12/4/12 GT #15 HEAT @ Wizards 7:00 PM EST

[dandridge 10]

Regarding Beal, I have been pretty happy with how Beal has played the game considering he is a rookie, except for one thing. And, unfortunately, that one thing is what he was brought here to do...shoot the ball. All but 2 points last night were from layups in transition. He pretty much bricked his jumpers, which has become a trend. As I said before, good shooters get cold every now and then and some go through shooting slumps. However, good shooters normally don't go cold or go through slumps this long. Beal is getting open looks. He is just not knocking them down. That continues to worry me.

[Jay81]

Ted Take did the opposite. Instead of long blog about how his players are coming together...how hard work and bonding are paying off, he just simply said no really words to say after a win and thanks for coming to the game!

[closg00]

Regarding Beal, I have been pretty happy with how Beal has played the game considering he is a rookie, except for one thing. And, unfortunately, that one thing is what he was brought here to do...shoot the ball. All but 2 points last night were from layups in transition. He pretty much bricked his jumpers, which has become a trend. As I said before, good shooters get cold every now and then and some go through shooting slumps. However, good shooters normally don't go cold or go through slumps this long. Beal is getting open looks. He is just not knocking them down. That continues to worry me.

Waiters took a while to get settled, he looked "worrisome" early, now he has passed Beal. I keep thinking that eventually Beal will adjust to the pro game, get comfortable, and start knocking-down some shots reliably. I wish Beal had athleticism as a go-to weapon when his shot wasn't falling. Anyone have his shooting % numbers handy?

[tontoz]

Two DNPs for Vesely, two wins. I think i see a trend developing here.

Figures the Wizards would beat the Heat when i miss the game.

[Nivek]

Regarding Beal, I have been pretty happy with how Beal has played the game considering he is a rookie, except for one thing. And, unfortunately, that one thing is what he was brought here to do...shoot the ball. All but 2 points last night were from layups in transition. He pretty much bricked his jumpers, which has become a trend. As I said before, good shooters get cold every now and then and some go through shooting slumps. However, good shooters normally don't go cold or go through slumps this long. Beal is getting open looks. He is just not knocking them down. That continues to worry me.

Waiters took a while to get settled, he looked "worrisome" early, now he has passed Beal. I keep thinking that eventually Beal will adjust to the pro game, get comfortable, and start knocking-down some shots reliably. I wish Beal had athleticism as a go-to weapon when his shot wasn't falling. Anyone have his shooting % numbers handy?

Waiters hasn't been good either. In my rating system through Sunday's games, Beal was at 49; Waiters at 56. Average is 100; higher is better. I set replacement value at 60.

I have a piece on Beal coming in the blog today.

[fishercob]

Honestly, I didn't enjoy this win nearly as much as I would have in the past. There was a little fist bump after Nene made his FT, but none of the joy or happiness that I'd have expected from myself from beating the Heat.

I am more depressed and despondent as a Wizards fan than I have ever been (not in real life). I worry that any win will be used as justification of some terrible front office decision -- that there's some faction of the organization touting three straight wins against the Heat.

Questions and Gripes:

1) What the hell is going on with Wall? Can we get an update on when he'll start practicing? I think it's possible that he'll miss the season at this point.

2) Can we get some explanation of what they're doing with Nene? Are they limiting his minutes because of conditioning or to manage his pain? If it's the latter, I think it's fair to Freak Out over the amount of our cap space owed to this cat over this and the next 3 years.

3) Kevin Seraphin has got to learn to go to the rim. It drives me nuts to see him use a nice post move to free himself, only to take an 5 footer with no one between him and the basket. Dunk the ball, draw contact, stop shooting from further away than you need to.

[sekira]

Awesome game last night to watch in person. I was right behind the heat bench so it was a real treat. Lebron looked pissed off most of the game and I think the fact that he didn't look to score for the most of the game, but pass instead, really hurt his offense late in the game when he tried to get going.

I love watching close games; also the crowd was really into it.

[dandridge 10]

Regarding Beal, I have been pretty happy with how Beal has played the game considering he is a rookie, except for one thing. And, unfortunately, that one thing is what he was brought here to do...shoot the ball. All but 2 points last night were from layups in transition. He pretty much bricked his jumpers, which has become a trend. As I said before, good shooters get cold every now and then and some go through shooting slumps. However, good shooters normally don't go cold or go through slumps this long. Beal is getting open looks. He is just not knocking them down. That continues to worry me.

Waiters took a while to get settled, he looked "worrisome" early, now he has passed Beal. I keep thinking that eventually Beal will adjust to the pro game, get comfortable, and start knocking-down some shots reliably. I wish Beal had athleticism as a go-to weapon when his shot wasn't falling. Anyone have his shooting % numbers handy?

Waiters wasn't billed as a shooter...more of a scorer. Waiters appears to fit that bill, even if he might not be very efficient. Beal was billed as being a shooter, and he looks anything but. I am also curious to see what his shooting percentage is, but on jumpers (not counting lay-ups). It has to be pretty miserable.

[dandridge 10]

Honestly, I didn't enjoy this win nearly as much as I would have in the past. There was a little fist bump after Nene made his FT, but none of the joy or happiness that I'd have expected from myself from beating the Heat.

I am more depressed and despondent as a Wizards fan than I have ever been (not in real life). I worry that any win will be used as justification of some terrible front office decision -- that there's some faction of the organization touting three straight wins against the Heat.

Questions and Gripes:

1) What the hell is going on with Wall? Can we get an update on when he'll start practicing? I think it's possible that he'll miss the season at this point.

2) Can we get some explanation of what they're doing with Nene? Are they limiting his minutes because of conditioning or to manage his pain? If it's the latter, I think it's fair to Freak Out over the amount of our cap space owed to this cat over this and the next 3 years.

3) Kevin Seraphin has got to learn to go to the rim. It drives me nuts to see him use a nice post move to free himself, only to take an 5 footer with no one between him and the basket. Dunk the ball, draw contact, stop shooting from further away than you need to.

I have the same feeling Ben. Regarding Seraphin, what drives me more nuts is his inability to box out. With his size (girth), strength, and athletic ability, he should be an elite rebounder.

[GhostsOfGil]

Waiters wasn't billed as a shooter...more of a scorer. Waiters appears to fit that bill, even if he might not be very efficient. Beal was billed as being a shooter, and he looks anything but. I am also curious to see what his shooting percentage is, but on jumpers (not counting lay-ups). It has to be pretty miserable.

Ya its not good. 84% of Beal's shots are jumpers and he's shooting them at 38.2 eFG%. Dion is shooting 44.7 eFG% on jumpers but surprisingly Beal is far and away the better finisher.

http://www.82games.com/1213/12CLE5.HTM
http://www.82games.com/1213/12WAS6.HTM

[dobrojim]

Verizon center getting loud! Love it

As loud as the Heat fans were, it was a really good atmosphere at the
phone booth last night. I think most Wiz fans expected a loss all along
so while they were cheering lustily, they were also prepared for the worst.
As the game went on, a glimmer of belief began to take hold.

Sorry you missed it BobbyD. I had the same thoughts for the same
reasons as you but glad I went. To top it off, my older daughter,
who's turn it was and who used to be a Heat fan, was actually cheering
for the zards.

I think we won because I absent mindedly left my paper bag at
home not knowing that I wouldn't need it as it turned out.

Best game at Verizon since we beat the Lakers last year.

[dobrojim]

Ariza calf strain. He will be out a month.

And the worst part is he was doing what EG could have only hoped for, balling his butt off. Ariza had 5 assists and 3 steals (along with 4 points and 2 rebounds) in just 16 minutes. He was controlling the game at both ends, along with Price being on fire.

He went down at the exact wrong time, but at least the other guys will get some PT now.

we'll see how serious it is. Looked to me like he just had a vicious cramp the way
he grabbed his calf.

the interesting thing is the box score for Ariza was the usual meh, 2-7 shooting...
But he was doing a solid job defensively, no question.

[dobrojim]

Seraphin is looking more and more like Blatche with each passing game.

he did badly miss on a couple shots, but wound up 8-12, 16 points and 10 boards
off the bench. Not bad.

I loved the early play where he got the dunk on the cut and nice pass.

[dobrojim]

**** hate Crawford. Put Beal back in there.

There's the good Jordan and the bad Jordan. Not sure there is a good Beal yet.

Not that he was perfect by any means but Chuck had a darn good game last night.
I'd take that from him 7 days a week and 2x on Sunday. 21 points on 16 shots with
some rebounds and assists to go along...

[dobrojim]

Just tuned in to Lebron bricking two free throws and Washington up by four. LOL, wtf is going on.

Chic-Fil-A

[dobrojim]

Common pizzaaa

do they have the W + > 100 promo this year?

not that I'm eager to do business with Poppa 0.12/pizza is too much
to cover my employees John.

[dobrojim]

JWiz! The heat game brings everyone out of the woodwork.

I was tied up in Pine's basement.

[dobrojim]

Random thoughts:

Seraphin is nice. Has such a silky smooth touch around the basket.
Webster - Awesome pickup, I hope he's locked up for a few years
JC - What's up with the circus shots...but he was nice, until the end.
Beal - No cross over moves and is slow. Reminds me of that fat kid playing basketball jumping up and down asking for the ball that will never come his way.

The Heat are loaded. I was talking with my friend going down the list of people to take the three:
James, Miller, Allen, Wade, Bosch...geez they are going to be hard to beat.

I was so impressed with the Wizards passing. I don't think Miami took the game seriously AND I can't believe three unbelievable shooters missed wide open threes. James was laughing toward the end because they kept on missing threes. The Wizards almost choked. JC didn't want to take the big shot during the last 24 sec violation possession.


We all know the real reason why the Wiz won.....RGIII BABY!!!!

The crowd was great, standing for the last 3 minutes.
What pisses me off the most is that we'll get a smug tedstake tomorrow about how EG and Ted are staying the course.

31 assists and 10 TOs. That'll win you a lot of games. It'll also be hard to repeat.

[dobrojim]

Real bad team beats real good team.. Not that uncommon.. Heat overlook the Wiz, play sub par for 48 mins, while the Wiz go in with nothing to lose and end up playing loose and above average.. Maybe they gain confidence from it and go on a run? Highly doubtful, but possible I suppose.. Hope for the best!! Who'd a thunk the Skins would roll off 3 straight division wins? It's pro sports, most anything is possible..

regression to the mean for the Wiz. Hard to argue we're a good team.
But hard for any team to be 1-13.

[dobrojim]

Real bad team beats real good team.. Not that uncommon.. Heat overlook the Wiz, play sub par for 48 mins, while the Wiz go in with nothing to lose and end up playing loose and above average.. Maybe they gain confidence from it and go on a run? Highly doubtful, but possible I suppose.. Hope for the best!! Who'd a thunk the Skins would roll off 3 straight division wins? It's pro sports, most anything is possible..

They did not play sub par. What game did you watch ? LeBron had a triple double. All their big three played well. It was a legit solid win.

Now lets see what they do from here.

Agree with hands here, just watched the replay, stayed away from facebook, here, everywhere so i didnt spoil it.

We played damn good ball. We got lucky on a few shots by Price and JC, but overall we played excellent team ball and excellent defense. We took what they gave us and didnt give them many easy points at all. Above all, we attacked them and got rewarded at the line.

Key to victory moving forward: Pretend we are playing the Heat EVERY GOD DAMN NIGHT.

Its a shame Ariza went down, he had a good game and the trade looked worth it when he was on the court. And can we please keep Martell? He did one of the best most articulate post-game interviews ive ever heard. What a likeble character. Beal had a good game too, he looks good in transition, cant wait for him next to Wall. His defense on Wade was stellar, too, for a rook.

One other striking stat was the Wiz had a massive advantage in fast break points.
They were talking about some new scheme to push the ball. Whatever...it seems
to me that given the clear offensive limitations of our roster that playing at a higher
tempo would be to our benefit. Maybe Kev can tell us whether the numbers support that.

edit to add - ask and you shall receive

http://broomonthewarpath.sportsblog.com/