that looked dejected.

Yeah you didn't think it was odd that CJ drove into 4 defenders to try an impossible layup when we were down 3 with the final possession?

[SUPERBALLMAN]

With all that’s going on in sports with sports betting being a part of the equation, I often hear the word “rigged” used to explain an inexplicable outcome, I won’t used “rigged” to describe what I felt while watching the Wizards give up the lead to Philly, up a lot with 3 minutes left to play, instead I’ll use ‘staged’ because that’s how it looked and felt.


There is no way that no one on the team had the wherewithal to establish composure as the collapse was happening. It was strange to me how no one on the team really looked too perplexed at the possibility of losing the entire game, when saving the win would’ve been so easy, even if only winning by a single point.

Just utterly bizarre how accepting of the loss Brian Keefe was in the postgame interview, and really the whole team for that matter; I don’t recall seeing anybody that looked dejected.

Yeah you didn't think it was odd that CJ drove into 4 defenders to try an impossible layup when we were down 3 with the final possession?

This is the playbook for this season play perfectly. Showcase the vets show they’re healthy and able to play minutes. Develop the young guys like Sarr. Play hard and competitive for 3 quarters. Blow the game at the end to get the loss and roll out the tank.

[GoneShammGone]

With all the scrutiny the League is under due to the gambling investigations right now, I actually wonder whether they will start to look at blatant tanking like the Wizards are doing. Its beyond obvious. I'm sure PHX is not very happy about it. You can bet their management will be quietly complaining to the NBA.