Round 2, Game 1: SET THE TONE! Wizards @ Pacers 7 PM TNT 5/5

[dlts20]

CCJ, you really think Nene cant score on Hibbert?

Hibbert is stiff and unathletic. Nene will destroy him IMO. We saw what he did to Noah.

Hibbert's "skill" is being 7 foot 3.

half if his scoring was because of his physical strength and the Bulls giving him that J. Indy wont be as generous but that doesnt matter anyways because West is the one who will be on Nene

[dangermouse]

He can post up West and abuse him, he's twice the size. Hibbert is too slow and will bite too often on Nene's array of fakes. Nene, again and probably for the rest of the playoffs, is our biggest weapon.

[dlts20]

He can post up West and abuse him, he's twice the size. Hibbert is too slow and will bite too often on Nene's array of fakes. Nene, again and probably for the rest of the playoffs, is our biggest weapon.

No. Wall is our biggest player in the ECF against any of the 3 options. He can be against Indy also. He was our best player in our win against them and he had 37 against them last year

[Illmatic12]

In the Pacers games i looked at, Stephenson didnt look like the same player. Injured? Maybe a head injury because he was making dumb plays left and right. He looked like a star in the making earlier in the season, I didnt watch todays game, which Stephenson showed up?

I watched the game.. the Stephenson that showed up is the one who would probably destroy Beal in every facet of the game. He is a clearly better player than Beal at this point, and unlike Jimmy Butler he's anything but passive on offense.

I honestly think Stephenson will eviscerate Beal, so let's just hope Wall really steps his game up.

[dlts20]

illmatic, I disagree or maybe I should say that I wouldnt be shocked to see Beal doing alot better then you think. He still does some bonehead things but recently he's not the same Beal who everyone wanted to kill. He doenst think he's Jordan anymore. He's not forcing much. He's a very willing passer now, takes mostly all good shots, and is putting a ton of passion into playing defense. I just think he's not the same guy he was a month ago

[AlexCRO]

i really dont understand why so much of you think you are going to lose the series... in my point of view you will win the series in 6 games... plain and simple you are a better team with alot better chemistry. if you bring the energy from the bulls series you are taking them down in 6...cheers

[DaRealHibachi]

Wiz in 5.

[TheBabyMaker]

As a Wizards fan I sure hope these guys don't get too "cocky". They are a talented bunch and can play with anyone. I guess I do not want to set myself up for a letdown.
I say it will go 7 games either way.

[keynote]

As I said in the predictions thread, I expect Gooden to have a bigger impact on this series. Booker played a lot more vs. CHI in order to try to mach up with Taj Gibson. The Pacers don't have any big that potent coming off the bench to them, so Golden's relative Dr off in defense intensity won't hurt us as much. And, as demonstrated by ATL, IND has a tough time defending stretch bigs.

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[DCZards]

I watched the game.. the Stephenson that showed up is the one who would probably destroy Beal in every facet of the game. He is a clearly better player than Beal at this point, and unlike Jimmy Butler he's anything but passive on offense.

I honestly think Stephenson will eviscerate Beal, so let's just hope Wall really steps his game up.

Stephenson is capable of destroying Beal...but Stephenson is also capable of destroying Indy with his selfish and impatient play (just ask Hibbert). Beal is far more poised and patient than Stephenson, which counts for a lot at crunch time.

[hands11]

I'm totally stoked about this series. This is the first time since I've been a young teen that I honestly think the Wizards/Bullets have an outside shot at the finals.

Sure its gonna be hard, but what'd you expect? It should be hard. This is a great test to see where our team is, but more importantly, its a real opportunity. Even if Indiana "shows up", I think we still have a shot. We'll have to play our best, but again, we should have to play our best to get to the conference finals.

EXCITEMENT HO!!!!!

It does seem like a good match up test doesn't it.

Bigger stage is just what the team is ready for. Hopefully it's epic.

[hands11]

question for Wiz fans. If someone had a crystal ball and said we are going to definitely win one of the first 2 games. Which one do you think it most likely would be?

As for game one, we are well rested so we should take game 1. On the other hand Indy is still in playoff mode while we are rusty and dont have that intensity so they should win. They went 7 with the Hawks and we went 5 with the bulls so we should win game 1 on confidence. On the other hand Indy played their best in game 7 and Hibbert found his game again while they are also on a 2 game winning streak so they should win game 1 on confidence. lol.......IDK. We just need to steal one of those first 2

LOL

What it looks like is the Wizards fans crawling out of their emotional bunker....

Man.. If they win the first one, the Kookaid fountain is going to be flowing like Niagara.

Pure awesome.

[montestewart]

Wiz win games 1, 3,4, 6. Wiz win. Go Wiz!

[dlts20]

for some reason I trust our guys right now. I really do. By that I mean they are different than past Wiz teams. I really do think they are all in with ball movement and playing lock down D for 48min. I truly am also buying to the Wiz being at home lately, watching games, and doing mad homework. I think Wall wants to be killing it like Lillard-Teague. I think Wall is studying hard to see ways to break down the Pacers D. Ariza is studying PG's moves. Beal reallly wants to show that he's a better player than Stephenson. Gortat is pumped to play Hibbert. Miller loves his matchup with Watson. I think these guys are all in and arent cutting any corners. They will be fired up for Monday

[hands11]

one thing I love is that our whole team is really buying into playoff basketball, Defense winning games, not saving ourselves anymore, and ball movement. They are all in on that right now

Ok, who are you and what have you done with dlts20

[doclinkin]

I really like a lot of our matchups. Their best two offensive threats: West and George, happen to play at the position where we have our best two defenders: Nene and Ariza.

Stephenson's propensity to crash the offensive glass may backfire on them because of our fast break attack.

Overall, I think Indy is going to have a real tough time scoring. The question is, will we be able to score against them? That's where I'm much less confident. We're going to need Wall to step it up big time because he probably has the best matchup offensively. I think he can get around George Hill. We're also going to have to get some points from our second unit. Gooden needs to regain the shooting form he showed when we first signed him. Hopefully, the Professor can take CJ Watson to school.

I do think Wall has to show early that he can slice to the interior and hit that elbow jumper both. You want Big HIbbert to be forced into lateral motion, running Gortat in P&R (instead of Nene) at the times when Hibbert is matched on him. This draws Hibbert away from the paint, lets Nene work on the smaller DWest down low and forces Big Hibba to tire out from trying to show and recover. It also lets Gortat get loose on the roll for two steps and a dunk.

I think many of the lessons Atlanta showed are applicable, even without the range of a Big on the outside. Nene and Gortat both can hit open jumpers if INdy loads up on bigs in the paint. It's interesting that we seem to have been exploiting the loophole in conventional wisdom: the Spurs model defense says: challenge the 3 point shot, clog the interior, give up 2pt jumpers. Well this squad is comfortable that way and has been able to win that way, so long as we can combine that philosophy with solid defense and a few fast break runs a game. Essentially you're not forcing us to do anything we haven't practiced doing. Yeah I wish we were better at it, more efficient, but at least we never panic and get out of our comfort zone --that IS our comfort zone.

Defensively I agree, I think we're alright. And in the transition game may be able to convert many of their missed shots into our fast break points at the other end, since they don't have as many uptempo bigs as Chicago, and right the emphasis on guard rebounding on offense leads to floor balance problems if we do take the rebound ourself. Our guards and Ariza are pretty good themselves at taking those midrange rebounds on the defensive end. They'll get some, we'll get some.

Their best exterior defender is George. But here the Wiz benefit again by not having any particular superstar to load up on. We need contributions from any of Ariza, Beal, Webster or a wildcard (Gooden, Harrington, whomever) but can spread the floor with any of them and shutting down one does not choke off our team. We just look for the other.

To me this looks like a fun team to play. Win and lose. One thing that makes me nervous is that this game is a little bit more of a chessmatch. Vogel has more pieces to play with than Thibbs. Chicago had Noah and DJ and that was it. If you shut off those two he had no where to turn. But while George and West are key, Indy does have weapons or options at every position. I watched Scola back when he was in Europe winning championships, he's a cagey crafty player. Mahinmi is a bigger hustlebig than Booker. Turner has been hyper efficient in the playoffs, making his attempts count. Copeland stretches the floor. Hill, Watson, all can prove dangerous in any given game. If it comes to a matter of match-ups, adjustments, chemistry, and feel then the depth of Indiana allows their coach more creativity, and provides more of an issue for Randy to figure out how to make adjustments beyond 'who do I put Ariza on?'

[hands11]

As a Wizards fan I sure hope these guys don't get too "cocky". They are a talented bunch and can play with anyone. I guess I do not want to set myself up for a letdown.
I say it will go 7 games either way.

Them being cocky is the least of my concerns.

There should be a great series.

Lots of great match up.

Beal and Lance will go at each other. I think Beal will focus on defending him and Beal is nobodies punk. The young man has heart. We saw that when he tangled up against CHI but he also kept his head and didn't get a T over it. I think Beal will step up to the challenge and defend well. I think he will also look to drive like he did last series. I expect both him and Lance to mostly take each other out and battle foul trouble.

I think Nene and West also do the same.
Same with TA and George

This kind of series are won on whats left after match ups that neutralize each other.

I say that favors the Wizards with Wall, Webster and Gortat. Thats where the series will be won.

Webster 3s
Gortat mid range where Hibbert can't reach him.
And Wall multidimensional. Drives, fastbreak, mid range and 3 balls.

[hands11]

As I said in the predictions thread, I expect Gooden to have a bigger impact on this series. Booker played a lot more vs. CHI in order to try to mach up with Taj Gibson. The Pacers don't have any big that potent coming off the bench to them, so Golden's relative Dr off in defense intensity won't hurt us as much. And, as demonstrated by ATL, IND has a tough time defending stretch bigs.

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Gooden hasn't been shooting well like he did when he first got here so I'm not counting on that. But if he can bring that, it would be huge.

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

i really dont understand why so much of you think you are going to lose the series...

Decades of futility will do that to you. We're still warming up to this whole winning games in May thing.

[dlts20]

very interesting comment by Gortat. Never thought of it like that in terms of the way we struggle at home

“We are better road team because we don’t have our crowd,” Marcin Gortat said. “We don’t have to flex and jump after every shot we make. It’s a better thing for us.”