Wiz at Cleveland 7:00 PM Tuesday Oct 30th

[MikeTheKid]

On a side note, Jae Crowder is ballin right now for Dallas, someone I thought the Wiz should consider with a draft pick but no we get more Euro trash!

[MikeTheKid]

Tanking for Shabazz, Noel, Wiggens, Parker

FTW!!!

Or one of the Harrison twins cause they can hoop!

But it wont matter cause the Lakers will end up with 1 or 2 of these guys to Succeed Kobe im calling it now!

[barelyawake]

Didn't see the game. But, as someone pointed out, we have few players who can create their own shot. This is why I said a point guard is the difference between tanking and making the playoffs. Our pieces would look much better with an actual point guard on the court. But, it's a full-on tank without said point. And management should have known that fact long ago.

[BarnabyJones]

Wall means very little to this team, so his presence wouldn't have helped anyway. Brad Beal, after all, is a much better player.

what the f**k?

[hands11]

Now I remember why I wanted to trade Wall for Kyrie on draft day. Man that kid is good.

But Wall will be good as well when he returns. Those two will battle it out for years to come.

Cleveland really came out with a lot of energy which was impressive. Looked like a blow out at one point. But Wiz fought back. Barron really proved his worth and Pargo nailed a nice corner 3 to take the lead.

Basically it came down to two players. Kyrie and Varejao. One top draft pick PG and one very solid vet post player. Both had monster games. Varejao had 9 assists

Wall and Nene would have been the counter balance to those two. Thats our number one draft pick PG and our very solid vet post players.

Plus we also have Kevin S.

News flash. Wizards struggle in season opener without their two best players.

The thing I was most disappointed in was the way Booker played. They really needed him tonight and he pretty much laid an egg.

One good things about that game, Barron proved he is legit length that can help in the post. 7-0 250 helped changed the rebounding situation. Okafor could not keep Varejao off the boards. That was devastating.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Good game, horrible o-boarding, but there are definately some positives to take from this game. Playing pretty crappy for about two quarters while missing our two top players plus another key player and still having a shot, bravo!

[W. Unseld]

I think the game is worth watching if you haven't seen it. I think this team will be better than last year's squad (assuming we get guys back from injury) & I agree that this loss is a combo of poor pg play & cold shooting.

[truwizfan4evr]

I'm so sick of hearing about Kyle being better then Wall it makes me sick. I just cant wait for wall to come back. This might as well be the cavs board everyone putting down Wall and all over Kyle

[montestewart]

I'm so sick of hearing about Kyle being better then Wall it makes me sick. I just cant wait for wall to come back. This might as well be the cavs board everyone putting down Wall and all over Kyle

Totally! Eff Kyle.

[B-easy]

Good to see wizards fans having faith in wall and the team. It's so great to see.

[hands11]

i know J Craw was 4-13, but did anyone else like how he played tonight, especially in the 2nd half ?

I thought he moved the ball around and was looking to get others involved and ran the offense pretty much as we made the comeback.

Crawford/Price/Pargo
Beal/Webster/Martin
Singleton/Trevor A
Okafor/Booker
Ves/Barron

Put him at PG and shuffle the deck up. What we need is better PG play and better production from SG.

I would pair Beal with Crawford since he penetrates and dishes. Thats what Beal needs right now. Webster should be able to keep up with back up SGs. If we can get the SG some looks, maybe the PGs won't jack so much. I would also pair Barron or Ves with Booker. Booker and Okafor isn't enough length. Barron can clearly hold things down at center. Hell, I would even consider starting him with Okafor and letting Booker and Ves do that young man energy thing.

After seeing that first game, I think this is the way to go next game. I'm pretty sure thats how I would work the PG and SG. Not sure of Trevor A or Singleton starts. I get a sense Beal would step up more with Singleton out there then Trevor A and Trevor A would play well with Webster and Booker who are a little more mature.

Price should have no hard on about not starting. He is a new guy and slotted as a back up anyway.
Booker has been moved around. No biggy. He is also slotted to back up once Nene is ready.
Trevor A or Singleton starting isn't as import so if he doesn't get all of this done by next game, no biggy but I do thing Beal would shoot more with he was with Singleton.

[MJG]

I just got my power back, so I wasn't able to watch the game, but looking at it after the fact, I feel like I dodged a bullet here. I can't recall the last time I saw such a depressing box score. I'm sure this makes me a bad fan, but until we get at least a couple of our top guys back, I don't know that I'm going to be able to stomach watching games live.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Good to see wizards fans having faith in wall and the team. It's so great to see.

When the Wizards were up 78-76, I wasn't missing Wall. When the team had 25 assists and 10 turnovers it made me see it is possible to manage a game and win. Not having Wall isn't what destroyed the Wizards.

Getting killed on the boards had a lot more to do with why they lost, and some ill-timed missed shots by A. J. Price. Barron hustled a lot but not having anyone but him score inside affected the Wizards. Sitting Webster at the end was questionable.

Not having Nene hurt a lot Varejao would not have grabbed that many boards because he would have had to work defensively.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Was gonna say at least they didnt get embarassed.. But, in the end, they did.. Only the Bullets can go that ice cold after a 17 point comeback.. 0 for 8 down the stretch.. Sad

The subs got Washington back in the game and I think Price would have been better off not coming back in with under 6 minutes.

A.J. Prices missed 4 shots in less than a minute with under 4 minutes left. When Wittman put Ariza in for Webster at 2:15, the Wizards did not score but 2 more FTs. With the Wizards small lineup on the floor, Varejao and Thompson killed the Wizards inside.

http://espn.go.com/nba/playbyplay?gameI ... 1&period=4

5:50 Wizards Full timeout
5:50 A.J. Price enters the game for Jannero Pargo 78-80
5:31 Martell Webster makes two point shot 80-80
5:09 80-80 Kyrie Irving misses 27- foot three point jumper
5:09 Earl Barron defensive rebound 80-80
5:00 A.J. Price misses 8- foot Running Jumper 80-80
4:56 80-80 Kyrie Irving defensive rebound
4:50 80-80 Dion Waiters misses 25- foot three point jumper
4:48 80-80 Alonzo Gee offensive rebound
4:48 80-82 Alonzo Gee makes two point shot
4:30 Chris Singleton misses 15- foot jumper 80-82
4:30 Jordan Crawford offensive rebound 80-82
4:26 Jordan Crawford misses layup 80-82
4:20 80-82 Kyrie Irving turnover
4:20 Bradley Beal enters the game for Jordan Crawford 80-82
3:58 A.J. Price misses 19- foot jumper 80-82
3:57 Earl Barron offensive rebound 80-82
3:56 A.J. Price misses 20- foot jumper 80-82
3:56 Wizards offensive team rebound 80-82
3:56 shot clock turnover 80-82
3:38 Chris Singleton shooting foul (Anderson Varejao draws the foul ) 80-82
3:38 80-83 Anderson Varejao makes free throw 1 of 2
3:38 80-84 Anderson Varejao makes free throw 2 of 2
3:29 80-84 Alonzo Gee personal foul (Chris Singleton draws the foul )
3:20 A.J. Price misses 25- foot three point jumper 80-84
3:18 80-84 Tristan Thompson defensive rebound
3:16 80-84 Tristan Thompson lost ball turnover (Chris Singleton steals)
3:06 A.J. Price misses 25- foot three point jumper 80-84
3:05 80-84 Dion Waiters defensive rebound
3:04 80-84 Earl Barron vs. Dion Waiters (A.J. Price gains possession)
3:04 80-84 Dion Waiters lost ball turnover (Earl Barron steals)
2:50 Bradley Beal misses 25- foot three point jumper 80-84
2:49 80-84 Kyrie Irving defensive rebound
2:33 80-86 Kyrie Irving makes jumper
2:15 Earl Barron makes two point shot (Chris Singleton assists ) 82-86
2:15 82-86 Tristan Thompson shooting foul (Earl Barron draws the foul )
2:15 Official timeout
2:15 Jordan Crawford enters the game for A.J. Price 82-86
2:15 Trevor Ariza enters the game for Martell Webster 82-86
2:15 Earl Barron misses free throw 1 of 1 82-86
2:14 82-86 Alonzo Gee defensive rebound
2:00 82-88 Tristan Thompson makes dunk (Anderson Varejao assists )
1:49 82-88 Anderson Varejao shooting foul (Jordan Crawford draws the foul )
1:49 Jordan Crawford makes free throw 1 of 2 83-88
1:49 Jordan Crawford makes free throw 2 of 2 84-88
1:28 84-90 Tristan Thompson makes dunk (Anderson Varejao assists )
1:16 Chris Singleton misses 26- foot three point jumper 84-90
1:15 Chris Singleton offensive rebound 84-90
1:04 Jordan Crawford misses 26- foot three point jumper 84-90
1:02 84-90 Kyrie Irving defensive rebound
0:50 84-92 Tristan Thompson makes du

This was likely a winnable game had the right lineup been in the game at the end. Price cannot be a hero. Wittman should have stuck with Webster with Singleton. If anything, leave Pargo in this game since he hit the jumper to put them ahead.

Just one game but it is good to see which players Wittman has faith in.

[tontoz]

Wall means very little to this team, so his presence wouldn't have helped anyway. Brad Beal, after all, is a much better player.

what the f**k?

TGW was taking a sarcastic shot at another poster.

[MDStar]

News flash. Wizards struggle in season opener without their two best players.

The thing I was most disappointed in was the way Booker played. They really needed him tonight and he pretty much laid an egg.

I really believe that this needed to be repeated. No Wall, who for all his deficiencies is still 100x better than Price and Pargo (who combined to play 45 min).

No Nene, who is our rock down low and best post presence.

No Booker, well he played but played like crap.

No Seraphin. And people are "shocked" because we lost.

Come now fellas, give it a break. It's clear that this team is not built to withstand the lose of it's best two players, I would argue which team is? We will struggle mightily until those guys return, it's an unfortunate fact.

[Rafael122]

Quite surprised we only lost by 10, on the road, missing two of our best players. I think it says a lot about the Cavs team rather than the Wizards. Hopefully either Seraphin or Nene is back on Saturday, we're gonna need them against Garnett and those bigs.

[fishercob]

I don't understand the controversy over the obvious statement that Irving is better than Wall. Irving is phenomenal. His game reminds me more of a prime Gilbert Arenas than of anyone I have seen since. I don't begrudge the Wizards for having the opportunity to draft Wall and not Kyrie, nor did many see Kyrie's dominance coming due to his injury-shortened lone college season.

Back to the game, a few more thoughts before moving on:

The Cavs are horrific after Irving and Varajeo (for now; they are well positioned to add talent). I hope we're healthy on 12/26 and blow them out.

Alonzo Gee is a phenomenal on-ball defender.

Terrible game by Booker. He cannot allow us to get bullied and outhustled on the boards. I don't care about his jumper or his up an under. If he can't rebound, particularly defensively, he's of marginal use.

Vesely looked better. He looks more comfortable at the 5. But he's still so weak that he has the ball stripped to easily and can't finish in any kind of traffic. I'm not sure if he can get strong enough to mitigate this issues, at least not without losing his quickness.

Agree with CCJ on the late-game subs being to our significant detriment (particularly Price over Pargo). I will cut Randy some slack. He's still getting to know these guys and trying to settle on a rotation. Price had won the job and the right to his minutes and Pargo had shown very little. The swap hurt us late, but I understand it.

Lastly, I have no problem with trading Javale McGee. Zero. I think it's nearly addition by subtraction. But if Nene's foot issues linger for months or, perish the thought, years, then the trade will be yet another abject Grunfail. I know he's a very good player. But he's got to play. I am hoping this he's back in a couple of weeks and it's the last we hear of it. But, as a Wizards fan, I obviously have a horrendous feeling about the situation.

Onward.

[Nivek]

Have not read the entire thread. I took a quick look at the numbers here.

Going by the numbers, Ariza, Barron and Webster were productive. Okafor wasn't terrible, but wasn't "good" either. Crawford, Vesely, Beal and Singleton were bad. Pargo and price were horrible. Booker was a catastrophe.

[montestewart]

News flash. Wizards struggle in season opener without their two best players.

The thing I was most disappointed in was the way Booker played. They really needed him tonight and he pretty much laid an egg.

I really believe that this needed to be repeated. No Wall, who for all his deficiencies is still 100x better than Price and Pargo (who combined to play 45 min).

No Nene, who is our rock down low and best post presence.

No Booker, well he played but played like crap.

No Seraphin. And people are "shocked" because we lost.

Come now fellas, give it a break. It's clear that this team is not built to withstand the lose of it's best two players, I would argue which team is? We will struggle mightily until those guys return, it's an unfortunate fact.

STRAWMAN ALERT!

Who's shocked? No one is shocked!

What you two are (perhaps intentionally) miscontruing is the recollections of people who thought the Wizards management would have served the team well by making the acquisition of a quality veteran PG/3G a priority, who had reservations about Nene's durability, considering his age and history (Hands, maybe it's about time to change the bottom of your posts?), who thought that the trade that used up all the cap space for Okafor and Ariza was quite misguided. Half the salary is spent on the three ostensible frontcourt starters: one is injured, one is average and was quite outmatched much of the first game, and one looks like he barely gives a crap most of the time.

Yes, we will lose a lot of games this year, but (NEWS FLASH!) no one will be all that shocked.