GT #44: Wizards @ Blazers 10 PM (CSN/99.1 FM) [1/24/15]

[hands11]

The bench really struggled. Beal got outplayed by Matthews -- especially in the second half.

We haven't had a great game from the bench in a long time. I guess it was too much to expect Temple or Butler to keep up their Jamal Crawford impersonations for any real amount of time.

I wouldn't mind seeing Witt tweak the rotations: give Gooden and Porter some burn, for example. Gooden gave energy, boards, and offense last year; he's been iffy this year, but it's time to give him another look. And Porter should absolutely be playing over Webster.

I think part of the bench struggles is them trying to work Webster back in. Its a different dynamic for everyone. I think its affecting Rasual some. And as a result, Otto is in sometimes and not other times.

Both the OKC and POR loses were close loses. Doesn't take much on the margin to effect things that would have turned those into wins.

Webster first game back was Tue 12/30. And so far, he hasn't gotten his game back. 18 shots and only 4 made. Nice to see that one made 3 last night. That was only his second made 3 since his return. Watching him follow that up with an air ball though just proves he is not settled back in yet. He isn't feeling it, he is thinking it. But he missed a lot of basketball so that is understandable. At least he played more aggressively last game. I guess that's a step forward.

Good news, once he does get it going and the 2nd unit adjusts to playing together, we will have a nice group of 3 ball shooters. Specially if Otto starts feeling his oats.

We have the pieces to be both a power interior team and a 3 ball shooting team. But once everyone is up to speed, its Randy's offense and his direction for the offense that needs adjusted. To many long 2s. Is it up to the players to shoot more 3s or is that something the coach has to direct them to do ?

We shot 20.8 threes per game last year
This year we are only shooting 15.8

Might just be the players have to take more. Seems the offense allow for it last year.

But now we have Hump hitting mid range shots and he is great at it. Last year that was AH and Gooden late in the year taking 3s.
And the more Nene scores, the more 2s we take.

The wings have to make up the difference by taking less 2s.

[hands11]

Well, this loss hurts -- as did the OKC game.

But let's not be like the Bulls or Knicks board and suddenly overreact and assume that the Wizards are the 76ers. Wiz are a piece or two away from really contending, but they have a solid group of players who play decently well (and in John Wall's case tonight, play exceptionally well).

We just got beat. That's it.

Agreed on not overreacting, but there are known systemic problems with this team. They probably won't change unless we start hemorrhaging some losses. Going 0-4 on this road trip, or however many games it is, may, at the very least cause some necessary changes to occur (like benching Seraphin for a historically better player in Blair). And possibly actually **** playing Porter. There is a culture of enabling mediocrity through incompetence with us, not sure if that stems from EG or Randy. Blessed be the day when they check outta DC.

I had them 1-3 on this road trip before the season started so if they go 1-3, I won't be panicking. That would on route to 52-53 wins.

If they go 2-2 though, that would feel a lot better. And they would lead to a 9-8 January which is ahead of schedule from what I preseason projected which was 7-9. So even with a DEN lost and going 1-3, January would still be 8-9 which is solidly on course for 52-53 wins

No reason to panic. This is a tougher part of the schedule. They are way ahead of where they were last year at this time. And they are not hitting on all cylinders yet.

[hands11]

Funny - we thought we had a deep team but our bench is terrible.


We got nothing from - anyone but wall and Pierce- Gortat is good but 60mil good??

They barely run anything through him on offense I feel. Unless he's involved he barely plays with any energy. I still want to do the Nene off the bench experiment and start the game with a stretch 4, but Randy wouldn't dare do anything that may actually lead to long term success. Move Pierce to the 4 to start games and utilize Porter. Gortat needs space to operate.

Is it a shock that Nene is playing better offensively and Gortat is regressing ?

There has to be a formula and I don't feel like they have settled on one.

Who are the first options. Can't get Nene and Gortat a ton of shots in the post along with mid range from Hump and KLife, and have Wall and Beal taking mid range shots as well and still have enough shots left over to get up 20 three point attempts per game.

If they want to pound the post that much where both Nene and Gortat are getting those shots then a higher percent of the remaining shots from Wall and Beal have to be from 3.

It won't take much of the change to get there, but the wings have to understand this. It needs to be a focus. It can't be just take an open shot, it has be more... work for an open 3. This is where I saw it has to do with the offensive system. It can't be all on Wall to skip pass to players for open 3s. The offense has to be able to generate them without overly depending on just Wall.

To get 5 more 3 ball attempts, Wall needs to take 2-3 a game and Beal needs to take 6 a game. In this game, that would have accounted for 4 of the 5 needed three ball attempts. In a normal game, Rasual would have gotten up 2-3 attempts so there you are.

Its really squarely on Wall and Beal to shot more 3s. Problem solved. Good news is, Webster is all about getting up 3s. That is what this team is missing. He and TA were focused on that last year. Well Paul is starting to fill he void that was TAs attempts. What we need is Webster back in form taking them. And until that happens, Wall and Beal need to shot more of them.

What we need is a tweak, not an overhaul

http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?id=400578948

And since Miller doesn't shoot 3s, that hurt and its why I say adding a Pablo Prigioni would help his team. And to get him all we have to do is give up one of your 2nds. Dude is signed two years for 1M. Its a no brainer.

[hands11]

What it is, is we need that one dominant player who can impose his will in the 4th quarter. Nobody on our team is that guy. In the playoffs there will be games like this where we need that one guy that we can feel confident about. I'm talking at the very least a Gilbert Arenas caliber #1 option. Durant or whoever, but that is a missing piece the Wiz need.

No way Gilbert is the type of player you want. He is to ball dominate. But yes, we need a primary scorer that can create their own shot and who can finish.

Every team wants that.

Right now, that is Paul and Wall or Nene in the post. That's what we have and honestly, that should be pretty good.

But clearly KD is a natural fit for this team. Amazing scorer that doesn't dominate the ball. LMA would be an awesome fit as well. Same with M Gasol. Same with Dirke which is why I was hoping DAL would suck last year. But he wasn't likely to leave DAL.

The best target clearly remain KD.

[hands11]

Posted the following in the trade thread:

Watching Gortat be forced to defend LaMarcus Aldridge made me wish for an easy Larry Sanders trade, where he's brought on to come off the bench behind Nene and Gortat. Nene having to guard Meyers Leonard on the three point line was painful to watch also.

Washington probably isn't going to get a guy like John Henson.

The Wizards had and 85-81 lead when Portland stepped on the gas. Matthews and Lillard hit threes. Washington's offense went flat. Lots of side to side passing but nothing penetrating for draw and kick. Wiz were down IIRC 85-92 in no time flat after Portland put it in overdrive.

Wall scored a layup that got the Wizards to 91-94 and all they needed was a stop. That's when Portland had their bigs use their outside in attacks posted about above.

Washington needs a quick, long, defensive big.

And Randy waited way to long to call a time out... never will understand why he waits.. I'm waiting the game making the T sign with my hands and the time out doesn't comes until 4-6 more pts are drained away along with the momentum. Its very Phil Jackson. He used to leave his players out there to figure out. But this team is not that team. They don't have the horses to work it out themselves. You do that if you have KD out there. We don't.

Call the Fing Time Out Randy. Stop making winning close games like the last two so hard.

[DANNYLANDOVER]

Is anybody talking about Wall's horrendous defensive efforts down the stretch of the last two games? He let Westbrook walk right in for a layup to win on Wednesday night? (Watch the replay. Wall is just standing under the basket, watching RW waltz in). And then last night, in back to back possessions, he just flat out stopped playing defense against Lillard. Once was with about 1:30 left, when Lillard beat him on a pick and roll, Wall just stopped and started walking, WALKING, towards the lane. Then he left Lillard wide open for a 3 at the top of the key, making no effort whatsoever to close out. Watching the game, I honestly thought that Wall was trying to shave points. I mean, what the heck was going on there? Ideas??

Not sure what game you were watching. He definitely was not at fault for the RW game winner. Beal was. There's something called a pick. You're hardly gonna get back in front of an opposing quick PG. We just do't know how to switch properly without giving up a wide open J ...and no rim protection.

[exculpatory]

Re-posting from the PP thread below:

Also

Paul with 24 straight games with a 3 --- career high

AND 7 straight games with at least 2 3s

There is NO excuse for Paul not touching the ball after he re-entered the game with 6 minutes to play last night. NONE!

Last night 19 on 7-10 & 3-4 from 3
For the season: 42 games: 12.7 on 45.8% & 38.9% & TS% 58.9% in ONLY 26 MPG
During his last 15 games: 12.6 on 52% & 46.2% & TS% 62% in ONLY 24 freaking MPG

That is why he is here - to make or miss the big shots down the stretch. John has been fabulous, but he needs to pass the ball to the Truth more often down the stretch!

[dckingsfan]

For whatever reason, we just don't play well against good teams this year. I think part of it is the second unit isn't that good. Hollinger still has us winning 50 games. I think that is safe if we keep beating up the weak teams.

[DCZards]

Is anybody talking about Wall's horrendous defensive efforts down the stretch of the last two games? He let Westbrook walk right in for a layup to win on Wednesday night? (Watch the replay. Wall is just standing under the basket, watching RW waltz in). And then last night, in back to back possessions, he just flat out stopped playing defense against Lillard. Once was with about 1:30 left, when Lillard beat him on a pick and roll, Wall just stopped and started walking, WALKING, towards the lane. Then he left Lillard wide open for a 3 at the top of the key, making no effort whatsoever to close out. Watching the game, I honestly thought that Wall was trying to shave points. I mean, what the heck was going on there? Ideas??

Not sure what game you were watching. He definitely was not at fault for the RW game winner. Beal was. There's something called a pick. You're hardly gonna get back in front of an opposing quick PG. We just do't know how to switch properly without giving up a wide open J ...and no rim protection.

Actually, Mel Proctor makes a good point. I too thought it was all on Beal. And it was on Beal initially. But then I went back and watched the video and John is indeed just standing there in the lane about three feet from the basket watching Westbrook blow right past him. John was in a position to at least foul Westbrook or somehow make it more difficult for RW to get a easy layup.

[hands11]

Re-posting from the PP thread below:

Also

Paul with 24 straight games with a 3 --- career high

AND 7 straight games with at least 2 3s

There is NO excuse for Paul not touching the ball after he re-entered the game with 6 minutes to play last night. NONE!

Last night 19 on 7-10 & 3-4 from 3
For the season: 42 games: 12.7 on 45.8% & 38.9% & TS% 58.9% in ONLY 26 MPG
During his last 15 games: 12.6 on 52% & 46.2% & TS% 62% in ONLY 24 freaking MPG

That is why he is here - to make or miss the big shots down the stretch. John has been fabulous, but he needs to pass the ball to the Truth more often down the stretch!

Preach brother. Preach

Let see some Truth get Truthy