Game Thread: WAS @ ORL

[nate33]

Date: 1/4/12
Time: 7:00
Chat-room link: http://tinychat.com/4sskk

Preview from Yahoo sports:

The Washington Wizards are on the verge of the worst start in franchise history. A visit to Orlando wouldn’t appear to be a good way to avoid that dubious feat.

They’ve rarely won there and have been blown out in the last three visits, plus the Magic are perfect at home this season heading into Wednesday night’s meeting.

Washington, which has never opened a season with six straight losses, dropped to 0-5 for the third time in franchise history with a 100-92 loss in Boston on Monday. The Wizards led by one after three quarters but allowed the Celtics to score 31 points in the fourth, the second time they’ve given up more than 30 in a period this season.

“Right now, with a team like this, you’re trying to teach them not only how to play but how to win,” said Wizards assistant Randy Wittman, who took over after coach Flip Saunders was ejected less than two minutes into the game.

“You have to have steps like this. Did we get the win, no, but we played them right down to the wire. I thought the effort for 48 minutes was as good as we could ask for.”

The league’s lone winless club next has the difficult task of trying to end a six-game skid to the Magic (4-2). The Wizards have given up at least 100 points in each of those losses, and another such performance might lead to another defeat as they’re scoring 85.2 per game this season

[GhostsOfGil]

I think its safe to say the key match up here is Mcgee vs Howard. This should be a good game to judge Mcgee's growth defensively. In the past, irrc, hes be absolutely dominated by Howard.

[LyricalRico]

Is Vesely playing? If not, I have some episodes of Chopped and Iron Chef on my DVR that I need to get to.

[GhostsOfGil]

Is Vesely playing? If not, I have some episodes of Chopped and Iron Chef on my DVR that I need to get to.

Pretty sure I read that the earliest we will see him is Friday. I think hes getting the hip checked out while in Orlando so i doubt we see him.

[FAH1223]

McGee's first horrible game of the season

Orlando wins 99-71

[dobrojim]

IDK - the key matchup might be Anderson vs Blatche.
If Anderson makes more than 2 3s, then there is
probably no way to win. Heck, there is probably
no way to win anyway but Anderson going off
could mean the difference btw a mildly competitive
game and a total blowout.

[Zonkerbl]

[dlts20]

I think its safe to say the key match up here is Mcgee vs Howard. This should be a good game to judge Mcgee's growth defensively. In the past, irrc, hes be absolutely dominated by Howard.

I disagree. Definetly the 1st time I'm excited to c this matchup to c how far Javale has come but the key matchup is Stay vs Anderson. Dray has his confidences back while RA is there leading scorer. Dray can keep us in this game & more if he dominates that matchup

[MDStar]

The preview says that starting out 0-6 would be the worst start in franchise history but I thought we started out 0-9, either last year or the year before. Maybe I'm incorrect though....

[dobrojim]

I wanna see KS stand his ground vs Howard.

Even better, I wanna see him play minutes without
piling up fouls.

[GhostsOfGil]

The preview says that starting out 0-6 would be the worst start in franchise history but I thought we started out 0-9, either last year or the year before. Maybe I'm incorrect though....

Pretty sure we won in Dallas to start 09 and we won our home opener against NJ last year. I think we may be making history tonight

[miller31time]

A lot of times, it's the games that line up perfectly for a loss that are wins.

We should have no business being in this game. Orlando always plays us well. Howard dominates McGee. We can't defend the three. Orlando is perfect at home. We are the only winless team and especially suck on the road.

But again, many times, that's reason for a pretty good game as odd as it sounds.

[hands11]

I wanna see KS stand his ground vs Howard.

Even better, I wanna see him play minutes without
piling up fouls.

They need to take Howard out of the game by getting him in foul trouble.

Hit him low with KS
Hit him high with McGee
And have Wall charge the lane with drives and drive/dish/dunks

Get Howard in foul trouble early where he cools off on the bench. That is how you nutrilize Howard. Sit him on the bench.

Hey, it's not like ORL is beasting really. Who have they really played ?

Lost to OKC on the road
Win - Houston at home
Win - NJ at home
Win - at charlotte
Win - TOR at home
Lost to DET on the road

You would think Wall should be able to the better of Nelson

[dobrojim]

^ and you might wonder why some (many?) people have
you on ignore

this ain't football

[dobrojim]

our only chance of winning is our Gs having monster games

Nick is due, Wall is playing better, ORL guards are not the
strength of their team.

Maybe Singleton will put a blanket on one or more of
ORL's 3 pt threats.

[nate33]

IDK - the key matchup might be Anderson vs Blatche.
If Anderson makes more than 2 3s, then there is
probably no way to win. Heck, there is probably
no way to win anyway but Anderson going off
could mean the difference btw a mildly competitive
game and a total blowout.

I fear Blatche will be lazy and refuse to get out and challenge Anderson at the 3 point line. This might be a game where we're better off with Booker or Rashard Lewis at the 4 - unless Blatche proves he can dominate Anderson on offense.

[Severn Hoos]

Even Singleton at PF might work, especially if Anderson is the matchup.

[hands11]

^ and you might wonder why some (many?) people have
you on ignore

this ain't football

It's not football ? Who said anything about football ? Then you had to throw in some garbage about who has how on ignore based on some football reference crap. Really ?

It's crap like this drags the board down. What did that prove exactly. Did that make you feel cool or something. Did you have nothing to say regarding the actual game in a game thread so you felt the need to post some crap like that.

How about you amaze us with your HOF posts. Let that stand on it own.

Amazing. Internet Punks.

[MJG]

@ = L

[dobrojim]

Even Singleton at PF might work, especially if Anderson is the matchup.

was thinking the same thing

I fear Blatche will be lazy and refuse to get out and challenge Anderson at the 3 point line. This might be a game where we're better off with Booker or Rashard Lewis at the 4 - unless Blatche proves he can dominate Anderson on offense.

it's both sad and ironic that while Blatche will go outside on O
rather than work his tail off in the paint, that he probably
won't stay home on Anderson at the 3pt line and make him
a driver.

Hands, dude, you wrote that we should basically eff up Howard
so we can win. That's totally classless. If you have a team that
needs to deliberately injure opp players to W, that's hardly a team
that should be rooted for. Football you can do this within the
legal bounds of the game. Hoops, not so much. That this has
to be explained to you defies understanding. Calling me an
internet punk after you called for our team to injure the
opp team star player, amazing.

as for my HOF posts, let me say this, while I may not have
any that stand out as pearls of wisdom, at least I also do
not have m/any that stand out as completely idiotic and classless.
You should expect to be called out when you write crap like you did.