RealGM

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2010
Philips Arena - Atlanta, GA
8:00pm EST
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8:00pm EST
8:00pm EST
8:00pm EST
8:00pm EST
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The Wizards have gone a full month and have yet to win a road game.

"It's discouraging, but nobody is hanging their head about it," guard Gilbert Arenas said Sunday after the Wizards fell to the Pistons 115-110. "You just have to keep on pushing yourself and pushing yourself. That first one on the road is big because it unifies you. It's gonna happen soon."

In the coming days they are going to have plenty of opportunities to get that first road victory. They play at Atlanta on Thanksgiving and home against Southeast Division leader Orlando on Saturday, then play four of their next five games on the road. That includes three games in four nights against three Western Conference teams -- Phoenix, the world champion Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings.

The Wizards have always fared poorly on the West Coast, so they'd like to get a win on the road before their first cross-country trip.

"It has to happen soon," Arenas said. "We want to stay in it. To do that you have to get wins on the road. That's what the good teams do."

Wizards' Report

That 6-0 start has faded into the background.

This is what happens when you lose seven of nine games after that mercurial start, which did come at the expense of six non-playoff teams.

Instead of coasting into a Thanksgiving night home game against John Wall, Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards, the Hawks face the daunting task of trying to right all their wrongs before a TNT audience on a showcase night.

They'll hit the road again immediately after that, with trips to New York and Toronto over the weekend, still trying to figure out what ails them.

Joe Johnson's playing with a black glove on his left hand and struggling to find any sort of rhythm. Jamal Crawford finally got a few shots to fall in a loss to New Jersey, but he hasn't been much better than Johnson.

Hawks coach Larry Drew is preaching to his team to stick together and fight through what amounts to the first crisis of his tenure, one that looks eerily similar to the periodical lapses in focus and energy suffered during Mike Woodson's tenure.

"We just have to keep working," Drew said. "We can't feel sorry for ourselves. As you go through the course of the season, there are going to be some ups and some downs. You learn how to handle adversity. These are the types of situations that will make you stronger as a team. You don't fragment. You pull together."

Hawks' Report
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JOSH HOWARD

ACL Surgery - Day to day

AL THORNTON

Sprained left ankle - Game time decision

YI JIANLIAN

Hyper-extended right knee - Day to day
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BRAND COMMITS ATTEMPTED MURDER
(and still got dunked on....b*tch)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaHoBQq0azw[/youtube]

HOW NICK YOUNG HIT THE GAME WINNER
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhjJTFTsqoU[/youtube]
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GOOD JUJU

REALLY GOOD JUJU

MIGHTY GOOD JUJU
SERIOUSLY THIS TIME!!
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Nationally Televised game.... part deux

so the question will be, which direction is ATL going to go.

It's been a long time since the 'zards have represented on
Natl TV in a way to make us proud. But they should be able
to put up a decent fight. Crawford (either one) could
be a problem.

The Hawks are definitely having issues right now. After their 6-0 start (thanks for a very easy schedule) they have been struggling.

There have been times when they have looked like they just don't want to play.

GEORGE: I'm back, baby, I'm back!
</Seinfeld>

Moved in, back online (sorta) and following the games again. Got to see most of the OT win, including the OT, and this game will be carried on the new free-to-air HD channel. Woohoo!

That Nick thing is hilarious. . . He's so goofy!

Like to see us start Wall & Gil for the 1st time. Hopefully Al is ready to start and we can keep NY's fire power on the bench. Him & Kirk would probably be good together

dobrojim wrote:so the question will be, which direction is ATL going to go.

It's been a long time since the 'zards have represented on
Natl TV in a way to make us proud. But they should be able
to put up a decent fight. Crawford (either one) could
be a problem.

Guys like Crawford always kill us but this will be the most comfortable Ive ever felt going against guys like that "if" we bring Kirk off the bench. Its been a mad long time since weve had a vetran PG who you could really count on off the bench on both sides of the ball and a scorer to match other scorers in the league. Thats what we now have in Kirk and a finally consistent NY but IDK if Flip will go that route.


PS- That NY vid is so funny. Dray tripped me out with the back hair thing

Lebron looks like he made the wrong choice. If he would of come here with Blatche,McGee,Wall and Arenas, we would be 11-2. There is little talent in Miami beyond the big 3 and the big 3 do not play well together.

I wonder why we didnt try to sell Lebron our situation

Jay81 wrote:Lebron looks like he made the wrong choice. If he would of come here with Blatche,McGee,Wall and Arenas, we would be 11-2. There is little talent in Miami beyond the big 3 and the big 3 do not play well together.

I wonder why we didnt try to sell Lebron our situation

isn't it obvious? WE want WINNERS on this team. juju lookin pretty solid.

Great thread as always JWiz, happy Thanksgiving to all, enjoy yourselves and cheers to a Wizards win.

Man, I'm going to be flipping between this and the Bengals/Jets game.

Awesome game thread, Jwiz. Juju with a jab at one's conscience at the end.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Looking forward to a great game tonight. We have been either straight garbage or terribly boring seemingly in every single National TV game weve gotten the last few years. Its time for a change. Hopefully Wall's leg is ok and we can finally see the Wall-Gil backcourt make a start together. Maybe even Yi can make a return off the bench. Im torn on the NY thing. I think Id still rather have Al start this game if he can go because I think we will have enough scoring in the starting group without NY and then we can come off the bench with him, Kirk, and maybe Yi. That would be great.

Atlanta is a tricky team. Weve always matched up pretty well with them but this game will be different. They have a big SG in JJ and a big SF in Williams. Gil will be matched up against JJ and if we go small then Kirk will matchup against Williams. Williams has sucked this year but it would be dumb to start Kirk. It has to be either Al, NY, Gee, or Booker. Either way I expect to see alot of Zone this game. The Gil-JJ matchup will be special. Both have there advantages. I wouldve taken Gil in his prime easily because he would blow past a 6'8 guy like it was nothing & finish at the rim. He still can dribble past you when he wants even though he lost a step but the problem is he cant finish. Maybe he can do some drive & dish or kicks.

This is our chance to make a statement. We have a National TV game, our 1st game with the Gil-Wall backcourt, we have 3 games around with the top 3 in our division and 3 of the top teams in the East, and we can shut Barkley up for clowning us. I think we will show up. I think we will run, look very exciting, and come away with the victory

Well Al has just been ruled out for the next couple of games. Start Gee, Martin, or NY. Not Kirk. Too many ball handlers & not enough rebounding. I dont think Flip will go with Kirk since it didnt start too well in the 2nd half against Philly and we got alot better when we benched him for NY. Also, we are playing some big 3's coming up, including Lebron. Flip said in the Preseason that he wouldnt start that group against guys like Lebron so Im guessing he will go a different route tonight. Id rather have Booker on the bench with Yi out. It helps the rotation better

So we're down both of our starting-caliber small forwards? Ugh...start Young. He seems to play well when he has scorers around him.

Though I have a feeling we'll start Kirk because Flip will not want too many offensive players on the floor at the same time.

Beautiful game thread J-Wiz. Win or lose, I'm happy whenever you do them. I'd love for you to be in a regular rotation of game thread starters. If you're not willing to put in the work to produce something along similar lines, don't start game threads!

And the softf porn is unnecessary. It cheapens your gift!

dlts20 wrote:Well Al has just been ruled out for the next couple of games. Start Gee, Martin, or NY. Not Kirk. Too many ball handlers & not enough rebounding. I dont think Flip will go with Kirk since it didnt start too well in the 2nd half against Philly and we got alot better when we benched him for NY. Also, we are playing some big 3's coming up, including Lebron. Flip said in the Preseason that he wouldnt start that group against guys like Lebron so Im guessing he will go a different route tonight. Id rather have Booker on the bench with Yi out. It helps the rotation better

I agree with this. If they start Hinrich at the 3 it will be a disaster covering Marvin Williams or Josh Smith. The Hawks are especially long at the 2 and 3. Gil will be at a disadvantage anyway against JJ.

Young should get a good number of minutes against both Marvin WIlliams and Joe Johnson, and since Williams starts, I could see Young starting this one. However Kirk will probably defend Johnson for a few minutes when they need to rest Young, and he'll be in for a bunch of minutes chasing around Crawford.

It'll also be interesting to see how McGee does after coming off of a career game. Will he still attack the boards with the same tenacity or will he have a letdown game?

Looking forward to be able to watch a game on live TV for once. It's been a while. Hopefully, we can at least keep it competitive on TNT this time.