RealGM

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___________________VS______________________

_______35-35, 10th East__________________________________________________________41-30, 4th East
___19-15 Home / 5-5 last 10 _______________________________________________ 18-17 Home / 8-2 Last 10
_4th Southeast Div / 10th East ______________________________________________2nd Southeast Div / 4th East

Coming off of a solid road win in the ATL on Monday night, YOUR Washington Wizards return to the friendly confines of the Verizon Center for the back end of a home and home series versus the Atlanta Hawks. The good guys are running out of time to secure a coveted playoff berth and are currently chasing both the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons, both of whom are a game and a half ahead of the Wiz.

Your Wizards prevailed on Monday night spurred by their backcourt play. PG John Wall dropped 27 points (10-21 fg) and 14 dimes while SG Bradley Beal contributed 25 points on 10-15 shooting (5-6 3pts). The team's pick and roll scheme freed ATL's guards to shoot freely behind high pick-and-rolls, but also kept the Hawk's versitile big men from creating havoc in the paint on unchecked rolls. We'll see if ATL Head Coach Mike Budenholzer will make the adjustment for this game.

The Wizards cannot afford many more losses before kissing their playoff aspirations goodbye. It will be a warm, spring Wednesday night in the District. Can YOUR Wizards find the juju to come up with a win at home?


Projected Lineups:

Point Guard

________________________

________John Wall, 6' 4", Kentucky_______________________________________Jeff Teague, 6' 2", Wake Forest
_______20.2 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 10.0 apg ________________________________________15.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 5.9 apg
______42.8% fg, 34.7% 3pt, 79.0% ft _______________________________________43.2% fg, 39.8% 3pt, 83.3% ft


Off Guard

_________________________

________Bradley Beal, 6' 5", Florida_______________________________________Kyle Korver, 6' 7", Creighton
________17.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.8 apg _________________________________________9.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.1 apg
_______45.5% fg, 39.5% 3pt, 76.1% ft _____________________________________43.8% fg, 40.3% 3pt, 81.6% ft


Small Forward

________________________

______Otto Porter, 6' 8", Georgetown___________________________________Kent Bazemore, 6' 5", Old Dominion
________11.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 1.7 apg _________________________________________11.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.2 apg
_______46.5% fg, 35.1% 3pt, 73.9% ft _______________________________________43.9% fg, 35.7% 3pt, 83.8% ft


Power Forward

________________________

______Markieff Morriss, 6' 10", Kansas____________________________________Paul Millsap, 6' 8", LA Tech
________10.7 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.4 apg ________________________________________17.2 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 3.2 apg
_______45.4% fg, 25.0% 3pt, 78.1% ft _____________________________________47.5% fg, 30.9% 3pt, 75.3% ft


Center

________________________

________Marcin Gortat, 6' 11", Poland_________________________________________Al Horford, 6' 10", Florida
_________13.4 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.4 apg __________________________________________15.4 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 3.2 apg
________42.8% fg, 34.7% 3pt, 79.0% ft ________________________________________51.2% fg, 35.5% 3pt, 80.0% ft



-- Can the Wizards make it two in a row against a southeast division rival?
-- Who will win the coaching battle of adjustments?
-- Will the Wiz defense and rebounding keep pace with a quick and effective Hawk front line?

Post your thoughts, opinions, and predictions here.


What: Washington Wizards vs Atlanta Hawks

Where: Verizon Center - Washington, DC

When: 7:00 p.m. (EDT)

TV: Comcast Sportsnet, NBA League Pass

Radio: WNEW 99.1 FM


Go Wizards!

Pine with the high quality game thread! It's an omen!

Dude spent some quality time with the bbcode for this one. Good win juju.

Love the wings coming out of the Hawks' players faces. Their heads are bout to fly away from their shoulders. Meanwhile, our guys look like a barber had a little fun trimming down a fro. "Just gonna put a basketball here, don't mind the spray paint. Now that's fresh."

Pine!! You did it again.

I have a few worries and 2 true worries. Atlanta is a great team right now so it's nearly impossible to beat someone like that b2b. I'm worried that they will be truly focused and want revenge while we won't have the same urgency as the last game but we should be ok since we are still trying to make the playoffs.

My 2 real worries are things that happened post game. Dudley basically gave our game plan away to the press. He said that we wanted to go under on Teague screens and make him beat us. He basically said that they played them to where they would give Teague anything he wants so he could score 50 but they don't believe that he has that natural mentality to where he would want to shoot that much but now I'm worried that him and Schroeder will try to score at will after winning that.

The 2nd is something I thought of yesterday but can't remember right now so I will update later....lol

Wall has to get back to finishing though. He made all his layups in December. The good thing is I heard him talk about his 20, 10, and 5 stats and you can tell that he feels awesome about it. Therefore even if alot of people think it's inefficient, that doesn't matter. What matters is what he believes in his own mind and his mind right now is telling him that he's putting up Superstar numbers which is making him right now at this moment more confident then he's ever been as a pro so I think he's going to ball out again

dlts20 wrote:I have a few worries and 2 true worries. Atlanta is a great team right now so it's nearly impossible to beat someone like that b2b. I'm worried that they will be truly focused and want revenge while we won't have the same urgency as the last game but we should be ok since we are still trying to make the playoffs.

My 2 real worries are things that happened post game. Dudley basically gave our game plan away to the press. He said that we wanted to go under on Teague screens and make him beat us. He basically said that they played them to where they would give Teague anything he wants so he could score 50 but they don't believe that he has that natural mentality to where he would want to shoot that much but now I'm worried that him and Schroeder will try to score at will after winning that.

The 2nd is something I thought of yesterday but can't remember right now so I will update later....lol

Wall has to get back to finishing though. He made all his layups in December. The good thing is I heard him talk about his 20, 10, and 5 stats and you can tell that he feels awesome about it. Therefore even if alot of people think it's inefficient, that doesn't matter. What matters is what he believes in his own mind and his mind right now is telling him that he's putting up Superstar numbers which is making him right now at this moment more confident then he's ever been as a pro so I think he's going to ball out again

I don't think giving away the game-plan to the media really matters. Teague was well aware of the strategy towards the middle and definitely at the end of the game.

34/7/14 wall
36/7/4 beal
27 Porter or Morris

118-107 wizards win

AFM wrote:Pine with the high quality game thread! It's an omen!

Yeah Pine brought it! Now if the wiz game is only Half as tight as his!

Now I remember what the other worry was. Idk if you guys saw but the Hawks gave Gortat mad props after the game for his screens. Alot of them were calling him the best in the league. However alot of the fans said him and others were moving a ton and they were illegal. I'm scared that the Hawks will talk to the ref alot about it before the game and they will call alot of illegal screens on our bigs. If so then it better go both ways because Horfford always moves. Anyways I don't want the game to get choppy and our rhythm thrown off because of it

Meliorus wrote:

dlts20 wrote:I have a few worries and 2 true worries. Atlanta is a great team right now so it's nearly impossible to beat someone like that b2b. I'm worried that they will be truly focused and want revenge while we won't have the same urgency as the last game but we should be ok since we are still trying to make the playoffs.

My 2 real worries are things that happened post game. Dudley basically gave our game plan away to the press. He said that we wanted to go under on Teague screens and make him beat us. He basically said that they played them to where they would give Teague anything he wants so he could score 50 but they don't believe that he has that natural mentality to where he would want to shoot that much but now I'm worried that him and Schroeder will try to score at will after winning that.

The 2nd is something I thought of yesterday but can't remember right now so I will update later....lol

Wall has to get back to finishing though. He made all his layups in December. The good thing is I heard him talk about his 20, 10, and 5 stats and you can tell that he feels awesome about it. Therefore even if alot of people think it's inefficient, that doesn't matter. What matters is what he believes in his own mind and his mind right now is telling him that he's putting up Superstar numbers which is making him right now at this moment more confident then he's ever been as a pro so I think he's going to ball out again

I don't think giving away the game-plan to the media really matters. Teague was well aware of the strategy towards the middle and definitely at the end of the game.

I agree Teague was aware but there is something to be said about telling someone exactly what you are doing. It is daring Teague to shoot and Teague is a pro athlete with an ego. If Teague has any pride at all he will SHOOT every time they go under the screen...and watch out if he is hot cause he can shoot. In fact all of the guys in the NBA can shoot left open (don't believe anyone that tells you otherwise- I have witnessed this- bench players or centers making 5-10 3s in a row at practice). I wonder if Dudley is telling him this to MAKE him shoot because if he starts missing it will be contiguous OR if he starts making we can always change the plan. REGARDLESS we need this one.

We beat the ventriloquist Teague and co. last game, lets do it again. I am terrified however about the .500 curse, last time we were over .500 was November 24

Normally what Dudley said wouldn't be a huge deal because you won't see that opponent again for weeks or months but when it's a b2b, I think you should wait until after the 2nd game to say that. With that being said, Teague is smart and coach Bud is super smart so they probably would've been more aware anyways.

It would be nice if they called Horford for that moving screen once in a while. Whenever Wall or Temple went under the high screen, Horford would retreat toward the basket just as Wall/Temple was going behind him - physically pushing Wall/Temple further away from the wide open Teague. Wall and Temple should be prepared to flop on that screen by Horford in order to draw that call.

dlts20 wrote:Normally what Dudley said wouldn't be a huge deal because you won't see that opponent again for weeks or months but when it's a b2b, I think you should wait until after the 2nd game to say that. With that being said, Teague is smart and coach Bud is super smart so they probably would've been more aware anyways.

Agreed - though maybe the Wiz change their strategy the next game. The Wiz have 2 more games against Atl and need every advantage they can get.

Fwiw, Teague has been ineffective as a 3 point shooter against the Wiz for his career - making only 0.7 of them per game on 28.8% accuracy.

Pine,

Gortat is actually shooting 56% from the field!

and not 34% from 3. Those are John Wall's stats. Another sloppily put together game thread.

AFM wrote:and not 34% from 3. Those are John Wall's stats. Another sloppily put together game thread.

If we lose, now we know who to blame.

AFM wrote:and not 34% from 3. Those are John Wall's stats. Another sloppily put together game thread.

Dang, you turn on people quickly.

I swear I remember seeing Marcin Gortat make a three this season.

Too soon to say must win game?