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

[AlexCRO]

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.

yeah but why look in the past when the future is so bright... just embrace and enjoy the moment

[CobraCommander]

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.

I don't think the wiz will win the series but they can- but do any of us really think this team can win it ALL? If not, I would rather that take their lumps now, learn how to be pros, develop true belief in themselves and continue to build a team that can win it all in 2-3 years when wall is 25-26 and beal is 23 etc- the wiz need to continue to prove themselves so in a few years marquee free agents will want to come and play with Wall and Beal- these playoffs are big for the future - but honestly if you don't win it all - you lost like everyone else. Wall and beal need to keep working on their game in the offseason cause there are 5 other young point guards in the nba that wall hasn't distinguished himself against and beal has the shot, body and talent to be the best 2 guard in the nba-

While I think grun sucks because of jan and possibly Otto he sure did put together a balanced team - wall beal gortat etc- so I'll pass on the fire Ernie talk for now

Go Wiz!

[Illmatic12]

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

I'm not worried about Beal's offense. As we saw even against a great defender in Jimmy Butler, Beal is good at moving off the ball and he'll get his against anybody.

I'm worried about Beal's defense. I don't think he can guard Stephenson when he's on the attack, and I don't think he can keep Lance off the off/def boards either (the guy is an *elite* rebounding SF). You know how we had no answer for Taj Gibson's energy? I'm worried that Stephenson will be the guard version of Gibson in this series.

[nate33]

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.

I never quite understood the love of Lance Stephenson. Lots of talking heads acted like he should have been in the All Star Game or something. That's ridiculous. He's a decent player, no more. The guy averages 14.7 points per 36 minutes with an ORtg of 106 on a very low usage rate. In the playoffs, his ORtg dipped to 101 with his points per 36 rising to 16.2 with Kyle freaking Korver checking him.

Beal, by comparison, averaged 17.8 points per 36 minutes with a comparable ORtg of 103 on a much higher usage rate. Beal takes care of the ball much better while passing nearly as well. In the playoffs, Beal has averaged 17.4 points per 36 with an ORtg of 120 while being guarded by one of the best defensive players in the league.

The only facet of the game where Stephenson is clearly superior is rebounding. And even that I think deserves a bit of an asterisk. When guards crash the offensive glass, it often results in poor transition defense. And he's a known "rebound stealer" on the defensive end who really just takes rebounds from his own bigs. I note that 82games.com shows Indy is a substantially better defensive rebounding team when Stephenson is off the court.

[Wizkids12345]

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

I'm not worried about Beal's offense. As we saw even against a great defender in Jimmy Butler, Beal is good at moving off the ball and he'll get his against anybody.

I'm worried about Beal's defense. I don't think he can guard Stephenson when he's on the attack, and I don't think he can keep Lance off the off/def boards either (the guy is an *elite* rebounding SF). You know how we had no answer for Taj Gibson's energy? I'm worried that Stephenson will be the guard version of Gibson in this series.

Do you think there's a chance we see wall on Stephenson and beal on hill?

[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

I'm not worried about Beal's offense. As we saw even against a great defender in Jimmy Butler, Beal is good at moving off the ball and he'll get his against anybody.

I'm worried about Beal's defense. I don't think he can guard Stephenson when he's on the attack, and I don't think he can keep Lance off the off/def boards either (the guy is an *elite* rebounding SF). You know how we had no answer for Taj Gibson's energy? I'm worried that Stephenson will be the guard version of Gibson in this series.

Do you think there's a chance we see wall on Stephenson and beal on hill?

no way. Wall is still far more important than Beal and he carried us alot this year. You dont want to see Wall spend that much energy having to guard a guy like that and maybe be covered by George on the other end. You dont do that unless you have to. Meaning maybe crunch time or if we get down by a couple of games

[dlts20]

also for this series, I wouldnt be shocked to see us pull out a zone if we arent matching up well. They dont have great shooters, they have bigs who will stay inside so you can play it, and we have the atheletes to cover alot of ground. I could see that happening if Lance or PG start giving us problems

[hands11]

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.”

Read more of my posts then... LOL

Yeah.. I heard his interview when he said this.

Not hard to imagine.. Its emotional playing when your fans are going nuts for you. Easy to get caught up in that and they haven't experienced that so its something new.

But I think they adjusted after the first game of hearing it.

They have much more experience not hearing that on the road were they know going in to be focused and its them against the world type thing.

Knowing that, I like their chances game 1 in IND off 5 days rest for Nene and Webster.

I think they will be hungry and come out right away to jump on IND.

I expect some high intensity defense right away. IND on the other hand just played yesterday and the game is tomorrow. Not much time to rest or adjust mentally from a highly stressful game 7

[hands11]

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.

I don't think the wiz will win the series but they can- but do any of us really think this team can win it ALL? If not, I would rather that take their lumps now, learn how to be pros, develop true belief in themselves and continue to build a team that can win it all in 2-3 years when wall is 25-26 and beal is 23 etc- the wiz need to continue to prove themselves so in a few years marquee free agents will want to come and play with Wall and Beal- these playoffs are big for the future - but honestly if you don't win it all - you lost like everyone else. Wall and beal need to keep working on their game in the offseason cause there are 5 other young point guards in the nba that wall hasn't distinguished himself against and beal has the shot, body and talent to be the best 2 guard in the nba-

While I think grun sucks because of jan and possibly Otto he sure did put together a balanced team - wall beal gortat etc- so I'll pass on the fire Ernie talk for now

Go Wiz!

Nope. They believe they can go deep this year and there is no time like the present. You never know what the future brings. Right now they have a good team. A team capable of beating IND.

I fully believe they believe that and you will see a team that plays like it.

[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.

I don't think the wiz will win the series but they can- but do any of us really think this team can win it ALL?

I don't think we can win it all. But through us somehow beating the Pacers, the Nets vs. Miami matchup somehow playing out like the regular season, and the hand of God himself I think we could make it out of the East. And ain't nothing wrong with being on the big bright stage of the Finals. I'll gladly take my eventual lumps there.

I'm not banking on it. But if it happened- even if I still knew we stood slim to no chance in the Finals- I wouldn't be mad.

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

I can only recall John Wall hitting one three point shot last series. Not to mention at times his jumper was in 2011 form. If he could regain the three point stroke he showed this year after the AllStar break that would be HUGE after seeing what ATL was able to do to the Pacers from beyond the arc.

[bealwithit]

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

I don't think the wiz will win the series but they can- but do any of us really think this team can win it ALL?

I don't think we can win it all. But through us somehow beating the Pacers, the Nets vs. Miami matchup somehow playing out like the regular season, and the hand of God himself I think we could make it out of the East. And ain't nothing wrong with being on the big bright stage of the Finals. I'll gladly take my eventual lumps there.

I'm not banking on it. But if it happened- even if I still knew we stood slim to no chance in the Finals- I wouldn't be mad.

Crazier teams have gotten to the Finals too. We just have to look at it one series at a time, just like the players are. None of us thought we had a very good shot at beating the Bulls and... here we are with dreams of Larry O'Brien sugar-plums dancing in our heads. Just one at a time and let it all play out.

Best way we get there is the Nets beat the Heat, we grind it out vs the Pacers and then play the very beatable Nets in the ECF. Imo, a series against the Nets would be the easier task rather than this one against the Pacers. We'd have homecourt, confidence to the ceiling, and we match up very well with the Nets.

But, one at a time. And we could very well lose against Indiana this series. It's gonna be a rough one.

[Deivy202]

We need wall to play good. Gooden is in need he can rebound.


Game 1 determines it all . We are morr rested so I think will win game one by four points.

[FAH1223]

We need wall to play good. Gooden is in need he can rebound.


Game 1 determines it all . We are morr rested so I think will win game one by four points.

The line is Pacers by 4.5 in Vegas

[Brenice]

The difference between the 2 teams this year was more mission-wise, chemistry, and expectations, not talent. They were on different curves.

The Pacers wanted home court in the playoffs after reaching the ECF last year. The Wizards really just had a goals of .500 and making the playoffs.

The chemistry of adding Gortat as a late addition to the squad and immediate insertion into the starting 5 helped lead to low expectations. The growth or slow developing growth of Wall according to the national media, coupled with some underachieving due to the young backcourt led to the Wizards record not being what it should and caused the Wizards to be underrated. While the Pacers are overrated because they, like the Wizards, play in the east. So the fact that they made the ECF last year was fool's gold.

This Wizards team ran a slow curve but now they are on the fast track. It's an even matchup. But the Pacers learned tye HCA lesson LAST YEAR. I expect a 50+ game winning Wizards team next year, barring injury.

[dckingsfan]

Do you want to wait to see who we sign before making your 50+ win prediction?

[Raptors_Dynasty]

Now that my Raptors are out, I'm cheering for you guys. Both the Raptors and Wizards are the future of the East and you guys would make a great story if you go far.

Hope you guys beat IND!

[dlts20]

We need wall to play good. Gooden is in need he can rebound.


Game 1 determines it all . We are morr rested so I think will win game one by four points.

IDK about that. Game 1's like this are always a crap shoot. We could look well rested or we could look rusty. I will still have confidence even if we lose game 1

[dlts20]

Now that my Raptors are out, I'm cheering for you guys. Both the Raptors and Wizards are the future of the East and you guys would make a great story if you go far.

Hope you guys beat IND!

Thanks homie. That was a great series. I was glued to the end of my chair. Just needed one more play

[queridiculo]

Now that my Raptors are out, I'm cheering for you guys. Both the Raptors and Wizards are the future of the East and you guys would make a great story if you go far.

Hope you guys beat IND!

I happen to think the Raptors are much further head than the Wizards.

Young, talented players at seemingly every position in the starting five. My only concern as a Raptors fan would be the organizations desire to win. Are they going to pony up the cash to try to keep the core together and perhaps add a piece or two?

Tough series for you guys, the team played hard and the fans deserved better. Great crowd, and thanks for the support!