GT: Washington at Phoenix - 2/10/08 - 9:30 Eastern

[Kanyewest]

A few thoughts:

- The Wizards are struggling to adapt without Butler now but it's nice to see players still giving it their all and playing games tight; they just seem to not enough when it comes down to the 4th quarter.

- Jamison had one of his better games with 28 points and 10 rebounds.

- Haywood did find a groove on the offensive end but also had 4 turnovers.

- Stevenson shot only 4 of 15 but he did convert 3 out of 5 three pointers along with 7 of 8 from the free throw line.

- Even though he had a poor shooting night, Nick Young had 5 assists and only 1 turnover.


-Songailia really needs to find his shot but he did have 4 assists. Unfortunately, Songailia is not going to do well on the defensive end when he has to guard Amare Stoudemire.

- Pecherov didn't look as terrible out there because he was not chucking up shots. He did a decent job on defensive rotations in limited minutes.

[miller31time]

- Pecherov didn't look as terrible out there because he was not chucking up shots. He did a decent job on defensive rotations in limited minutes.

I think that night Pesh had in New York was actually a detriment to his overall game. He hit a few 3's, got a little confidence in himself that, maybe, if he shot like that in every game, he'd get close to the same outcome.

This game, he seemed to realize that until he improves in his 3pt shooting a LOT more, it should not be something he does on a regular basis when in the game.

If he's wide open? Sure, but even if he's remotely defended, don't shoot it.

Play tough defense. Rebound. Don't commit a lot of turnovers, and he'll be just fine.

[keynote]

We did something weird in our rotations that cost us a lot. When Nash ran the high pick and roll with Stoudemire at the top of the key, we kept sending a guard into the lane in a position where he really wouldn't be able to do anything anyhow. It left Raja Bell wide open and Nash hit him for 3 wide open three pointers. I just didn't understand why we did that. The help defense should be coming from the power forward on that play, not the shooting guard. What exactly is Nick Young supposed to do if Amare gets the ball in the paint?

To make matters worse, the Wizards' regressed to last year's philosphy of *instantly* switching on high pick and rolls, leaving Blatche in an island on Nash multiple times, while DeShawn or Mason is forced to box out a bigger Diaw. What happened to showing on the screen to off the penetrating guard, then hustling back to the original big man assignment? The quick switch on the perimeter rarely works; all it does is give the other team the mismatch they're looking for.

[closg00]

-= original quote snipped =-



I think that night Pesh had in New York was actually a detriment to his overall game. He hit a few 3's, got a little confidence in himself that, maybe, if he shot like that in every game, he'd get close to the same outcome.

This game, he seemed to realize that until he improves in his 3pt shooting a LOT more, it should not be something he does on a regular basis when in the game.

If he's wide open? Sure, but even if he's remotely defended, don't shoot it.

Play tough defense. Rebound. Don't commit a lot of turnovers, and he'll be just fine.

I'll betcha that EJ told him to knock-off the hoisting and just focus on playing D for now.

Great to have a "quality loss" for a change.

I hope we come out on fire after the break. We'll have to be patient with Gil coming back rusty. I hope EJ doesn't over play him too soon.

[dorianwrite]

I'm impressed by the Wiz board's sudden increase in maturity. No one sounds like they're going off the deep end after a close loss. First time in history?

[Dat2U]

IMO there is no such thing as a quality loss, only quality wins.

That said I don't feel too bad about the way they competed. It was a much more consistent effort than I saw against Denver.

My only pet peeve is playing Songaila so much when he's terribly ineffective, especially against a quick team like Phoenix.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

FIRE DA COACH...TRADE AJ!

[RickRoll_inDC]

IMO there is no such thing as a quality loss, only quality wins.

That said I don't feel too bad about the way they competed. It was a much more consistent effort than I saw against Denver.

My only pet peeve is playing Songaila so much when he's terribly ineffective, especially against a quick team like Phoenix.

and at the beginning of the year we all thought that the team was EJ proof. no Hayes, no Ruffin, no Thomas.............but now there's SONGAILA!

there's no hope

[omegatronic3]

Haywood was great except when he tried to do too much. Calm down Haywood. Stick with what you're good at. Don't get fancy out there.

I was really impressed with Haywood!! He was hitting 15 foot jumpers and hookshots and he was making free throws!!! I cant imagine him making a jump shot in previous years. I thought Amare got away with some cheap stuff as did Diaw.

All in all though great effort to even be inthis game. Blach and Young had flashes. Blach showed his lack of hops in that sequence Amare stuffed him twice..but made up for it on that flush.

We had no business being in this game with the lineup we had out there.

EG can you get us an experience bench for the love of god!

[nate33]

EG can you get us an experience bench for the love of god!

We'll have one once our starters get back.

Pretty soon, our bench will be:

Daniels
Mason
Young
Songaila
Blatche
Etan

That's a pretty solid group of experienced vets and talented youngsters. The only problem is that 4 of those 6 guys are either hurt or starting right now.

[TheKingOfVa360]

Great effort by our guys. We were undermanned plus all the calls went against us.

[dobrojim]

nice effort

moral victory considering the calls that went PHE way.

I love the look AB gave Amare after he dunked on him.
Both AB and N1 are tantalizingly dripping with potential.
AB with his greater experience is closer to realizing it.
N1 got the Rodney Dangerfield treatment last night.

[DC old guy]

The people who are complainingabout bad play, substitutions, etc. are really overdoing it. They failed to recognize how decimated we are by injury. I only saw the third quarter, but thought they played quite well even though over matched. Haywood's comments after the game were on the mark: "We're a little undermanned, we've got guys playing that are banged up and we're missing two All-Stars out of our lineup and our backup point guard started for Antonio Daniels ," said Wizards center Brendan Haywood , who had a season-high 21 points and 10 rebounds against the Suns. "So we're banged up but everybody played hard. This is just one of those games you chalk up to not having enough troops."

[DCZards]

Nice game from everybody on offense. The youngsters made a few bonehead plays on defense, but that's gonna happen. Nick Young might just be a superstar someday once he starts getting the calls when he goes to the basket. Perhaps he was a bit out of control, but I'll take it from a rookie. I love the fearlessness.

yup, that's the thing I liked about Nick from day one...his fearlessness. No doubt he can play out of control, like most rookies do, and he's still learning the other aspects of the game (defense, passing). But when it comes to offense Nick has an "arrogance" that says "you can't stop me." And I love it!

The kid is going to be a scoring machine someday.