Philly Game Thread: No Guns Allowed

[miller31time]

Wiz gave up 39 points in the second half.

I think Andray Blatche is quickly becoming a pretty solid defender. His help defense is really impressive and we've seen him play some sound man-defense too.

He's a knucklehead sometimes with his turnovers and all, but I'm really glad he's on our team. He just keeps getting better.

But even with Blatche playing good D, it's mind-boggling how we allowed just 39 points in the 2nd half in a game where Haywood was out (and Dalembert subsequently nearly notched a 20/20 performance).

If we could only do things like this consistently, there would be so few things to criticize about this squad.

EDIT: I do need to be tempered a bit by taking into account we played a pretty poor 76'ers team.

[JWizmentality]

Just watched the post game. OMG Twan is soo full of himself! I kinda hate this guy now.

[Zerocious]

Just watched the post game. OMG Twan is soo full of himself! I kinda hate this guy now.

whadeesay?

[dandridge 10]

Nick Young not starting at this point is just insanity. Ugly haircut though bro.

I don't see how you can say that.

I can see Nick starting or not.

Right now, he is either hot or he is cold. Sounds like the ideal bench player.

But the biggest problem with this team is still overall team maturity.

Post game they are all over Gil for saying he didn't do anything wrong. Now he may not have done anything seriously wrong, but he did do something wrong. Saying you didn't is just clueless and immature. Then Nick chimes in about how he played better because of his new hair. Then they just laughed about how fun it is following the Wizards. We need to add a few more mature personalities to this team.

Gil - Goof
NY - Goofy
DS - Idiot
McGee - Still a kid
Blatche - recovering Goof
MJ - Goof

This team need some talent that also bring some maturity along with it.

Yeah, funny how Nick Young plays one good game, against a piss poor defensive team led by EJ, and everyone forgets the bad games that Young has played. Nick Young is good for this team when he is on like tonight. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often and when he is not on, he brings very little else to this team.

Hands, I don't agree with you often but I agree 100% about the lack of maturity on this team. Gil needs to just STFU. He digs a bigger hole everytime his opens his damn mouth. Can you imagine how Stern is going to take his comments that he "did nothing wrong." If Stern wasn't going to levy a harsh penalty, I'm sure he will now.

[LyricalRico]

Screw you EJ! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Zerocious]

Yeah, funny how Nick Young plays one good game, against a piss poor defensive team led by EJ, and everyone forgets the bad games that Young has played. Nick Young is good for this team when he is on like tonight. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often and when he is not on, he brings very little else to this team.

Hands, I don't agree with you often but I agree 100% about the lack of maturity on this team. Gil needs to just STFU. He digs a bigger hole everytime his opens his damn mouth. Can you imagine how Stern is going to take his comments that he "did nothing wrong." If Stern wasn't going to levy a harsh penalty, I'm sure he will now.

has stern as much as peeped at all? havent heard a word from him.

[JWizmentality]

Just watched the post game. OMG Twan is soo full of himself! I kinda hate this guy now.

whadeesay?

See Hoopalotta post above.

[Hoopalotta]

Just watched the post game. OMG Twan is soo full of himself! I kinda hate this guy now.

whadeesay?

See Hoopalotta post above.

Well, of course I just got that from Zerocious, so I think we're in danger of ripping the time space continuum here and likely springing Bizaro-Superman from his crystal prison.

[Lapinski]

76er fan here. I'm utterly despondant. I have memories of 9-73 that I am having flashbacks again. EJ is everything you said and more. How there are any Wizard fans left after 4 years of this guy is amazing.

I guess when we extended the lead to start the third EJ decided he was not going to have any of this. So as you start warming up he removes Dalembert and replaces him with a guy who is a stiff 3/4's of the time. Then he brings in Kapono when we need to stop the bleeding. And he leaves Thaddeus Young, the worst defensive starter in the league to get AJ going. Meanwhile Carney has been money lately along with being a shut down defender and doesn't play the second half. He cuts Speights minutes to next to nothing when he was having his way with you guys early. He leaves Williams and Iverson in when you guys were just shooting over them. Why, Why, Why??? The worst coach I have ever seen. I knew it would be rough but this is torture.

I really thought he was trying to throw the game. Noone can be this stupid.

[dobrojim]

easy ladies, easy.

i love how antwan takes the credit for the win post game. "i was able to turn it up and lead the way offensively and defensively, and we were lucky some of the other guys were able to come along...

lead the way defensively?

I was also struck by that. I'm not sure where he was
in the 1st half when they shot unbelievably. If I have
time, it'd be interesting to see if there is any validity
to his saying that or if it was pure delusion.

Always nice to win, I don't care what anyone says.
Hard to get too excited about it until this team plays an
extended stretch of excellent basketball. Obviously
that is something we have not seen this year with
our best stretch being 4-1 over 5 games. Not much
to get excited about.

Nick Young should be starting. McGee should get token minutes
every game.

Note who was playing in the 2ndQ when we stunk, and who
didn't play in the 4thQ when we won the game. Earl the squirrel.

[dobrojim]

Yeah, funny how Nick Young plays one good game, against a piss poor defensive team led by EJ, and everyone forgets the bad games that Young has played. Nick Young is good for this team when he is on like tonight. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often and when he is not on, he brings very little else to this team.

You're partly right but too quick to dismiss/ignore that N1 is our best defender
at the 2. He gets yanked around constantly, it's no wonder he's hot and
then not. This year it seems to me that he has done a much better job
not forcing shots when he is not hot. PHL had no answer for him. I think
he needs some stability to be consistent. He's NEVER gotten that.
If he ever does gain the confidence, I still believe he has the raw
natural ability to light up anyone. He's immature for his age, but
maybe he'll come around. I don't think he's been handled very
well so far in his career.

Do we have another player who could handle DWade like Nick did?
Maybe DMac on a good night but that's questionable. Please don't
say anyone else.

From what I recall, our record with him starting has been better
than with him not starting.

[queridiculo]

The second half was the first time in a long time I've seen everybody on this team play with effort and hustle on both sides of the ball. I don't know what was said at half time, but if they could just find a way to bottle up that energy and bring it for 48 minutes the Wizards could be pretty good.

It was refreshing seeing Washington players getting the fundamentals right on defense. Showing hard on screens, beating offensive players to the spot, diving and attacking loose balls.

Individually we certainly don't have the best defenders but as a collective with everybody playing hard this team could do things if they only managed to put their egos and distractions aside.

Washington has the talent, but sadly, they have yet to show that they truly care about winning.

[Tiny Too]

Funniest post of the night from the Sixer board: Someone said EFJ suffered from "Rectal Cranial Inversion."

Also, good to know some things don't change. In one of his post game comments, Jordan said something akin to,"You just have to tip your hat to the other team. They hit shots in the second half."

[Ruzious]

Flip in the post game interview says.

He told Gil he was sick of the dribble up quick 3 shot and to stop it.

How nice it that? Im starting to like Flip again.

Good! I would say - Why did it take so long, but... why dwell on the past. We'll see if Gil does it again. It's a killer when he misses those awful shots. It gets them out of any team rhythm. It gives the other team a break on D - where more effort is generally spent. It usually leads to an easy transition basket by the opposition. It's a low percentage shot. And I think it brings the whole team down, because it looks like he's putting himself above the team - not to mention Flip.

[fishercob]

Scottie Pippen used to take the pull-up 3 from the top all the time. Chauncey does to. It's about picking your spots. It's not a bad shot all the time when you're as good a shooter as Gil is.

[dobrojim]

Flip in the post game interview says.

He told Gil he was sick of the dribble up quick 3 shot and to stop it.

How nice it that? Im starting to like Flip again.

Good! I would say - Why did it take so long, but... why dwell on the past. We'll see if Gil does it again. It's a killer when he misses those awful shots. It gets them out of any team rhythm. It gives the other team a break on D - where more effort is generally spent. It usually leads to an easy transition basket by the opposition. It's a low percentage shot. And I think it brings the whole team down, because it looks like he's putting himself above the team - not to mention Flip.

Nice catch hands - I was going to mention that as well. But my take
on it was that you left out the most significant part of the story.
IIRC, Flip said Gil APOLOGIZED to his teammates for it and said he
would stop. That would be remarkable.