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Bulls incoming, Nene been resting since March, team actually playing its best ball since the beginning of the season, Beal finally shooting threes off the bounce, Wall rested, potential home court.

I for one, accept our new eastern conference finals overlords

Nope.

Derrick Rose will cook Wall.

Pau Gasol >>>>>>> Boozee

Jimmy Butler could go off.

Wiz can't guard Mirotic either.

Bulls win in 6 games easily.

Wizards need to play the Raptors so that the Wiz get embarrassed and swept since Wittman never beats Toronto.

A 2nd round appearance would be terrible. We need to suck in the playoffs to make Leonsis wake the f*** up!

I think our chances of beating Toronto are much better than beating Chicago.

Chicago is really tough with everyone healthy. Essentially, they've added Derrick Rose, Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic to the team that we beat in 5 games last year. (Plus Jimmy Butler has made a dramatic leap in production.) Meanwhile, we've downgraded from Ariza to Pierce and we've added Humphries.

nate33 wrote:I think our chances of beating Toronto are much better than beating Chicago.

Chicago is really tough with everyone healthy. Essentially, they've added Derrick Rose, Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic to the team that we beat in 5 games last year. (Plus Jimmy Butler has made a dramatic leap in production.) Meanwhile, we've downgraded from Ariza to Pierce and we've added Humphries.

True, but the Humphries addition is huge, as we now have the size to to prevent Taj from going off on us and looking like the GOAT. And of course Wall played horribly vs the Bulls in last years playoffs, so I think we can expect a much better showing from him this year. And a "healthy" Derrick Rose might be a blessing in disguise at this point if he still isn't 100%. I think the winner of the this potential series will be which starting front court outplays the other and who wins the MU between Beal and Butler. On papper both those things seem to favor the Bulls, but as we know Nene does a great job of getting inside of Noah's head and Beal showed last year he isn't afraid of the big stage.

Butler has played terribly against us this year. Averaging like 11ppg against us and this team doesn't have as much heart as it did last year. Noah is still fatigued. Rose is shook mentally, literally jacking up about 6 three balls a game.

Raptors would cook us in 5. We'll probably beat the Bulls in 6.

nate33 wrote:I think our chances of beating Toronto are much better than beating Chicago.

Chicago is really tough with everyone healthy. Essentially, they've added Derrick Rose, Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic to the team that we beat in 5 games last year. (Plus Jimmy Butler has made a dramatic leap in production.) Meanwhile, we've downgraded from Ariza to Pierce and we've added Humphries.

To put an even more fine point on it, the Bulls replaced the sucky Boozer with Pau who has been
much better this year than he has been for the last 2-3 by my eye test. We could possibly beat
the Bulls but I would give them the edge. Their bench >>> than ours with Brooks, Taj and Mirotic.
We only beat them if Wall plays out of his mind and dominates both Rose and Brooks.
Unless Beal goes all Harden on us.

While we've had the Bulls number in recent years, they're better than last year and we're probably worse. I don't trust Nene to be healthy even though he always brings it vs. the Bulls.

At best it'll be a tougher series, not the steamrolling in 5(that would have been a sweep if Dunleavy didn't go God Mode Game 3)like it was last year.

Bulls have injury question marks, I don't think all the experts will unanimously pick the Bulls like last year.

Rose - again, a twisted fall away from being out.
Noah - read an article, I think on SB Nation...he's declining, he's hurt.

It's going to come down to guarding Mirotic. Nene has pretty much owned Pau all year.

I don't expect Rose to be a difference maker come playoffs. He hasn't been a difference maker since 2012. There's honestly not much difference b/w him and the impact of Aaron Brooks nowadays. If anything, John Wall should be licking his chops at seeing Rose because there's no way Rose can defend him.

Chicago is not in great shape by any means and is very much a pretender. Even at full strength. The Gasol/Noah combo is not ideal. You've got two Cs playing together and forcing one of them to masquerade as a PF when their on the floor together limits their effectiveness on the floor.

I love Mirotic and we absolutely have no one who can check him. He's the one guy that could have a huge impact on the series but I'm not sure how much Thibs will use him in a playoff rotation, specifically at PF. I think Noah or Gasol vs. Nene is good for us. Mirotic vs. Nene is potentially bad for us because Nene is not chasing him on the perimeter.

I agree with the OP but for different reasons. Nene & Pierce are our 2nd & 3rd best players respectively but they are part time guys who need their rest to be effective. With games more spread out time wise and no back-to-backs in the playoffs, plus the recent rest both Nene/Pierce received, we are going to be a really tough out. Especially if Beal is rounding into form and poised for a similar situation where he raises his game to a higher level.

I've actually felt this way for a few weeks... with Nene/Pierce we are specfically built for a playoff series. I'd bet on Wittman securing his job into next season as the Wizards will likely manage to win another 1st round series & give another solid, if unfulfilling effort in a second round series loss.

The Wizards over the past two season under Wittman have proven that they can lose to anybody.

There are absolutely no guarantees with this team.

yall is so negative doe we gotta ticket to da finals baby

Agree with Dat on Rose. He can easily shoot them out of a game. Plus i expect Wall's defensive intensity to go up in the playoffs. Bulls are a good matchup. They look better on paper than on the court.

More worried about Toronto. Lowry has been out for awhile. If he comes back and plays well they could be trouble.

Dat2U wrote:I agree with the OP but for different reasons. Nene & Pierce are our 2nd & 3rd best players respectively but they are part time guys who need their rest to be effective. With games more spread out time wise and no back-to-backs in the playoffs, plus the recent rest both Nene/Pierce received, we are going to be a really tough out. Especially if Beal is rounding into form and poised for a similar situation where he raises his game to a higher level.

I've actually felt this way for a few weeks... with Nene/Pierce we are specfically built for a playoff series. I'd bet on Wittman securing his job into next season as the Wizards will likely manage to win another 1st round series & give another solid, if unfulfilling effort in a second round series loss.

I hope they finish strong this last 4 games and actually win two playoff series.

AFM wrote:yall is so negative doe we gotta ticket to da finals baby

Honestly, I think the Wizards have personnel to get to the finals.

The guard situation is suddenly better. The floor spacing is better. Nene and Pierce are both rested. Washington has a lot of bigs to give fouls. There is depth at every position. The Wizards can now take enough threes to match opponents.

I don't think Washington will do great in the playoffs but there is more than enough talent that if Washington should be a 3 seed anything is possible.

It does feel like we have the momentum building to do better than we did last year, but Chicago is also getting some steam.
It's not going to be easy playing Toronto or Chicago. If we are competitive, Randy & Ernie will be back.

Not to be a negative nancy but... people always get overly optimistic after a good run against mostly terrible teams. Look up average team in the dictionary and you get a team picture of your 2014/2015 Warshington Wizards.

I LOVE this board, but it is made up of the most schizophrenic fans EVER!!!!

One month ago the house was burning down....now we have the personnel to get to the Finals!!!
WTF...it all depends on match-ups.

We'll be lucky to get to the second round. We don't play Toronto well.
If we make it to the second round....we'll last at most 5 games before we are bounced (We can't beet ATL, CLE, CHI) in a 7 game series.

I predicted we'd win ~47 games and be 5th in the conference. Looks like this is close to were they will land.
This team has A LOT of work to do via the FO before we can be optimistic in the second season.

Geez.....FANatics

Ruzious wrote:Not to be a negative nancy but... people always get overly optimistic after a good run against mostly terrible teams. Look up average team in the dictionary and you get a team picture of your 2014/2015 Warshington Wizards.

You could say that about all of the teams in the EC middle class (Chicago/Toronto/Washington)

noworriesinmd wrote:I LOVE this board, but it is made up of the most schizophrenic fans EVER!!!!

One month ago the house was burning down....now we have the personnel to get to the Finals!!!
WTF...it all depends on match-ups.

We'll be lucky to get to the second round. We don't play Toronto well.
If we make it to the second round....we'll last at most 5 games before we are bounced (We can't beet ATL, CLE, CHI) in a 7 game series.

I predicted we'd win ~47 games and be 5th in the conference. Looks like this is close to were they will land.
This team has A LOT of work to do via the FO before we can be optimistic in the second season.

Geez.....FANatics

+1. I am not buying anything from this latest win streak. The Memphis game was a positive but the rest of the wins came against horrible teams. I am not automatically going to forget the second half of this season where we have basically played below .500 ball despite being relatively healthy.

I think the Wizards match up better with Chicago but I can easily see the Bulls dismantling us in the playoffs, especially since they will be even hungrier after last year.

I plan on selling all my tickets for the first round. If they make it to the second round, I'll become interested again.