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So YOUR Washington Bullets return to the Verizon Center with a split and taking home court advantage AWAY from the #1 seeded Atlanta Hawks

HOWEVER, Washington's superstar John Wall has a significant wrist injury that may keep him out additional time. He is seeking a THIRD OPINION on the wrist in DC and his status for Saturday's pivotal Game 3 is up in the air. Wall did play through the injury on Sunday with the adrenaline going and managed to masterfully finish the game.

The Wiz showed a lot of heart to stay in the game with the Hawks in Game 2. Officiating was one sided to the home team and Gortat fouled out. Nene is looking like Roy Hibbert in the 2014 playoffs vs. ATL and he can't get his offense going. His defense is also hurting the team due to his weak close outs and rotations. Paul Millsap is a matchup nightmare for the Wiz and AL Horford is anchoring the defense inside.

The three point shooting for the Wizards is there but they have to figure out how to balance the matchups inside. Millsap said before the series he thought his frontcourt had the advantage and through two games, he is right on the money.

Let's also clap for Otto Porter and The Truth they need more touches and if Pierce has his shot going again, I'd feed him and play him in isolations rather than the gimpy Bradley Beal. I believe Pierce could have went for 25-30 points in Game 2 if Wittless called some plays to get him the ball especially with him having a spring in his step.

Offense might be the best weapon against Millsap.

Jeff Teague is hurting due to his ankle. Dennis Shroeder is shredding it out there when he gets in the game.

Wall's teammates in the postgame are hinting he might not be back. What do you all think?


-------------------------VS-------------------------

Last game:

Wizards @ ATL Hawks (L) 90-106


Lineups:











Bench:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BenStandig/status/595931533011124225[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/BenStandig/status/595931796157505537[/tweet]

Dumbasses

Upping

I'm torn (no pun intended) regarding Wall's wrist situation. On one hand (seriously, not intending these terrible puns), if the swelling goes down and he feels pretty good come Saturday, I want him to suit up and give our team an actual chance of winning the series.

But on the other hand, if the reports are true that you risk permanent injury playing on a bum wrist, even if Wall feels like he can suit up, I might rather hold him out until next year.

The worst possible thing would be for us to mishandle this situation and have a permanently injured John Wall for the rest of his time in D.C. But at the same time, if Wall plays and wins us this series, what that could potentially do in terms of making the Wizards a viable free agent destination are immeasurable.

FAH1223 wrote:[tweet]https://twitter.com/BenStandig/status/595931533011124225[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/BenStandig/status/595931796157505537[/tweet]

Dumbasses

from today:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inqzwBFOsdQ[/youtube]

3rd opinion, that sounds like a worst case scenario.

I hate to be a debbie downer but I think he might be done for the rest of the playoffs.

What a huge letdown after we have made it to the second round again, but are playing great this time around and really giving the favorite some trouble this time.

God damnit.

We had a shot to win that game if Randy had not miss handled the front court. So we just have to hope that Beal and super sessions can bring us home

If Wall is ruled out for the rest of the series, it's not a total loss.

Beal will get invaluable experience being the lead dog. Hopefully he'll finally realize that he needs to work on his ball handling instead of his mid-range game. Those iso's against Horford were excruciating.

We're dead in the water without Wall. I think we surprised Atlanta in Game 2 because Sessions played out of his mind and they didn't have an extensive scouting report on how to beat the Wall-less offense. Going forward, I think Atlanta will lock us down and make things ugly. The only way we win now is to make it a defensive struggle. We won't crack 90 points without Wall.

Darn, someone posted to the effect that this team is a house of cards, remove John and the entire thing collapses. Too-much drop-off in back court depth. There is not alpha scorer to fill the gap. Benching Nene could do wonders.

closg00 wrote:Darn, someone posted to the effect that this team is a house of cards, remove John and the entire thing collapses. Too-much drop-off in back court depth. There is not alpha scorer to fill the gap. Benching Nene could do wonders.

Most non-elite teams are a house of cards without their superstar.

Without Wall we'll have to rely on Beal and superior coachi...lol I can't

JWizmentality wrote:Without Wall we'll have to rely on Beal and superior coachi...lol I can't

Maybe a vintage Paul Pierce performance

LAC won one game w/o CP3. So should we, esp. on our own court! We ain't gonn fold yet.

I'll be there but I don't see how we have a chance without Wall. And if he really can risk permanent long term damage by playing on it, I'd almost rather he not. I mean the last thing we need is another RG3 situation.

diaboliQ_Mo wrote:LAC won one game w/o CP3. So should we, esp. on our own court! We ain't gonn fold yet.

We can probably win at least won just by making the game ugly on defense. The difference between us and the Clippers is that they have Blake Griffin who is also a top 10 NBA player. We don't have another guy on the roster who is even a top 30 NBA player. Our 2nd best player is worse than LA's 3rd best player.

nate33 wrote:

diaboliQ_Mo wrote:LAC won one game w/o CP3. So should we, esp. on our own court! We ain't gonn fold yet.

We can probably win at least won just by making the game ugly on defense. The difference between us and the Clippers is that they have Blake Griffin who is also a top 10 NBA player. We don't have another guy on the roster who is even a top 30 NBA player. Our 2nd best player is worse than LA's 3rd best player.

And Deandre Jordan, who's terrific as well.

One difficulty the Wizards may have in making things into an ugly, defensive contest is that Wall is also their best perimeter defender.

nate33 wrote:

closg00 wrote:Darn, someone posted to the effect that this team is a house of cards, remove John and the entire thing collapses. Too-much drop-off in back court depth. There is not alpha scorer to fill the gap. Benching Nene could do wonders.

Most non-elite teams are a house of cards without their superstar.

I think you would agree that all teams are not equal in depth should they be w/o their team star(s). Some teams can hold their own w/o their star and when they have injuries to starters.

closg00 wrote:

nate33 wrote:

closg00 wrote:Darn, someone posted to the effect that this team is a house of cards, remove John and the entire thing collapses. Too-much drop-off in back court depth. There is not alpha scorer to fill the gap. Benching Nene could do wonders.

Most non-elite teams are a house of cards without their superstar.

I think you would agree that all teams are not equal in depth should they be w/o their team star(s). Some teams can hold their own w/o their star and when they have injuries to starters.

Right, but the "house of cards" line sounds derogatory. It's unreasonable to expect a team to "hold their own" against a #1 seed in the playoffs when they lose their best player and focal point of the offense.

I hope my flight has free wifi as I will be on a plane for 8 hours! Might get to watch it on Watch ESPN