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Big Al has been BEASTING. Charlotte has played well since the All-Star Break.

A pivotal game in the sucky East playoff race!

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Last game:
Wizards vs. HEAT - 90-99
Nuggets - Bobcats - 98-105


Lineups:











Bench: Seraphin?











I may or may not play crew:

I know Jefferson is having a great year, but I haven't seen him do it to us yet. Last time we played, Big Al had 6 points on 3-9 shooting. Last year in 2 games against us, he averaged 16 and 11 on 41% shooting.

Maybe this is the time he sticks it to us and forces me to respect him. Until that happens, I can't bring myself to fear Al Jefferson.

I'd feel even better about it if we had Nene though. Without Nene, we're really going to need Gortat to stay out of foul trouble. I don't really want to see Drew Gooden or Al Harrington guarding Jefferson.

nate33 wrote:
I'd feel even better about it if we had Nene though. Without Nene, we're really going to need Gortat to stay out of foul trouble. I don't really want to see Drew Gooden or Al Harrington guarding Jefferson.

exactly.

any word on QueSeraSera for tonight? He has the type of body that could possibly
slow Jefferson down. Our other guys, not so much (other than 'Tat')

this could be a game like the Mem game where a defensive presence in the paint
would be very useful.

Seraphin practiced and is probably playing tonight. I don't see how this affects Harrington or Gooden. They could go with a super big lineup with Harrington at the 3, Gooden at the 4, and Seraphin at the 5.

note to self - give Kudos to M Lee to pass along to the WaPo for finally publishing
standings by conference. Also for putting offensive eff (pts/100 poss) in an article.
In fact, I think I'll suggest to him that the next time he has a 'day off' ie no game to
write about, he should do an article about advanced statistics, what they are, how
to interpret them, which teams are making the best/most use of them yada yada.
Average fans could use some education in this realm. I could too for that matter.

Rafael122 wrote:Seraphin practiced and is probably playing tonight. I don't see how this affects Harrington or Gooden. They could go with a super big lineup with Harrington at the 3, Gooden at the 4, and Seraphin at the 5.

hopefully a good thing. I just think Jefferson has the type of offensive game
that Seraphin, among our bench players, has the best chance of defending.
That said, AlJeff has been ripping a lot of teams a new one so expectations
maybe oughta be kept in check.

BTW, it's a testament to their coach that they have been playing well despite being ranked in the bottom half in offense. They beat the Nuggets the other night and only had 3 guys in double figures. This is a game the Wizards should win.

Definitely thought we were playing the pelicans from reading the OP and in reading "Big Al has been beasting", the closest thing to an Al in New Orleans is Al-Farouq Aminu (one of WizD's draft crushes because of his bowleggedness).

We'll win tonight. Time to get another hot streak going.

Higga wrote:We'll win tonight. Time to get another hot streak going.

Win tonight would be important. A win Sat vs BRK is essential.

Aren't them still Charlotte Bobcats? (GT Title)

Should win it, we're just better, just need to prove it on the court.

Shut Big Al down and keep Kemba Walker in check, should be a win. BobHornetCats don't have a player that's a real threat to go off.

Gut feeling, zards come out flat, crushing loss.

Hope I'm wrong.

Big game tonight, didn't notice it was tonight, thought it was Friday. Combined with NJ @ MIA, I'm hoping this can be a good night with us winning and the two teams directly trailing us in the standings losing.

pancakes3 wrote:Definitely thought we were playing the pelicans from reading the OP and in reading "Big Al has been beasting", the closest thing to an Al in New Orleans is Al-Farouq Aminu (one of WizD's draft crushes because of his bowleggedness).

MarcoPolo wrote:Aren't them still Charlotte Bobcats? (GT Title)

Should win it, we're just better, just need to prove it on the court.

I'm getting a running start on next season.

jayscott wrote:Shut Big Al down and keep Kemba Walker in check, should be a win. BobHornetCats don't have a player that's a real threat to go off.

both players you mentioned are threats to go off

Al has been dominant but he hasnt faced too many guys that have the size on him. He seemed to struggle last time. I think Gortat & Gooden can bother him.

All of that is soooo secondary anyways because if Wall goes for it then we should win. The sad part is that I know Walker will go for it, for better or worse. I wanna see Wall do the same. Come out from the jump and set the tone.

I still think alot of it has to do with Witt and even our local commentators like Ron Thompson. They basically say he should try to get everyone involved first and then look for his later but I disagree. 1st off he's not a KD type scorer where he can just go off whenever he wants. He's also a pass 1st guy so he's going to get others involved even when he's aggressive and attacking. I just rather him come out from the jump looking to takeoever. It is still by far when we are at our best

Wizards play best when Wall gets everyone else scoring and emotionally invested in the game. Defense is better, ball moves better, and everyone's shot seems to fall.

Wall is/should be the best player in the game. He needs to be aggressive
but in doing so he needs to always remember he is the facilitator that
makes things for all his teammates.

We are favored by about 6 tonight. In January, when we were at Charlotte, Charlotte was favored by 1 (Nene and Beal played.). If the NBA is like the NFL, Las Vegas values home court/field advantage at 3 points. Every thing else being equal (i.e. disregard that our bench is better now), on a neutral court, we were 2 pt. favorite in January and 3 pt. favorite now.

Conclusion: According to Las Vegas, the absence of Maynor is more of a positive for us than the absence of Nene is a negative. (Veseley is a non-factor.)

Maynor