GT: Brooklyn Nets @ Washington Wizards 11/8/13 (7PM)

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Most satisfying to see several Wizard killers struggle.

Pierce had 4 points, 3 turnovers. Garnett had 4 points, 5 fouls on 2-11 shooting. KG finished -19 for the game. Nene playing physical clearly bothered him. In the fourth, Nene owned KG time and again near the basket. Deron Williams had 3 assists, 6 turnovers. Joe Johnson always burns the Wizards, but they had Pierce shooting late despite Paul Pierce having 0 points at the time. Jason Terry, another Wizard killer was on the bench. Andray Blatche played a strong first half but he had crucial FT misses and turnovers down the stretch.

I was relieved to see the Nets stop working the ball inside to Lopez, who the Wizards had no answer for.

Washington won again by hitting threes (10-24 to the Nets 6-24) and by creating more turnovers than they give away. (+5)

[JWizmentality]

Our starting 5 is solid...rock solid. If we could just improve our depth off the bench. We'd be awesome.

[stevemcqueen1]

Our starting 5 is solid...rock solid. If we could just improve our depth off the bench. We'd be awesome.

It's the best starting five I can remember TBH. But I actually can't wait to see Porter play with that group. I think he's the final piece of the puzzle.

Right now we could use better backup play from our C certainly. Harrington has come alive the past two games and Webster is a good player. We could really use a high quality third guard. I still think we're a move or two away from having a special season.

Though the coaching staff doesn't afford me an abundance of confidence no matter who we've got.

[Hypnotizer]

The best game of this season so far. Ready for 0.500 on Sunday.

[SizzlinSimms]

I only chimed in at the near end of the 4th quarter, however it was a great comeback! This is something the Wizards needed. The next 5 games are brutal. Wall made some great plays, the steals, and he should have had that lay-up but thank god for Nene (whom I still dislike), and then he also had a terrible telegraphed pass but I'm going to let it slide. Nene killed it near the end and while I dislike him and think he's soft, I'll say he played great and was a main reason why the Wizards won at least from what I saw.

Beal was hitting it. As I've already stated like 100 times I didn't see the earlier parts but Beal can't create his own shot. It seems like he panics? The open pass from Wall to Beal, then it becomes an easy J. However, if Beal has to create his own then it becomes a panic shot for Beal. He's only 20 years old and I'm sure he'll adapt. He's smart and plays like a vet already so I'm not worried at all.

[80sballboy]

look, Im not dissing Wall. His game is such that he can be good and control a game just playing basic but I have high expectations for him. He's an MVP caliber player. Its like Chris Paul can get 14ast but he can also try to get 20-30pts with it. Thats what I want Wall to do. As of right now, he can only do that if he's hot. He has to stay aggressive. He can flat out dominate these games if he wants. They cant stop him if he attacks

Stop it. Seriously, you're embarrassing yourself.

[80sballboy]

Boy did we need this win. Lopez was unstoppable in the first half and our bench almost gave them the win in the second. Witt needs to do something with that bench, using Temple or Rice or both. He's so desperate to keep his job he's going to overuse Beal and Wall. Harrington appears to be all or nothing. He does nothing but shoot and at some point in his career, he sued to rebound.

I love the way Wall played tonight. 14 assists, 4 steals, 4 turnovers. He shouldn't take more than 14 shots a night unless he's feeling it and Beal is cold. His passes were terrific tonight and I love the inside-outside game with him and Nene and the PNR action with Gortat. That's only going to improve.

They still shot 47% and outrebounded us by 15. Baby steps.

[DANNYLANDOVER]

Julius Randle with a 23 and 15 debut...

Ehhh.. Beasley put up those numbers in college too. Randle is a great prospect but he's a tweener. Tweeners have had a less than stellar track record in the NBA lately.

Look at Anthony Bennett, a big dude but obsessed with playing on the perimeter trying to be a guard. I see a bit of the same thing in Randle.

He's a legit 6'9...just because he has handles, doesn't mean he can't bang inside...Parker and Wiggins also looked impressive.

[hands11]

They clamped down Lopez by disguising the double team. Wall, Ariza, and Beal all came in to help out and it worked almost every time. Lopez really only scored when he caught the ball moving towards the basket in the paint after that.

Wall, Beal, Gortat, and Nene all played great. Harrington played well. Nene was the player of the game, we lose if not for him.

And lets not discount just how amazing some of those Lopez shoots were.

[dobrojim]

Wall is not a MAX player.

Wall is a nice role player for the Spurs.

what?

only because the Spurs have a HoF PG already is this statement not
completely silly. Role players don't win PotMonth awards as Wall did
in March. Come on man, stop hatin'.

[dobrojim]

John Wall really sucks.

Wall is most often not your man down the stretch. No big shot Bob. Good off ball defender with great speed. Case closed.

without Wall's D in the 4th Q, we lose the game. That's what great players do.
They find ways to contribute to wins. He was also 8-8 from the line.

[dobrojim]

This was our best win in how long?

Since Philly

When you are 0-3, every win is a big win. I actually expected them to win this one at home.

Its the next 3 that are going to be really tough. Hopefully they can win in Dallas and come out of it. Actually, they might actually match up pretty well against SA as well.

SA is one of those teams I instantly just count as a loss. That team just kills us.. every. single. time.

A win against SAN would be astonishing, against OKC surprising, against DAL very welcome
but nowhere near as shocking. We never beat SAN and it's usually not even remotely close.

[hands11]

Most satisfying to see a several Wizard killers struggle.

Pierce had 4 points, 3 turnovers. Garnett had 4 points, 5 fouls on 2-11 shooting. KG finished -19 for the game. Nene playing physical clearly bothered him. In the fourth, Nene owned KG time and again near the basket. Deron Williams had 3 assists, 6 turnovers. Joe Johnson always burns the Wizards, but they had Pierce shooting late despite Paul Pierce having 0 points at the time. Jason Terry, another Wizard killer was on the bench. Andray Blatche played a strong first half but he had crucial FT misses and turnovers down the stretch.

I was relieved to see the Nets stop working the ball inside to Lopez, who the Wizards had no answer for.

Washington won again by hitting threes (10-24 to the Nets 6-24) and by creating more turnovers than they give away. (+5)

It was pretty sweet to see Nene take KG baseline late in the game. Specially since he did it with confidence. You could see Nene post him with the attitude of.... this is a mismatch. I'm going to school you KG.

Seeing that Nene was really nice.

Nene is a big boy. I saw some video of him yesterday and thought, my God, he is a beast. He must lift a lot. He looks like a football player. Hopefully he get his body fat down and keep his strength.

35 minutes last night for Nene. Hopefully he can work himself into shape and keep it up.

[dobrojim]

Anyone know why the Nets went away from Lopez in the second half?

I don't know about the entire half but for the last couple minutes of regulation it was because Wall completely locked down the perimeter, allowing Gortat and Nene to pack the paint. The turnovers and almost-turnovers Wall was able to create netted Nene 7 straight points and all of a sudden the Nyets had to play panicky catch-up basketball which meant open jumpers for the then-scoreless KG.

Why does Webster get no minutes? Why isn't he paired more with Wall?

Webster "Garrett Templed" himself and fouled himself out of commission tonight. 4 fouls in 16 minutes.

Why does our offense look so great at times and so terrible at others?

We look great in transition and when Nene/Gortat get good positioning with shooters to space it out properly. We look terrible when it's grind-it-out halfcourt basketball and the personnel isn't *just* so. Also, our bench is kinda terrible specifically in the playmaking department.

Is the absence of Okafor really the only reason for our woes on defense?

Yup. Aside from Okafor's individual defensive talents, I can't imagine Gortat equaling Okafor's playcalling presence on the defensive side. 1 - His IQ just isn't there. 2 - He's not familiar with the scheme/philosophy. 3 - He's not familiar with the players' tendencies.

Can a team get out rebounded by 15 and hope to win consistently?

I'm kind of at a loss of words for this factoid. We got outrebounded by 15 yet both teams took equal fga's and fta's (off by 2 on the free throws) so it doesn't seem like the rebounds mattered much. If we can somehow get rebounded by 15 yet still manage to get the same number of shots up, I don't see why we wouldn't be able to win consistently. There's nothing intrinsically good about a rebound other than it either gives you an extra possession or it doesn't let the other team get another possession.

This win left me with more questions than answers.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. We won and did it with a flourish. We got yet another reason to hate Kevin Garnett (that ridiculous hold on Terry's 32 footer at the end of regulation) and Nene pulled his weight. Beal had a blowout game - a similar one to the one that transformed him from an uncannily bad shooter to an uncannily good shooter last season (the 28 point win over Milwaukee), and nobody got hurt. Ride that wave rather than pick at the scab that is our potential house of cards roster.

The Nyets. That's perfect.

At least one of Websters fouls was a great foul on a break where they ended
up missing one of 2 FTs. Webster was 0-1 from the field. They were on him
like white on rice.

[dobrojim]

Walls season stats including tonights game: 19.6 ppg 9.8 apg 3.4 topg

I think it's OK to start saying it, best PG in the east. We'll see if Rose can catch up
as the year goes on.

[dobrojim]

Most satisfying to see a several Wizard killers struggle.

Pierce had 4 points, 3 turnovers. Garnett had 4 points, 5 fouls on 2-11 shooting. KG finished -19 for the game. Nene playing physical clearly bothered him. In the fourth, Nene owned KG time and again near the basket. Deron Williams had 3 assists, 6 turnovers. Joe Johnson always burns the Wizards, but they had Pierce shooting late despite Paul Pierce having 0 points at the time. Jason Terry, another Wizard killer was on the bench. Andray Blatche played a strong first half but he had crucial FT misses and turnovers down the stretch.

I was relieved to see the Nets stop working the ball inside to Lopez, who the Wizards had no answer for.

Washington won again by hitting threes (10-24 to the Nets 6-24) and by creating more turnovers than they give away. (+5)

good post CCJ. It was late in the game before either KG or Pierce managed to score. Too funny.
Ariza kept Johnson from being a factor and we adjusted to slow down Lopez after
he dominated in the first half.

[dckingsfan]

Boy did we need this win. Lopez was unstoppable in the first half and our bench almost gave them the win in the second. Witt needs to do something with that bench, using Temple or Rice or both. He's so desperate to keep his job he's going to overuse Beal and Wall. Harrington appears to be all or nothing. He does nothing but shoot and at some point in his career, he sued to rebound.

I love the way Wall played tonight. 14 assists, 4 steals, 4 turnovers. He shouldn't take more than 14 shots a night unless he's feeling it and Beal is cold. His passes were terrific tonight and I love the inside-outside game with him and Nene and the PNR action with Gortat. That's only going to improve.

They still shot 47% and outrebounded us by 15. Baby steps.

I think that Witt has learned that his bench is unreliable and he has lost confidence in all but 8 players. Nene, Gortat, Ariza, Wall, Beal, Harrington, Webster, Seraphin and Maynor - That is it... and Seraphin and Maynor are on shaky ground.

Not sure why Webster played just 16 minutes he has been averaging more time.

I think that rotation is fine except when we play back to back games.

[hands11]

Our starting 5 is solid...rock solid. If we could just improve our depth off the bench. We'd be awesome.

Well, two games with a legit starting 5 where there is a offensive post option in Nene to start the offense so they can play inside out, and they got two wins.

The bench for the most part did their thing.

Kevin actually played aggressive. Had a nice dunk and went aggressive on a few rebounds. Played some solid D. He did get mugged and turned the ball over twice ( refs sucked on that) but 11min, 3 reb, 1 block, 3-5FG and 6 pts is contributing. Kevin getting mins as part of this tighter rotation should help him tighten up him game. If you are only getting 11 minutes and you are getting some of that with legit starters, you better play smart and with a purpose if you want to get more minutes.

AH did his part of the bench and he pitched in pts and his 3 ball and some driving/posting
Webster is there and we know he can help off the bench. Still finding his place.
Maynor made some nice change of pace moves, 1-2 from 3, 1 ast, 1 steal, 5 pts in 10 mins. Not bad

I think the next player they need to get involved in Glen. He would add whats missing from those bench options.

AH - pure scorer but old legs.
Web - 3 pt shooter who can drive some. Tough and scrappy and pretty strong but not overly quick
Kevin - big young athletic strong with soft hands learning to be tougher and pass out of the double.
Maynor - methodical floor general with some vet savvy to change speeds. 3 ball and floater.

Glen as a young buck that can drive, follow up dunk and get to the line would compliment that well. I think Ves would help as well. Specially if Glen can get it going by scoring.

Maynor - run the show, hit a 3 and drive, drive and dish and pick n roll with Ves and Kevin
Glen - driving and getting to the line with some shooting. Look ready to compete at this level.
Web - pure shooter with some D and rebounds. Leader. Mentally tough.
Ves - long, picks, gets the offense moving, runs, rebounds, quick outlets and can score in a pick and roll
Kevin - post game with soft hands and learning to use his size better. decent defender.

I want to see that unit out there once and see what they can do. Thats a pretty athletic group and the Wizards need to find more of that. Key to making it work would be Glen being able to hit open shots because I think you always need at least two outside shooter on the floor.

[dckingsfan]

Hey Hands, just don't see that happening - unless it is in back-to-backs. I don't think you will see Vesely or Rice play much this season - unless the injury bug hits. I think Witt has his rotation now...

[dobrojim]

maybe it's selective memory on my part but it often seems like
(at least when they win) that the zards give up a lot of points
in the 1st Q and steadily less from there. Statheads?

If this is true it would be a compliment to the coaching staff
in their ability to make adjustments.