Playoff Basketball (The Unwritten Rules)

[nateteaches]

Apparently there are many unwritten playoff rules that greatly contrast the regular season with the post season. In past years we didn't have much of a bench to rely on to play a role. I recall during the Bulls series that I wished we had a guy that could come off the bench and light teams up in a short span. Still, we were able to move on (thanks to Gil).

This year, after getting a lot of playing time due to injuries, I really thought we could utilize our bench in the playoffs. Yes I know Mason and Blatche did have their opportunities, and at times they played well. Yet I'm still befuddled at the absence of NYoung and DMac. They played in the summer league, they participated in training camp, they got a lot of PT during the regular season (including some very intense/important games). In fact I would boldly say that we may not even make the playoffs were it not for the times those two guys bailed us out.

Okay EJ subbed N1 in for a few minutes early in the series and he didn't look to good. So he was banished to the end of the bench. Not to be seen again until garbage time. As I recall many of our players had horrific nights and still got plenty of time to work through it or had a chance to redeem themselves next game. N1 got no such opportunity. Dmac even less.

So I'm left to wonder how basketball can get so much more complicated in a week that these guys are suddenly deemed detrimental and worthless? Sure playoff basketball is super intense and you're playing for keeps. But all season long we tinkered and counted on these guys to get us over the bumps of injuries and tired legs. So suddenly EJ goes back to his playoff guide and somewhere inside (though not written down) he's reminded that he must shorten his rotation. Supposedly that's what he ought to do in order to better his chances of advancing. That's the rule (though unwritten) that he's always followed. Maybe for some teams it should be followed. Should it have applied to us given the injuries, missing players, tired legs, and psyche of this team?

Ben Franklin said it so perfectly "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results."

Maybe we can get this written rule to become the new unwritten rule of playoff basketball in DC.

[Wizards2Lottery]

I really don't mind the lack of PT for the rooks but when your veterans aren't doing squat, you have to look else where.

When we were getting murdered on the boards, we should have looked at McGuire, who with a smaller frame is still 10x the rebounder Songaila is. Songaila can barely jump of the floor and add to the fact that Cleveland goes over the back on every board, this was a recipe for disaster.

[LyricalRico]

I totally agree. Especially when you're down by 15+ in the second half of an elimination game and it's clear that your vets are either tired or not feeling it. You have NOTHING to lose. Why not try something different?

[Ji]

every game we seemed to have a stretch where we would go 5-6 minues without getting a basket. Why not try the one guy on your team besides GA that can create his offense in Nick Young. Here is a guy who went toe to toe with Kobe just a month ago in LA. He could of been our version of last years Boobie Gibson but we will never know.

and after joe smith got that putback layup in game 4, i would of gone right to Dom Mcguire

[20MexicanosIn1Van]

I agree. Playoff basketball is about making adjustments within a series. If one thing is obviously not working, try something else.

For example: why did we keep doubling James when their role players were making open jump shots? When you're down by 15 in the 4th quarter, just try something different!

Same thing can be said about D-Mac, game four would have been ours if we could get a rebound. Why not put in D-Mac for a minute or two and see what happens? If he sucks, take him out; if he's getting the boards, keep him in. I doubt the team gets in such a tremendous hole with one certain player being in for a couple of minutes. Low risk, high reward if you ask me.

[miller31time]

every game we seemed to have a stretch where we would go 5-6 minues without getting a basket. Why not try the one guy on your team besides GA that can create his offense in Nick Young. Here is a guy who went toe to toe with Kobe just a month ago in LA. He could of been our version of last years Boobie Gibson but we will never know.

and after joe smith got that putback layup in game 4, i would of gone right to Dom Mcguire

I did find it really odd that we made it through 82 games without having opposing teams consistently go on big runs without us scoring (it did happen a few times, scattered throughout the year, but not much), yet it seemed like every game we lost against Cleveland, the Cavs went on a 10+-0 run on us at one point.

We've faced better defensive teams than Cleveland, and we've certainly been more injured than we were this series, in the year. I just don't know what the reason was.

[Shanghai Kid]

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We've faced better defensive teams than Cleveland, and we've certainly been more injured than we were this series, in the year. I just don't know what the reason was.

Our offense became predictable against Cleveland. They pretty much knew what we were doing when we did it. If you have someone like Arenas, he goes to the hoop and makes things unpredictable.

But Butler was easy to take out in game 6 because his game is still mostly stand still jump shots.

I think at least Young would have made things a little bit more unpredictable.

[miller31time]

Our offense became predictable against Cleveland. They pretty much knew what we were doing when we did it. If you have someone like Arenas, he goes to the hoop and makes things unpredictable.

But Butler was easy to take out in game 6 because his game is still mostly stand still jump shots.

I think at least Young would have made things a little bit more unpredictable.

I realize that a healthy Arenas would have helped our offense tremendously, but we haven't had a healthy Arenas since game 65 of the 2006-2007 NBA season, or something like that.

I'm talking about the here and now. The 07-08 Wizards, minus Arenas (hell, minus Butler for stretches as well) have not consistently allowed teams to go on 10-0, 15-0, 20-2 runs. It just didn't happen much. Sure, there were a few games, but they were few and far between.

In this series, however, every one of our 4 losses had one thing in common -- a big run for Cleveland lasting a good 5-8 minutes where we couldn't score a point. That's unlike us. There has to be a reason for this, and I believe that it's partly not reading the defense, partly game-planning, partly bad luck, and maybe questionable rotations (though it takes a mind-reader to know that Roger Mason was going to be epically bad in games 1 and 6, and to try Young in there -- I'm certainly not putting blame on EJ for that, because I would have done the same thing. Mason was Mr. Consistent this season and Young was as up-and-down as you could get).

[go'stags]

Theres also the unwritten rule "Shorten you bench" when talking about playoff basketball.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

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I did find it really odd that we made it through 82 games without having opposing teams consistently go on big runs without us scoring (it did happen a few times, scattered throughout the year, but not much), yet it seemed like every game we lost against Cleveland, the Cavs went on a 10+-0 run on us at one point.

We've faced better defensive teams than Cleveland, and we've certainly been more injured than we were this series, in the year. I just don't know what the reason was.

No heart?

[MF23]

The last game was lost in the 2nd qtr. Caron wanted to facilitate instead of scoring. Problem was nobody could score. DMac and N1 might have helped in that situation but EJ wanted to be conservative. I hope he tries to be a little more creative in those situations in the future.

On another note it really seemed the Wiz were not intense except for the 4th qtr in both game 5 and 6. It was pretty bad. But who do you blame the players or the coaches there? What do you do to fix those type of situations? Benching in elimination games is not an option and the cap doesn't let you just make trades to get tougher players. This team needs a Kurt Thomas or Kedrick Perkins type of guy to intesify the inside and larger role for DMac. DMac needs to improve on somethings but he's the type the staff should really work with because he has all the tools to be a great role player.