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YOUR Washington Wizards ARE TIED with the Indiana Pacers 1-1 after a disappointing Game 2 in which we saw the opportunity to go 2-0 fall by the wayside.

We witnessed the Wizards shoot 5-21 from 3 point range and John Wall have his worst shooting night in the entire postseason. His struggles shooting and the lack of team success at the free throw line is starting to catch up to the Wizards.

This can be cured if Wall drives with reckless abandon to the rim and shoots more free throws. An 80% shooter at the line will help team percentages instead of Nene being the guy going to the line all the time.

Marcin Gortat played pretty well and got those bunnies to drop and he had a few classic Polish Hammer plays on both of Indiana's Centers.

Roy Hibbert bounced back with his best game of the season after going fishing with Paul George and George Hill. Will he be able to duplicate the "feetwork" in the words of Shaq or rather, blatant traveling to score again? 28 points and 9 rebounds along with 8-8 from the FT line are great numbers for anyone. However despite this, IND only won by 4 and Washington had no significant fastbreak points in the game.

Ariza continues to do a good job vs. Paul George who was 5-13 but had two big baskets to put IND up for good in the final 3 minutes.

What will it take to take a 2-1 series lead? The Wizards are probably the worst home team in the postseason left when looking at regular season records. Will there be a home court advantage and can Wall become more aggressive in scoring in the paint and getting to the line?!

Keys to the game:

-Keep moving the ball, get great looks... NO LONG TWOS.. DRIVE, DRIVE, GET FOULED
-Protect the boards, the Wiz have done great here in 2 games
-No turnovers.. ISO Ball is a turnover with this team, again, great job protecting the ball by Wall and co.
-Force turnovers and push the pace
-Make FREE THROWS
-PLAY WITH INTENSITY!

Also, #FireGrunfeld... still. For good measure.




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LAST MEETING:
Wizards vs. Pacers - (L) 82-86

Where: Verizon Center, Washington, DC

When: Friday May 9, 8:00 PM EST on ESPN, 99.1 FM WNEW, 1500 AM



Lineups:











Key Bench Players:

We took 1 from them at home. We're going home for 2 where we can go up 3-1. The Pacers are not the same team on the road.

bealwithit wrote:We took 1 from them at home. We're going home for 2 where we can go up 3-1. The Pacers are not the same team on the road.

Very true!! They struggle on the road

FAH1223 wrote:

bealwithit wrote:We took 1 from them at home. We're going home for 2 where we can go up 3-1. The Pacers are not the same team on the road.

Very true!! They struggle on the road

Which is why I think we HAVE to take both games at home. I don't feel comfortable going back to the Fieldhouse tied 2-2 if Hibbert keeps playing well.

.
Resiliency is the key to turning adversity into opportunity. It requires that you let go of any fear associated with change and embrace new things. And so, peeps, we must -- sadly -- embrace the fact that the time for our former good luck charm, Luv-a-Bull Evadney, has passed.

We've all been through a lot, Evadney and this board. She has come to watch over the ascension of Miller from a mere likable kid from streets of Baltimore to grand snitch to Global Moderator here at RealGM. She's seen a lot of us old guard pass through life-altering events -- JRo's kid, Donkey's kid(s), WizStorm's Vegas marriage, SD20's dental hi-jinks, JWiz and Doc's descent into their current post-padding hell

Long-time and respected posters have moved to new locations where we -- Evadney and I -- hope they are thriving: Nate, Severn, CCJ.

But last night's loss demonstrates that Evadney has just run out of her mojo. It's just time to retire her from these board with a fond "thank you" and "farewell". Fair winds and following seas to you. And thanks for all the good times.

A nostalgic retrospective, one last time, for all of you boardies who'll miss her.








Our new good luck charm will be a Pacermate who was selected for this honor by our own keynote.



Laura Beth, you have some big shoes to fill. Good luck.



And Let's Go Wizards!

It just won't be the same to scroll through the posts looking for pine's pearls of wisdom and not seeing Evander's radiant face smiling back at me.

Play to strengths!

Great post. Three cheers for Laura Beth! You're RealGM famous now!!!

It`s almost better that they lost, our young guys need some failure and adversity to grow. You didn`t really think they were gonna sweep the Pacers ? we will win this series, we have the matchups, the Wizards just cannot beat themselves. I can almost guarantee Hibbert won`t go for 30 again.

They struggle on the road.
We aren't all that at home.

The stoppable force meets the moveable object.


That said if we ball out like we're capable of I don't think the crowd even matters.

Anyone know who's reffing?

If Joey Crawford is doing this game or Sunday's, please don't piss him off guys

I haven't lost a Wiz bet this year. In vegas, collecting my round one & game one winnings. Betting big on game three.

We bette win this one or you're to blame for disregarding GT etiquette FAH1223

I'm hoping Roy Hibbert just had his Dunleavy game of this series and he will be completely irrelevant/playing back to his regular level the rest of the way.

FAH1223 wrote:Anyone know who's reffing?

If Joey Crawford is doing this game or Sunday's, please don't piss him off guys

He gets pissed off every time he looks in the mirror and sees one of the Three Stooges.

barelyawake wrote:I haven't lost a Wiz bet this year. In vegas, collecting my round one & game one winnings. Betting big on game three.

Wasn't game 2 line 4.5?

montestewart wrote:

barelyawake wrote:I haven't lost a Wiz bet this year. In vegas, collecting my round one & game one winnings. Betting big on game three.

Wasn't game 2 line 4.5?

Didn't bet game 2. Didn't feel right. In my head, I thought we had a 65% chance of losing. This one, I'd flip those odds. With the points, more like 75%. My own crazy system.

Beals been nice but this offense isn't made to be run through Beal in any fashion, and he's not ready to run it either--his dribble game still has a way to go. Next year he'll probably get there but not now. Wittman hasn't even installed a single package for Wall off the ball--we're talking one of the fastest guys in the league not getting ANY off ball screens to free him up for oops or anything. Dude has less than ten oops on the year, that's how bad Wittman has been in regards to x's and o's.

Walls been atrocious with the jumper and it's unacceptable, but if we don't allow him to run the offense aggressively then we're going to pay. There's a reason that Ariza had a terrible game last night, it's because Beal doesn't get him the looks Wall does. Beal running around Nene and Gortat off the ball for 20 of the 24 seconds until he gets the slightest window for a jumpshot looks good when it works but it lets a defense get set, gives little chance for offensive rebounds, and is a low percentage shot to boot.

queridiculo wrote:We bette win this one or you're to blame for disregarding GT etiquette FAH1223

Yup, I have bad feelings about this game. FAH making another GT after a loss is a baaad omen. Maybe new luv-a-pacers will help?