GT: The Blazers @ The Wiz - 12/3/2008

[DallasShalDune]

Date: December 3, 2008
Time: 7:00pm (EST)

Who is going to win??

Our 3-12 Boyos in Blue?

PG: Dee Brown (Can He Hit His Like 3rd Career 3 Tonight?)
SG: DeShawn Stevenson (Can He See Feel His Face?)
SF: Caron Butler (Can He Fill Gil's Shoes?)
PF: Antawn Jamison (Can He Fill 2007/2008 AMFJ's Shoes?)
C: JaVale McGee (Can He Fill KwaMAY Brown's Shoes?)

Honorable Mention: Nick Young. I'd like to see a good 25 points from our sophomore. Will it happen? I have no idea. We can hope though.


Or the 13-6 Portland Trail Blazers?

PG: Former Wiz, Steve Blake (3 cheers for Blake. Who woulda thunk he'd end up better than our own Juan Dixon, coming out of Maryland)
SG: The Great Brandon Roy (I'd like to have him on our roster... Maybe we can pawn Song off for him)
SF: The Psht Who Nicolas Batum (Rook who hasn't produced much this year so far. He'll prolly go off tomorrow)
PF: The Solid LaMarcus Aldridge (Can Antawn guard him?)
C: The Ready For a Break Out Game Greg Oden (Or a career ending injury)

Honorable Mention: Travis Outlaw (Again, another solid player form the only team remaining up there in the Pacific Northwest.


Matchup of the Night:
JaVale McGee v. Greg Oden
Which rookie is going to show their upside more tonight? The win might not hinge on this fact, and I think it can be safe to assume that, barring injuries, Greg Oden is the better player, and will always be the better player, but JaVale McGee has shown flashes of something special so far this season. He's better than Blatche and Kwame, and I have faith that he can eventually be trusted to be our solid post presence and help us to the Promise Land. Amen.


X-Factor(s) for our Wizards:
DeShawn Stevenson. If he can play as well as he did against the Nets tonight, then we have a good chance to beat a good team. It may be a stretch, but if he can give us a good 15 points and solid D on Roy, we might have this in the bag. Especially since it is a home game.

Let's get on a roll, Like A Rolling Stone.
--------------------------

I predict a loss, but I think we can be competitive. I won't be surprised if we win, though I still anticipate a close one for Portland. They're solid as of late. 102-99

[PDXKnight]

It should be an interesting game. Portland's been playing well on back to back games but the Wiz just came up with a pretty impressive win over the Nets. I would agree that this could be a close one as our games have come relatively close on the road, but what may decide the outcome for Portland besides a decent game from Roy is what kind of contribution our centers provide. Oden and Przybilla haven't been huge on offense, but their defensive intimidation and rebounding have given us a huge advantage recently. If the Wiz can keep the boards relatively even, you have a much better chance of pulling out with the W.

[Soup's Uncle]

LaMarcus Aldridge and Oden are gonna be a scary tandem for years to come if they stay healthy and together.

[taufblazers33]

good luck to u guys. may the better team win

Caron Butler is a special player. u guys are lucky to have him

[closg00]

We had our hot-shooting outting last night. The Blazers front-court/back-court match-up & deep bench will bury us. Watching AB & McGee trying to battle Oden in the paint won't be pretty.

Ps. We never should have let Steve Blake walk. Thanks Ernie!

[miller31time]

I'm leaning towards a close loss.

As closg00 said, we had a ridiculously great shooting game last night at New Jersey. After our last hot shooting night (Warriors game) where we came away with a win, we cooled off big-time in our following game.

We are at home, which leads me to believe this won't be a blowout, but I don't see us winning.

Stranger things have happened, though.

[nate33]

We had our hot-shooting outting last night. The Blazers front-court/back-court match-up & deep bench will bury us. Watching AB & McGee trying to battle Oden in the paint won't be pretty.

Ps. We never should have let Steve Blake walk. Thanks Ernie!

Blake asked to be let go. He didn't want to be a career backup for Gilbert Arenas.

[BigA]

Hopefully the Wizards can put together a couple strong performances in a row. Both teams playing the second night in a row off of wins. Beating the young, talented Blazers, a rising team in the West, would be encouraging.

[closg00]

We had our hot-shooting outting last night. The Blazers front-court/back-court match-up & deep bench will bury us. Watching AB & McGee trying to battle Oden in the paint won't be pretty.

Ps. We never should have let Steve Blake walk. Thanks Ernie!

Blake asked to be let go. He didn't want to be a career backup for Gilbert Arenas.

Blake was a restricted FA at the time, Ernie could have chosen to match the Blazers offer, he did for Etan Blake went to the Blazers as a back-up for Telfair.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

I would be very surprised at a win.

[nate33]

We had our hot-shooting outting last night. The Blazers front-court/back-court match-up & deep bench will bury us. Watching AB & McGee trying to battle Oden in the paint won't be pretty.

Ps. We never should have let Steve Blake walk. Thanks Ernie!

Blake asked to be let go. He didn't want to be a career backup for Gilbert Arenas.

Blake was a restricted FA at the time, Ernie could have chosen to match the Blazers offer, he did for Etan Blake went to the Blazers as a back-up for Telfair.

Blake recognized that Telfair wasn't a lock to be a starter like Arenas was. Blake knew that there was no chance he would ever play more than 10 minutes a game in Washington. Portland offered him a fair shot at starting. Blake wanted to go where he had a chance.

Yes, EG could have matched, but it's the kind of thing you don't do if you are trying to develop a good reputation among future free agency prospects. Besides, it really wouldn't have been all that wise to pay Blake $3-4M a year to be a backup PG in the first place. EG couldn't have foreseen a future Arenas injury that would cost him 150 games.

It's not fair to evaluate these moves with 20/20 hindsight. At the time, the Wizards had Arenas and they believed they'd be retaining Hughes and Dixon. They also had Jeffries and Hayes who could both play minutes at guard. Blake just wasn't a high priority. Sure, it would have been nice to keep him here at a reasonable price, but the guy wanted to play elsewhere. If EG insisted on keeping him, Blake would have just signed a one-year deal and left as an unrestricted free agent the following year anyway.

[dobrojim]

[snip]
PG: Former Wiz, Steve Blake (3 cheers for Blake. Who woulda thunk he'd end up better than our own Juan Dixon, coming out of Maryland)

Raises hand

I did. It wasn't that hard to predict really given Juan physical deficiencies
for the position he actually plays or used to play. The main question was
whether Stevie would develop a semi-reliable shot/3 pt shot. He's done
that, hence he's a rotation player and been a rotation player for a couple
of decent teams.

[Jack wore plaid]

FYI on Batum for the OP.


He is a very good defender, who doesn't do anything to hurt the team. He had a bad game last night, but had recent games of 12 and 15 points.

I also think Rudy Fernandez or Joel Przybilla are more worhty of an honorable mention that Outlaw is

Good luck to you guys this season.

Portland usually plays to their competition....see the Knick game last night. So I expect a close game.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Ohh, they have Batum. We were all totally high on Batum before the draft weren't we? He's looked really good so far, in the limited time that I've seen him. Looks like Tayshaun Prince sort of.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

[snip]
PG: Former Wiz, Steve Blake (3 cheers for Blake. Who woulda thunk he'd end up better than our own Juan Dixon, coming out of Maryland)

Raises hand

I did. It wasn't that hard to predict really given Juan physical deficiencies
for the position he actually plays or used to play. The main question was
whether Stevie would develop a semi-reliable shot/3 pt shot. He's done
that, hence he's a rotation player and been a rotation player for a couple
of decent teams.

Yeah, I did, too.

I once made the statement about 4 years ago that I'd rather have Blake at PG than Arenas. I was really wrong about that, but if you think about it, Blake's starting on a team that's 13-6 in the western conference. He's found ways not only to distribute but to score pretty reliably. He gets overmatched some nights, but he's actually an average defender at PG now.

I always did like Blake, even coming out of Maryland. I'm not at all surprised how well he's doing. I'm glad for him that EG didn't resign him because Blake's having a very nice career.

[southnc]

We had our hot-shooting outting last night. The Blazers front-court/back-court match-up & deep bench will bury us. Watching AB & McGee trying to battle Oden in the paint won't be pretty.

Ps. We never should have let Steve Blake walk. Thanks Ernie!

Blake asked to be let go. He didn't want to be a career backup for Gilbert Arenas.

Hmmmm...

From what I heard, Blake actually left because of the Atkins acquisition. There is some irony here in that Blake also left Denver because of Atkins again. Dixon was supposedly the one who left no matter what was going on.

[jakjup216]

Last time i posted in another teams forum i was banned for talkin ship.. but ima kep it clean.. IMO ya'll shoulda let Arenas leave. Caron and Twan are better without him.. and since u drafted nick young.. HE should be the 3rd option.. with that said.. i hope we beat ya'll.. i dont look @ the record cuz that dont tell the whole story.. i KNOW we goin have our hands full

[dobrojim]

well thanks for keeping it clean I guess...

as for your suggestion that we should have let Arenas go because AJ and TJ
are "better without him" or that N1 is ready to step into the number 3 role,
well, we may not try to ban you, but we may not take you too seriously either.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Last time i posted in another teams forum i was banned for talkin ship.. but ima kep it clean.. IMO ya'll shoulda let Arenas leave. Caron and Twan are better without him.. and since u drafted nick young.. HE should be the 3rd option.. with that said.. i hope we beat ya'll.. i dont look @ the record cuz that dont tell the whole story.. i KNOW we goin have our hands full

Did you grow up on the rough and tumble streets of Portland Oregon?

[MOrgil]

We play home after a huge win against the Nets, I saw we win this one