Utah @ Washington 02-01-08

[nate33]

I can't complain too much. It was a good effort. We just didn't have enough fire power once they focused on taking Jamison out of the game. Defensively, we were obviously tired in the 4th. That's what Utah does to you. 32 assists on 36 field goals. Unbelievable.

I have some minor gripes with EJ's rotations, but I don't think they would have really made much difference.

I would have liked to have seen a little of Nick Young at SF when Jamison sat. We were desperate for offense and DMac wasn't the answer.

I also felt he rode Blatche a little too long in the 2nd half. Blatche was clearly dragging by the end of the 3rd quarter. EJ had already pulled Haywood at the 10 minute mark in the 3rd, so he should have brought Haywood back in for Blatche earlty in the 4th. Instead, he rode Blatche all the way until the 5 minute mark of the 4th. Blatche's tongue was hanging out by then.

The bottom line is that we're not going to beat a good West coast team on a 7 game win streak when we are missing Arenas and Butler, and Daniels is playing on one leg.

It was sure nice to see Blatche step up though. He is getting more and more consistent with the additional minutes. He's done a nice job at forward too - something he had trouble with in the first half of the season. Hopefully, when Butler gets back, it'll be the end of Songaila. Just play Haywood, Blatche and Jamison as our 3-man rotation at PF and C.

[kblack]

It was sure nice to see Blatche step up though. He is getting more and more consistent with the additional minutes. He's done a nice job at forward too - something he had trouble with in the first half of the season. Hopefully, when Butler gets back, it'll be the end of Songaila. Just play Haywood, Blatche and Jamison as our 3-man rotation at PF and C.

I agree...also playing Wood and Blatche together is clearly a good look!

[80sballboy]

We lost this game thanks to EJ bad coach. Why did he keep Song in the game for so long!!?!?!?

We get on EJ for thinking too much offense and tonight, he went to the well on defense with McGuire in the second quarter and he gave them nothing. Young probably should have played earlier, but how do you get on a coach who's missing his two best players against a very good team out West that has now won 7 in a row?

As for Song, we all know he's bad, but Haywood wasn't exactly finishing like Wilt or Shaq out there and he had a tough matchup against Okur.

[miller31time]

Yeah, you could tell the entire second half we just had no life in us. We were trying, but incredibly tired - especially Jamison and Blatche.

Minor gripes Nate alluded to - our bench scoring sucked and Mason wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders. Why not give our best bench scorer (Young) some PT in the 1st half? And also, why give Blatche (a guy who clearly regresses when tired, and clearly gets tired easily) such a long stretch of play? Take him out early, try to sustain a close game, then bring in AB to try and close it out, when he can actually provide energy.

Overall, a good game that I'm actually not too disappointed in. We played hard. We fought. We just don't have 2 All-Stars playing and that won't win many ballgames.

[TheKingOfVa360]

We lost this game thanks to EJ bad coach. Why did he keep Song in the game for so long!!?!?!?

We get on EJ for thinking too much offense and tonight, he went to the well on defense with McGuire in the second quarter and he gave them nothing. Young probably should have played earlier, but how do you get on a coach who's missing his two best players against a very good team out West that has now won 7 in a row?

As for Song, we all know he's bad, but Haywood wasn't exactly finishing like Wilt or Shaq out there and he had a tough matchup against Okur.

Your right, I'm just frustrated. We played a hot team without our full deck and almost beat them. Thanks for putting that in perspective.


Blatche is going to be a star in a few years. Glad that EG locked him up in that long term contract over the summer. Great move.

[hands11]

the effort was largely there, but they just couldn't hit a shot. roger and deshawn were ice cold. they needed to build a bigger lead early on, it was nice to be up double digits but they still left too many points out there.

i've been hesitant to pile on songaila but he's really a crutch for this team right now. like was said, he knows what to do, he just isn't capable of doing it right now. once caron is back there's no excuse for him taking any PT away from blatche who is really showing the entire arsenal lately. 19/13/2 with 3 steals and 4 blocks? um, hello!

if you told me boozer/williams would shoot 6-for-23 for 15 total points i would have thought the outcome would have been different, but alas.

And all in 40 minutes with only 4 fouls. That's right.

Fa fa fa 40 minutes.
And he played aggressive.

So why less fouls. Hmmmm. Could it be because he played a lot of minutes with Haywood and by having the 2 seven footer out there neither ends up out of position as much because they compliment each other by covering for each other. They box out for each other. They both block. They have both 7 ft. Team don't want to go inside as much and that all adds up to less fouls.

Haywood 34 min 3 PF
AB ( AKA KG Jr ) 40 mins 4 fouls.

I can't believe with all the brains on this board, someone did think of this before. I seems so obvious.

Drum roll please. As they cart out the gigantic hand11 hand covered in gold and diamonds....drum roll..drum roll..drum roll..drum roll..drum roll..

Ca-ching

That right. I proposed this idea and it was shot down. Awwwwww.

Anyway. Seriously. Blatche is looking awesome lately and the AB and BH combo with AJ at SF is dangerous. Even without CB.

So why not do it with him. CB, AJ, AB, BH. Now all you need is a PG. Right now that's AD. So why don't we start this line up?

AD, CB, AJ, AB, BH. That would be hard to handle.

Answer. EJ is out assistant/Head Coach.

If you can't tell. I'm really pissed at him right now.

[nate33]

I still wouldn't start Blatche because it would move Stevenson to the bench and it would also mean more minutes for Songaila off the bench.

But I would like to see more of Blatche. I think he has demonstrated that he'll get the job done with consistent minutes. Blatche should back up both the PF and C positions and get 25-30 minutes a night. There is honestly no reason for us to see Songaila on the court anymore.

[hands11]

If darius doesn't play more than 7 minutes we should win.

Andray needs to have a big game and Haywood needs to shut down boozer.

97-90 Wiz (w/out Caron)

Sorry. He played

16 Min 1-6, 2 rbs, 4 fouls, 2 pts.

The rest of what you wanted happened. You were close with the score, only it was backward. 87-96

[hands11]

Blatche is playing well on both ends. He just looks better in the starting lineup for some reason.

Maybe its because BH is also in the starting line up and so is AJ and so is AD.

Hmmmm

[DC_Ballin]

Blatche for POTG. What a game from him, whenever he starts he plays like a baby KG. Great rhythm jumpers, traffic rebounds, and the aggressiveness in the paint.

Terrible rotations by EJ... Darius was god awful as usual, and the sad thing is that EJ never realizes how bad Darius actually is. Mason was unusally inaccurate from three as well.

All we can look forward to right now is Caron coming back on Sunday and kicking some ass with him in the lineup.

[hands11]

Deshawn and Songaila lost this game period...

WTF was Brendan thinking there?? Pass the damn ball you hog!!

Was it them or EJ for leaving them in instead of giving his rookie scorer a shot when it mattered.

I don't blame Mason and DS. Players have off night. The timing sucked that they both did but they played because they were left in. They shot because someone needed to from the outside.

Suckaila 1-6
RM 1-6
DS 1-9

NY only played 3 mins and almost dunked the ball but he was 0-3. I would have given him more of a chance to get it going with the starters instead of DS.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Songaila was -14 for the game
R Mason was -12

[fifthstop]

I live in NYC and don't see as many games as I would like but I saw this one and here are a few observations:

-DS9 is trash. He should be the 11th man.

-DMac may have potential but right now he's a ruffin player: 5-4 advantage to the other team when he's in.

-BSB is ridiculously talented. I was telling guys in the bar: "that guy with the behind-back dribble is a center." They didn't believe me. That behind the back, keep-the-dribble shot from the corner stands out especially. He'll be the first player off the bench next year and a 6-11 guard is basically unstoppable. He will be a front-line talent by this time next year and he will chew up opposing second-stringers. If only he can develop an IQ to go with the instinct, he'll be a beast.

-'tawn is an elite player. Simple as that. He showed his mettle and brought the lunch pail tonight.

- DS2 sometimes is just a no-show on the offensive side, but I have to think he contributed to Deron Williams' goose-egg-like performance tonight

- AD must be more hurt than anyone is saying. To go with "doing nothing" DS2 and "N-nothing-but-at-least-moving-without-the-ball" NY at 4 min left to go smacked of concession to me. Yet 'tawn and the others were in there. ESPN kept flashing bench points stats in the second half, and I wanted to yell, "but half our bench is listed as starters right now!" We need a healthy AD and it would be worth conceding a game or two to get him right.

- The team is different with Haywood in there. Plain and simple. Maybe Etan will be an acceptable backup, but the drop-off when Haywood sits is precipitous.

Am I off base with this stuff?

[WickedWizard]

-= original quote snipped =-



Sorry. He played

16 Min 1-6, 2 rbs, 4 fouls, 2 pts.

The rest of what you wanted happened. You were close with the score, only it was backward. 87-96

We started to fade when Darius entered the game. That span where Blatche was out and he was in was when the lead like doubled and then got to 10 points. EJ finally saw enough and sent Blatche in and he rewarded him with a monster dunk. A little to late though. I know Blatche was tired but instead of Darius it could have been Pech or someone else. Anyone but him.

If only EG could trade Darius. Etans cool. If he plays 10-15 minutes we all wouldn't hate him. Same with Darius. If he plays only 5-7 that's fine. Put him in and hope he hits a few jumpers and sub him out. Playing him > 10 is a recipe for disaster. Seriously. I hate him. Jason Collins >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Darius.

[GilArenas88]

Im not that dissapointed in the outcome I mean what do you expect when our starting all-star sf and pg are out and our back up C against the hottest team since the new year. This is exactly what happened at the end of last year without those two boys, saty in it for 3-3 1/2 quarters then just run out of gas. We were still in it with every sucking but Haywood, Blatche, and Jamison and maybe Daniels. Some thoughts...

1. People hating on Blatche have to stop he's still basically a sophmore and almost everytime he's started, he's put up solid numbers, kid is a stud, needs to stop with TO's, controll his play, and time.

2. EJ please never play Songalia unless its a blowout, dude has lost all speed and lift in his legs, nut to mention his jumper has left him this season.

3. Our bench is not as bad as it looks, Daniels has been forced into starting almost the whole season, Etan has missed the whole season, yes he aint the greatest but in 15-18 min per game he can be a banger vet, and he better then Songalia. If we can get a bench of Etan, Blatche, Dom, Mason, Young, and Daniels for the playoffs it will help very much. We need one very good scorer of the bench still, hopefully Young will turn into it with some expierence.

4. Eddie please stop playing all bench line-ups, they always kill us, if we had a Barbosa, Ginoboli, Navarro type off the bench, maybe, but we don't.

5. Lastly Ej can you stop sitting Haywood till theirs only 3-4 minutes left in the game, play duh man.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I live in NYC and don't see as many games as I would like but I saw this one and here are a few observations:

-DS9 is trash. He should be the 11th man.

-DMac may have potential but right now he's a ruffin player: 5-4 advantage to the other team when he's in.

-BSB is ridiculously talented. I was telling guys in the bar: "that guy with the behind-back dribble is a center." They didn't believe me. That behind the back, keep-the-dribble shot from the corner stands out especially. He'll be the first player off the bench next year and a 6-11 guard is basically unstoppable. He will be a front-line talent by this time next year and he will chew up opposing second-stringers. If only he can develop an IQ to go with the instinct, he'll be a beast.

-'tawn is an elite player. Simple as that. He showed his mettle and brought the lunch pail tonight.

- DS2 sometimes is just a no-show on the offensive side, but I have to think he contributed to Deron Williams' goose-egg-like performance tonight

- AD must be more hurt than anyone is saying. To go with "doing nothing" DS2 and "N-nothing-but-at-least-moving-without-the-ball" NY at 4 min left to go smacked of concession to me. Yet 'tawn and the others were in there. ESPN kept flashing bench points stats in the second half, and I wanted to yell, "but half our bench is listed as starters right now!" We need a healthy AD and it would be worth conceding a game or two to get him right.

- The team is different with Haywood in there. Plain and simple. Maybe Etan will be an acceptable backup, but the drop-off when Haywood sits is precipitous.

Am I off base with this stuff?

Great post, fifthstop.

My takes:

-DS9 is hurt and EJ is asking too much of the man, given his physical limitations and his skill set on defense.

-AD is probably just as hurt as Caron if not moreso. Not to mention he takes a ton of hard fouls. I don't know how to spell hematoma but he's got some would be my guess.

--Brendan is many times the second best player due to the extent of his impact on defense, but unfortunately EJ doesn't appreciate that. On top of that as you said

--MOST OF ALL the Wizards had no Butler and dudes who are hurting, Utah should have won.

I actually feel EJ is overwhelmed by the roster being berift of quality athletes who impact defensively. Only DeShawn and Brendan can change a game when Butler's out. Andray can do some spectacular stuff, but he's still young and often out of control or out of wind. But he's going to be great.

Jamison is just what you said. He's a pros pro who carries a lunch bucket.

I view Darius as the same kind of guy, just with much less quicks and ups and who's probably hurting.

[dobrojim]

Okur having a career game.. perfect

he had a grreat game tonight, but it was last year when he had
his career game vs us. Only that time we had Gil to save us.

[dobrojim]

-= original quote snipped =-



I agree...also playing Wood and Blatche together is clearly a good look!

I agree as well. They made a good tag team on D. One can go
after the shot (if it's near the paint) and the other can board.
With AJ at the 3, that's a good rebounding team. UT got a lot of
long rebounds early that our guards should have done a better
job on.

[GhostsOfGil]

after watching that game i dont really like hubbie brown anymore...wish van gund or doug collins commentated that game

[GhostOfKwame]

I'm pretty pissed. No one is getting on EJ enough, atleast not for the right thing... theres is NO excuse for what happened with Blatche, he was doing so many great things, then EJ all of a sudden decides AB is Lance friggon Armstrong and leaves him out there god knows how long... to the point where Blatche went from owning Utah to being so tired he couldn't hold, rebound, or dribble the ball without bobbling it.

I don't wanna hear about no depth, thats complete BS. Pech has played plenty of late, all it that was needed would have been 3 mins of rest a little past midway through the 3rd, and then another 2 mintues at some point in the 4th. The prob is EJ gave him NOTHING untill it was too late, then he still left him out there for the last part of the 3rd and 1st part of the 4th, just dragging around. The game was already OVER by the time he finally gave AB the breather.

For gods sake Eddie, if you'd just gave him 2 or 3 mins late in the 3rd he wouldn't have been ready to colapse! Also, why the F did Haywood sit for so long during that late stretch??? You run him to death, then leave him on the bench FOREVER... give these guys shorter breathers BEFORE they reach this ridiculous state.

WTF was with the Young timing? You don't give him a even a whole sec the whole game in then all of a sudden use him for the second half of the forth???By that time he was probably already feeling shi**y as it looked like he wouldn't see anytime at all. Maybe an bucket or 2 from him in the 1st half would have helped get Stevenson going! Not saying he should've saw a ton of mins, but hell let him give Jamison a breather somewhere in there earlier. And Pech, JUST 3 MINS AT THE RIGHT TIME WOULD HAVE DONE WONDERS FOR BLATCHE! Im just so damn frustrated with EJ right now.