Playoffs? Ya Kiddin me? Wizards vs. Bulls Game 1 Thread

[dlts20]

I know I keep making post but I have one more to make after seeing that Noah DPOY. Does anyone else get that Dream-Robinson type feel? Remember when David Robinson when the MVP and they gave him the award right in front of hakeem who went on to destroy him n that series? It would be funny if Noah gets this award while getting destroyed by Nene, our frontline, and then Wall also starting to break down the Bulls D

[nuposse04]

Noah absolutely deserves the award for DPOY, but he is expose-able by certain competition.

This pic on the GB sums it up quite nicely

[montestewart]

Noah absolutely deserves the award for DPOY, but he is expose-able by certain competition.

This pic on the GB sums it up quite nicely

Nice back door cut

[AFM]

Noah absolutely deserves the award for DPOY, but he is expose-able by certain competition.

This pic on the GB sums it up quite nicely

Nice back door cut

Monte, please you can do better than that. Clearly this is an example of back door penetration. He even screamed "And 1!!!" when he finished.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

No more excuses after what I saw from Lillard tonight. 31/9. Jeff Teague had like 26/7 the day before. Kyle Lowry put up some nice #s vs. the Nets.

At the end of the day....The team goes as far as Wall takes them. Tonight wasnt enough from him, but luckily Andre Miller saved the day. He's gotta step it up. Lillard played with a certain swagger/aggression that Wall simply lacked. I want to see him take over games and dominate. I believe he can do it.

Disagreed. Wall isn't Lillard. The Wizards are better than just Wall, and Randy coached the. up yesterday.

Wall playing hero ball is not in the Wizards best interests. I believe Miller is more experienced and better prepared to be consistent.

John Wall has a chance to win not being the hero, but rather by being a good student. He still is improving.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

No more excuses after what I saw from Lillard tonight. 31/9. Jeff Teague had like 26/7 the day before. Kyle Lowry put up some nice #s vs. the Nets.

At the end of the day....The team goes as far as Wall takes them. Tonight wasnt enough from him, but luckily Andre Miller saved the day. He's gotta step it up. Lillard played with a certain swagger/aggression that Wall simply lacked. I want to see him take over games and dominate. I believe he can do it.

Copy that

I see it just opposite. The Wizards veterans are showing collectively good abilities. They are winners who are going to get through the point that Wall and Beal do not need to force a thing.

Wall's not the deep shooter or clutch scorer that Lillard is. But he's s greater pure passer and faster in transition. Wall has confidence issues and at times a hitch in his shot. He's not a super sharp competitor like Lillard but John is all heart and soul.

I really like John Wall but I think it's time to stop seeing him as more than the player he is. He shouldn't be the only offensive focal point. I think he's the third or fourth scoring option against the Bulls. He needs to drive a lot but kick out.

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[dlts20]

I actually think its the opposite and you serverely underrate him CCJ. It almost seems like when Wall is having a dominant stretch then no one cares but as soon as he goes through a rough stretch then he's just not that good...smh

That opinion will soon change again

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

D Lillard has the easiest matchup possible, he's facing a Houston team that plays no defense in an up-and-down series. At least 3-4 players will average 20+ ppg in that series, book it

Imo Lillard would be a liability in a tight series like this where he's forced to create for others offensively, while also playing effective defense. Wall unsurprisingly struggled with his shot in his first game, but he was all over the floor on defense and just the threat of his speed was a gamechanger. If his shot starts falling he's going to be a devastating matchup for the Bulls and potentially Indy/Atlanta as well.


Wall destroyed teams like Houston, Portland, etc during the regular season. Let's be real, none of those teams have Thibs and would not gameplan for him as well as the Bulls have. All those skip passes, transition leakouts, etc would be open and he'd probably average 20/10

Agreed.

Now that they're worried about Nene and probably also Gortat, and they know that Ariza can't be left open; I expect Wall is going to have a big gsme two.

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[pancakes3]

Noah absolutely deserves the award for DPOY, but he is expose-able by certain competition.

This pic on the GB sums it up quite nicely

Nice back door cut

Monte, please you can do better than that. Clearly this is an example of back door penetration. He even screamed "And 1!!!" when he finished.

Over the back.
Three the hard way...
Three the old fashion way?
Clear path foul

[TGW]

John Wall unfortunately is not Demarcus Cousins either. John is still playing ball...Cousins is fishing somewhere.

[miller31time]

Nice back door cut

Monte, please you can do better than that. Clearly this is an example of back door penetration. He even screamed "And 1!!!" when he finished.

Over the back.
Three the hard way...
Three the old fashion way?
Clear path foul

Right up the middle for the score.
Taking it down the lane.

[miller31time]

John Wall unfortunately is not Demarcus Cousins either. John is still playing ball...Cousins is fishing somewhere.

TGW, are you doing the 2nd game thread?

[MDStar]

Illegal Procedure.... (whoops, wrong sports) lol

[TGW]

John Wall unfortunately is not Demarcus Cousins either. John is still playing ball...Cousins is fishing somewhere.

TGW, are you doing the 2nd game thread?

I can, unless someone else wants to do it. I know the rules, but I'm willing to pass it to someone else if they want a crack at it.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

We won on the road against a favored, higher seeded, tough, defensive team and people are talking about how Wall didn't play well enough! I like Wall as much as the next guy (more if the next guy is CCJ) but we all are WIZARDS fans, not WALL fans. As long as we get the W, who cares?

What's the stat? The team that wins game 1 of a 7 game series goes on to win 85% of the time? If that doesn't get you excited, I don't know what to say.

I may be most critical of John but he played like a pro. He was the ultimate team player on the bench when Andre Miller was balling. Before that, John was IMO the one who refused to lose after the Bulls went up by double digits. Wall made a slashing layup and he along with Ariza kept the pace up to where Chicago got out of character.

I criticize much, but even I regard John Wall as the most talented Wizard. He's young.


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[Ruzious]

I can, unless someone else wants to do it. I know the rules, but I'm willing to pass it to someone else if they want a crack at it.

Ew, that sounds like a caption to the Noah Nene picture.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The Bulls definitely looked shook after the comeback, like they didn't know what to do offensively. Their lack of a go to guy was pretty glaring in crunch time.

Agreed.

They blew the Wizards out weeks back. They did not expect what happened once they grabbed a lead.

I think the only thing that they did was set many illegal screens and otherwise benefit from one-sided officiating. The uncalled over-the-back infractions and cross body blocks helped their rebounding and second chance points. Also aiding the Bulls were missed Wizards free throws. Otherwise, the Wizards would have won going away.

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[hands11]

The Bulls didn't get exposed. They are who we thought they were. The Wizards got nation wide exposure. The NBA world is finding out who the Wizards are.

And here is a newsflash for the world, though not champions this year, the Wizards play well and hold their own against Western Conference teams too.

I wonder what all those ESPN analysts are thinking about their predictions.

Good post.

I think many of those "analysts" who picked the Bulls were just engaged in lazy groupthink. To be honest:

1) The Wizards didn't play on TV a lot, so unless you're in the local area, you don't get to see them much.
2) The Bulls are a "brand".
3) The Wiz record sports some really nice wins this season, but is also really distorted by losses against lesser teams or in games which we held double-digit leads then just let the wheels fall off and lost.

I imagine that many of those "analysts" merely looked at the W-L record, thought "oh, the Wizards against the Bulls" as a measurement of brand, and annointed the Bulls as the winners.

Losing Rose and Deng in the same season is a blow that most teams would struggle with. It's just a testament to the Bulls style and culture that they so far have been able to withstand it. But, Bulls fans vehemently disagree with this but it's true -- the Wizards are more talented (in part because of the Bulls losing two key pieces). The "x" factor will be the Wizards' ability to maintain focus and make on-the-fly adjustments throughout the series.

Its easy to get catch up in group think. It happen here as well.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

No more excuses after what I saw from Lillard tonight. 31/9. Jeff Teague had like 26/7 the day before. Kyle Lowry put up some nice #s vs. the Nets.

At the end of the day....The team goes as far as Wall takes them. Tonight wasnt enough from him, but luckily Andre Miller saved the day. He's gotta step it up. Lillard played with a certain swagger/aggression that Wall simply lacked. I want to see him take over games and dominate. I believe he can do it.

I agree to a point but it was Wall first playoff game.

Give him a chance to settle in. He took 14 shots. He wasn't hitting enough so I'm glad he didn't take more. He did get to he line 10 time and made 8.

10 FTA, 6 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block and only 3 turnover and 3 fouls in a WIN over shadows his 3-14 shooting.

Nene was a beast so they road him. Wall did good enough for his first playoff game on the road in CHI.

We won. Regroup and improve on that in game two.

Agreed. Count me as satisfied with Wall in game one. Wittman doesn't have just one PG, and John did a few things well.

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[hands11]

Randy said after the game that he wants the zards to react in real time to what the defense is giving them. When you make up your mind before hand, "I'm going to split this screen," that's when turnovers happen.

So I don't think he gameplanned as much as he made the players aware that Chicago is going to run them off the three point line, and when you see that happening, take advantage of the space opened up in the middle. So it doesn't surprise me too much Wall and Beal had so-so games, since that was what Thibs was obviously trying to do. But that did open things up in the middle and the zards took advantage of it, so it doesn't surprise me that the frontcourt had a good game.

Having Nene healthy is key to that strategy. Booker obviously was incapable of accomplishing anything down low. Just a bad matchup for him, and a good matchup for Nene. If he's healthy for game two, should expect the same result.

True.

Its the very thing that has been frustration. Randy runs a system more than specific plays. That's good and bad. It takes longer to learn and you have to live through a lot of mistakes as player learn.

But could it all be coming together now ? Will Randy get the last laugh ? Was he playing to long con the entire time and living with less then max efficiency short term for a greater gain long term ? Does that play into why he stuck with shorter rotations because systems like that are harder to coordinate and learn with more pieces trying to learn it ?

Stay tuned.