Wizards vs. Bucks, 1/27/08

[paulpressey25]

I'd like to offer some outside perspective as a Bucks fan.....most of us think Eddie Jordan should be coach of the year for the fact he's had the Wizards playing so well, especially with Arenas out.

Our team isn't very good, but the perception around the league is/was that with Gilbert down, the Wizards would be about 12-28 right now.

You guys don't have an all-star PF, C or PG which are the positions usually associated with top tier teams. Butler is a tremendous talent but he's a SF and those guys usually mean the least impact on wins.

The only thing I'd probably critique EJ for is Blatche. He did seem to be playing well last night and I thought we'd see him in the second half.

[hands11]

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Dandridge & Tiny, you both summed-up tonights loss well. I don't care how much EJ has improved this year, this team is not coached well, and has lived and died by all-star performances the past few years.

I have an idea. We got 2 great assistants that help us with shooting and defense. Maybe we can add a 3rd who does our line ups. That would leave EJ as the figure head leader, which he is decent at doing.

COTY? Hardly. Without our 2 new assistants, we could be 17-24

Well as an labeled EJ hater I say. He is a decent coach, he just isn't a complete HC coach. He is a good guy. He is a decent leader. But he isn't consistently good or great with line up and rotations. He called some good games this year but he also called more then a few bad ones. Our starting line up of AD, DS, CB, AJ and BH is good enough to win it's share of games and lines up well against most teams. It's just when you need a good coach, on the margin, EJ doesn't get the line up right enough of the time when you need the coaching to be the difference maker.

What we saw last night isn't any different then I have seen for years from EJ. He blows the line ups and we win or stay in the game because of superior talent pulling some freakish plays in the last seconds. It should have in no way ever come to that. All the small ball was a waste. We needed to go bigger and with more energy with Blatche We needed more athletics and scoring with NY. And we need someone who would hit from outside, Mason.

[wateryd]

just a bad loss, no other way to put it. that was a miraculous comeback at the end of regulation, but they sure thought they had it won once it got to 99-95. jamison missed so many shots he usually makes in that first quarter, but his jump shot kept us in the game for a while. haywood left a bunch of points on the board and butler was amazing, but he missed a bunch of easy ones early in the game and took his fair share of "gilbert" shots, where you just question what he was thinking. i just couldn't believe we let them crawl back in the game with a lineup of bell/simmons/storey/ruffin/voskuhl. simply no excuse for that.

EJ's substitution patterns were definitely whack. blatche brought the energy to a listless team and should have clearly been in there. but mostly we're just seeing the offensive limitations this team has without gilbert. i agree with those who say that daniels is a fine backup PG, but when DS isn't feeling it, which was the case for all but 10 seconds last night, we have no offense in the backcourt. it's a creativity thing, really. if daniels isn't getting into the lane, he's not offering much. when he's out there to direct things on gilbert/caron/tawn are all out there, that's one thing. without gilbert, much dicier.

this will be a tough one to shake off, but it's one game in january. the team is clearly in a funk now, but it happens.

[fishercob]

Blech.

You'd almost rather them not make that comeback in regulation if they were going to blow it in OT.

I agree with a lot of what's been said on the lineups, just with slightly less invective. EJ's needs to have the right guys on the floor -- period. I didn't see the first half, but I don't understand why Blatche would sit when he played well (if he had played poorly, that's something different).

I say this with a complete understanding that Caron almost singlehandedly kept the Wiz in the game -- the airballed three was a terrible shot. I got the sense from Caron's body language that he had gotten carried away by the comeback and felt like whatever he put up was going to go in. A score on that possession would have changed things, and I think Caron lost a little focus.

Ultimately this loss and the upcoming rough schedule are probably going to amount to "reversion to the mean," and the Wiz will end up somewhere in the vicinity of .500 when Gil returns. That's what we hoped for when he got hurt, so hopefully we can just stay healthy until he gets back and then get busy.

[miller31time]

The only thing that pisses me off (and I guess it's not exclusive to our team) is that we only play defense when we are facing a great team (Dallas, Boston, etc) or a team we're pumped to play (Miami). But when we're facing a team we know we should beat, we forget everything that makes us as good as to say that we should beat them.

I can understand us slacking off in one aspect (either offense or defense), because it's normal to play up/down to your competition, but at least do one thing right...

[Ruzious]

jamison missed so many shots he usually makes in that first quarter, but his jump shot kept us in the game for a while.

Jamison was caught off guard by Yi's length in the first quarter. Several times, it looked like he had easy shots, but Yi is so long and relatively quick - that Jamison was thrown off at the last moment.

Yi has a long way to go and needs to get stronger, but he's going to be a defensive force in the NBA. Sometimes it's good to give the opposition some credit.

[fishercob]

The only thing that pisses me off (and I guess it's not exclusive to our team) is that we only play defense when we are facing a great team (Dallas, Boston, etc) or a team we're pumped to play (Miami). But when we're facing a team we know we should beat, we forget everything that makes us as good as to say that we should beat them.

I can understand us slacking off in one aspect (either offense or defense), because it's normal to play up/down to your competition, but at least do one thing right...

Sometimes. Perhaps.

This is the same team that everyone was raving about until last week, because they "beat the the teams they were supposed to."

It's a long season.

[closg00]

Storey, Ruffin hurt old team
By Charles F. Gardner
Sunday, Jan 27 2008, 10:35 PM

Awvee Storey and Michael Ruffin are no strangers to the Washington Wizards.

Storey played for the Wizards during the 2005-'06 season, and Ruffin was with the Wizards for three seasons before signing with the Bucks as a free agent in late September of last year.

Both players came off the bench to help the Bucks to a 105-102 overtime victory against the Wizards tonight at the Bradley Center.

Storey scored eight points on 4-of-6 shooting while playing a career-high 18 minutes, and Ruffin added five points and five rebounds in 18 minutes. Both were needed with the Bucks a bit short-handed due to injuries to guard Michael Redd and forward Charlie Villanueva.

"Awvee was great," said Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak. "He just got after it and competed. I thought he was one of the catalysts for the tempo of the game changing."

Storey played 11 minutes in the second quarter and scored three baskets, including two layups on assists from guard Charlie Bell, as the Bucks outscored the Wizards, 25-20, in the period to take a 40-37 halftime lead.

"That's Awvee's game," Ruffin said. "When he gets out there, he plays hard. That's just the way he plays.

"You can change a game doing that, and he did a great job tonight just coming out and being active, being physical, making plays and getting the crowd into the game."

Ruffin scored all five of his points and was 3 of 4 at the foul line in the fourth quarter, helping the Bucks build a three-point lead before he exited in favor of Yi Jianlian with 5:40 remaining in regulation. Milwaukee went on to take an 11-point lead before squandering it in the final 1:40 to force overtime.

"It was definitely a bit of a letdown, but the people on the court did a good job of taking a deep breath and forgetting about it and finishing out the game," Ruffin said.

Still Pissed at the pathetic coaching last night on EJ's part.

[TheKingOfVa360]

The only thing that pisses me off (and I guess it's not exclusive to our team) is that we only play defense when we are facing a great team (Dallas, Boston, etc) or a team we're pumped to play (Miami). But when we're facing a team we know we should beat, we forget everything that makes us as good as to say that we should beat them.

I can understand us slacking off in one aspect (either offense or defense), because it's normal to play up/down to your competition, but at least do one thing right...

I agree 100 percent but a lot of that has to do with the coach. The coach is suppose to keep the players motivated and to teach them to never take any opponent for granted.

[Rafael122]

If we beat Toronto tomorrow, all is forgiven. It takes a lot to piss me off, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I've seen it way too many times with this team and it gets tiring after awhile. Beating the Bucks without Redd is the equivalent of being Boston or Dallas. It counts the same. Not to mention this team will enter the hardest part of their schedule in February. It's time to start winning the easy games before the inevitable losses.

[nate33]

Ultimately this loss and the upcoming rough schedule are probably going to amount to "reversion to the mean," and the Wiz will end up somewhere in the vicinity of .500 when Gil returns. That's what we hoped for when he got hurt, so hopefully we can just stay healthy until he gets back and then get busy.

Thanks for being a voice of reason fishercob.

Let's face it people, we are not as good as the Boston games would appear to indicate. We are still a team with no firepower at the center position or in the backcourt. We need Jamison and Butler to be on every single night, and then we need help from at least one more guy (Mason, Haywood, Stevenson, somebody) in order to win games.

Overall, the goal here is to stay above .500 and remain in the thick of the playoff race - preferably a top 6 seed so we avoid Detroit. If we can do that and then integrate Arenas, we will have had a tremendous season.

Don't get spoiled. Even good teams have bad stretches. It could be a lot worse. Look how fast Orlando has fallen. They lost 7 of 8 during one stretch in December. They lost 7 of 9 during one stretch in January. Look at Jersey, they've lost 9 in a row. San Antonio just lost at home to New Orleans by 24.

[fishercob]

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Thanks for being a voice of reason fishercob.

.

Wow, this coming from the Thomas Paine of the WizBoard just makes my day.

[gowiz999]

If we beat Toronto tomorrow, all is forgiven. It takes a lot to piss me off, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I've seen it way too many times with this team and it gets tiring after awhile. Beating the Bucks without Redd is the equivalent of being Boston or Dallas. It counts the same. Not to mention this team will enter the hardest part of their schedule in February. It's time to start winning the easy games before the inevitable losses.

Not if we go and lose the very next day in their place. Only a sweep could make up for the 3 consecutive poor games (2 losses) we have played.

[fishercob]

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Not if we go and lose the very next day in their place. Only a sweep could make up for the 3 consecutive poor games (2 losses) we have played.

Wha? I'd happily take a split with the way we're playing and the schedule we have coming up. Greedy much?

[BigA]

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Wha? I'd happily take a split with the way we're playing and the schedule we have coming up. Greedy much?

If they split, it will be 9-6 for January, right? No way I thought they'd do that well at the beginning of the month.

[bulletproof_32]

-= original quote snipped =If they split, it will be 9-6 for January, right? No way I thought they'd do that well at the beginning of the month.

Exactly!

I haven't looked up the January prediction thread but from what I recall if we go 9-6 for January we