Game Thread 3/22: Wiz vs Indy - To Tank or Not to Tank...

[miller31time]

Just got back from the game. Utterly disappointing, especially considering this is the 3rd (you read that correctly) straight Wizards game I've attended where we had a 20+ point lead and lost the god damn game.

When we were good, we were great. And when we were bad, we were embarrassingly awful.

I can understand losing the shooting touch we had earlier - that happens. We did turn to hero-ball a little but on the overall, we tried to feed the post a lot and worked the ball around well enough. We simply couldn't maintain the fire we had to begin with, nor would I expect us to.

The real problem was defense/rebounding. In the 1st half, we played defense like our life depended on it. Then, the 2nd half started and our intensity seemed to dwindle. We weren't packing the paint well nor were we defending the pick and roll at all.

Rebounding is self-explanatory. The last IND possession was a travesty of epic proportions.

The last shot by Wall I didn't have a problem with. He's our franchise player. He's one of the few people on this team who can create his own shot. He got off a good shot and made it -- he simply took too long and that's on him.

I will say this: watching a loss like this on T.V hurts a lot less than watching it in person. Demoralizing, just like every other game I've been to this season.

[Dat2U]

Again, Dat, I hope I'm not who you aimed your remark at, but I will try to clean up on the negativity and overbearing opinions.

Not all bro. I know where your coming from and I understand the logic of your opinions, even when i vehemently disagree with you on a subject.

It's just the hate, venom and negativity in reading some responses. It's like were always looking for a scapegoat. It's just not about Wall, I didn't like all the negativity McGee got either.

As I said all along, As long as were competitive, I don't care too much about the wins or losses. A winning season or playoff run was never in the cards. So other than Blatche, who deserves everything he's hearing from the fans, I don't see the point in overly bitching about every loss.

[Nuntius]

Fricken hated seeing the Pacers celebrating after the win.

Why do people hate it when our guys celebrate after a close win?

Anyway, I'm a Pacer fan and I come in peace. To me it was obvious that you were trying to tank. Actually, this was the best move for both teams, I guess. Any win that you get, gets you further from the #1 pick. Any loss that we get, moves us farther away from home court advantage in the playoffs. At least, that's my take.

Kevin Seraphin is a good player. I watched him with Caja Laboral during the lockout and with the French national team in the summer. I agree that he deserves a starting spot. He'll be a good NBA player in the future.

[hands11]

Hamady N'Diaye is a 7 footer with length, do you think we cut him too-soon? We are going to have trouble matching-up with the 7 footers.

Then bring him back.

Can we do that ?

[nate33]

@WizardsExtreme just tweeted:

“Booker complaining about an unknown pain in his foot, says its been painful for past 2 months and feels like a ‘nail in his foot’. "

I hadn’t heard the guy’s been playing hurt. Our GD, M f’ing medical staff gets another opportunity to mess a player up.

That explains a lot. Booker has definitely been a step slow over the past couple of weeks. I notice it most on defense. Guys are beating him that shouldn't be able to beat him.

[hands11]

Wall is a clown at the end of clocks. He always takes the shots to end quarters even though he's horrible at it because of his inconsistent J. Even when other guys are hot he waves them off and takes it himself.

Now we come to this final play. IDK if you guys payed attention or not but Witt drew up the perfect play. He threw it in to Wall and had him circle to the middle. Meanwhile JC came & set a pick for Wall, after the pic he circles up top behind the arc where Nene sets a pick for his man. JC's man wasnt on him that tight from the jump so he wouldve got a good look without a pick but with a pick he was wide open.

Wall circles back to him, looks right at him, and then takes it himself. WTF was he doing? Hero ball. Not only does he do that but then the idiot drives up in the lane and turns around to go back out to the 3pt line like he has all day. Then he sees the clock say like 1 or 2 sec's left so he has to turn around and take that contested 3 but yet the idiot drives closer and doesnt even get the shot off.

Witt had the perfect play. I know him & JC are mad at Wall. With that being said, it was Witt's dumb decision of not putting in KS down the stretch. Nene played like the soft guy the Denver fans had said he turned into. His moves today were more finesse than Dray's and he got killed by Hibbert down the stretch. I hate the fact that KS has been on point for like 10 straight games yet he's not gettign the same burn now. He should be in there, espically in games like this. Let Nene play his more natural spot at the 4 where he has the size advantage.

I could see if Book is having a dominant game but he wasnt so why not put in KS when Hibbert is killing us? Witt's a clown and his system sucks. Still, he drew up the perfect play late and Wall played hero ball yet still was too much of an idiot to get off a good shot

Agreed.

My only wonder is if Witt has the stones to confront Wall directly. I doubt it.

It's easy to bench Javale and to make all kinds of faces when he does something dumb. However, I've been watching Wall do things like this since day one. He is growing and improving, but there have been signs of this before. Have Flip or Randy ever called John Wall out?

Last, I would enjoy hearing Wittman say he might consider adding some size and going big--he could have found minutes for Seraphin.

What I'm afraid of is Wittman sees Vesely as a PF and a C, too. That is something the team doesn't need any more. Seraphin's gotta get 25 minutes now. Singleton's making a push at SF. Booker needs to be a rotation guy, even at SF some.

Don't go there CCJ

Give Randy a few games to work with this new roster. We will see how creative he gets.

[MOrgil]

What the hell happened to Booker??? I want to kill Wizards' medical staff!

[Illuminaire]

Random side note: Saw a link from ESPN a few days ago showing how Rose' shot selection and offensive effectiveness shifted noticeably on the second game of a back-to-back. He basically took more (bad) shots, penetrated less, and passed less. Moral of the story is, tired legs leads to lazy play... even from elites.

[7-Day Dray]

But seriously, this was tanking at it's finest. Great loss!

[fishercob]

Excellent outcome. A quarter to half of entertainment and an important loss the same night New Orleans beats the Clippers. Come on top 3 pick!

[Higga]

I'm all for tanking as much as the next guy but it's disappointing to lose like that...

[GoneShammGone]

John Wall, after a tough loss to Indiana, 3/22:

This one hurts, to me personally.

Javale McGee, after a tough loss to New York, 1/7:

Make sure y'all go vote for Allstar!

Compare and contrast.

[TGW]

John Wall, after a tough loss to Indiana, 3/22:

This one hurts, to me personally.

Javale McGee, after a tough loss to New York, 1/7:

Make sure y'all go vote for Allstar!

Compare and contrast.

On a side note, I think Wall is playing entirely too many minutes. I think this schedule has really been tough on him, and at points during the game, he just looks sluggish.

We need to bring in a vet point guard (not Mack) that can help carry the load at the point until the end of the season.

[FAH1223]

Wall's basketball IQ needs work. His jumper is getting better and I believe he has the clutch gene. But his IQ needs work this offseason more than anything else.

[closg00]

What the hell happened to Booker??? I want to kill Wizards' medical staff!

During the EJ era, I used to have this sig: "The Wizards love to play injured players", not-much has changed.

[dobrojim]

Statistically we are seeing very little between Seraphin and Nene tonight. Tonight we are seeing the Nene Denver is not going to miss.

DEN fans would probably agree and in some ways it's hard to argue.

I will point out a few things though-

Hibbert is a legit allstar and while Hib was solid, it's not like he went off and took over.
How many 3rd tier Cs have gone off on McGee in the last 2 years?

Nene is ad libbing out there. Doesn't know the plays yet.

[dobrojim]

Quality tank loss.

yeah baby

[dobrojim]

Wall and the rest of the team played horribly in the second half. Well, we can at least look at the bright side. We could be stuck with losers like Demarcus Cousins or Javale, with no hope in sight.

fish much?

[dobrojim]

Wall stunk it up fo sho but did any of you watch the 3rd quarter? Without Wall we don't score at all during that span. Either either scored or assisted on probably 80% of 15 pts we scored. He became selfish because no one else was doing squat in the 2nd half. Unfortunately for him, that means he becomes "OC".

I also noticed that Wall pulled up on a number of initial breaks
and tried to run offense. In the not too distant past, he would
have forced a 1 on 3 in the paint and probably failed.

I think John is smarter than JaVale in a number of important
ways that should bode well for his future in the assoc.

[dobrojim]

Hamady N'Diaye is a 7 footer with length, do you think we cut him too-soon? We are going to have trouble matching-up with the 7 footers.

was he cut or just in the D league? I thought it was D league.