Washington Wizards @ OKC Thunder GT 11/10/13 (7 PM)

[evolushunize]

The Washington Wizards (2-3) are going for their third straight win tonight vs. The Oklahoma City Thunder (4-1).

Washington Wizards Starters - John Wall | Bradley Beal | Trevor Ariza | Nene Hilario | Marcin Gortat


Oklahoma City Thunder Starters - Russell Westbrook | Thabo Sefolosha | Kevin Durant | Serge Ibaka | Kendrick Perkins



MatchUp of the Night - John Wall & Russell Westbrook




Wizards Key Bench Player - Martell Webster



Now for some good viewing pleasure. Here's a pic of the lovely OKC Cheerleader Kelsey Williams.

[dopawcia]

Can't see a win tonight if you call her "lovely"

[evolushunize]

Can't see a win tonight if you call her "lovely"

Lol. Okay, maybe not the best picture.

[nate33]

John Wall, Bradley Beal, Marcin Gortat, Al Harrington, Kevin Seraphin, Trevor Booker, Eric Maynor, and Garrett Temple: Kevin Durant has attempted more free throws than them combined.

If it ain't broke then don't try to fix it, right? I'm down for that, but at some point overindulgence in anything comes back to bite you eventually. The Wizards---Bradley Beal and Marcin Gortat especially--- have to get to the line more often and not rely too heavily on the three point shot so there is better offensive balance. Don't quit raining threes, just create more contact and get points the easy way as well.

Defensively, best bet may be to have Trevor Ariza on Durant all game and have the team key in on disrupting him and Westbrook as they did with Paul Pierce for much of the last game versus Brooklyn. Hopefully this prevents them from making a living at the charity stripe.


Going for three straight, let's go Wiz!!!

[hands11]

Can't see a win tonight if you call her "lovely"

That one looks like she would wear you out though.

Build country strong and looks like a wild thing.

[nate33]

I guess we arent letting the winers make the game thread this year. I dont care though since it worked last game. I think we matchup great with OKC or just about anyone. This game will probably at the end of the day come down to Wall. I think Beal will be great. He found his rhythm last game and remember that his is the player who OKC wanted to trade Harden for. Beal knows that and wants to show them what they wouldve had. It comes down to wall. He cant let Russ dominate him.

Again, I love how Wall is running the O but I want him to be more aggressive and have an attacking attitude. He never really goes hard at DWill but I think he will go at his friend in RW because they have a similar style. That battle will be physical and explosive. Again, I always wanted an assistant from OKC to be our HC because I think there system fits Wall better. I think Wall would look 10x better in the p&r and would get to the rim at will in there system. Witt & Flip just dont run it the same way.

Ours is more designed for the PG to make a simple pass back or to shoot the mid range J. There's and others are designed for the PG to attack off it and lets the PG have its choice of driving, shooting the J, or dishing. This is the game Wall needs to announce that he is a MAX player and one of the top PG's in the league. Fast tempo and stay aggressive. If he does that then we can win wihtout a doubt

[nate33]

http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/preview/2013-11-10/Washington-at-Oklahoma-City/136427

I think if the outside shots don't drop the Wizards will lose, handily. OKC will own the boards and they're going to get a ton of FTs. Still, I suspect Washington's going to be able to score a lot of points if Nene plays.

It will be interesting to see if Wall with confidence in his jumper will catch OKC off guard. He and Beal both have to be defended. If they're making shots early, it could be a very interesting game.

[JWizmentality]

If memory serves, we've always matched up pretty well with OKC. I expect a close game, but I think we are outlasted in the end.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The only thing about the match ups is the Wizards have a very different lineup than the previous meetings. No Okafor and before guys like Singleton played. This time, they've got Nene and Gortat, with Al Harrington in the lineup.

I'm not sure what to make of the match ups. Also, Steven Adams gives them a whole lot more rebounds and defense than just Ibaka or Perkins. I have to wonder if Adams' physical play, that bothered both Nate Robinson and Vince Carter, will bother Bradley Beal and John Wall. Adams goes out of his way to make contact with people.

I hope the Wizards keep raining the threes and force them away from the basket. I think this is one game where the unwillingness or inability of the Wizards' big men to get to the line could be problematic. OKC will be a lot more physical unless Nene really brings it.

I know it probably won't happen but it would be nice to see some inside out play from Seraphin, Booker, and Harrington. The Wizards need guys to get to the rim.

[BruceO]

Their two points of attack are where our best perimeter defenders are in wall and ariza. While our scoring in the starting unit is pretty well rounded. So I'm hoping ariza and wall are defensively a thing of beauty.
It'll be interesting to see how wall does against Westbrook. I also hope his back has stopped bothering him. ,the difference between okc and us is durant and that's it. Oh their bench is more productive since we don't have our otto porters. I like our bigs better than theirs if nene comes to play.

Remember when people thought lamb was as good as Beal?

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Can't see a win tonight if you call her "lovely"

That one looks like she would wear you out though.

Build country strong and looks like a wild thing.

You should really look into seeing what Nate33 can do about making you a moderator. Then you'd have the power to lock or delete every post and/or thread you took issue with instead of rushing to make overly emotional threads, leaving out all types of punctuation marks and coming off as whiny where you're essentially begging to get your way. 17,500 posts have got to be good for something, certainly must qualify you as a 'regular'. Disregard the insight or lack of it that is produced as your fingers strike the keyboard, 17,500 posts have gotta be good for something.

This is the second time in a short time that you've taken issue with a thread I've started...if the other is so out of line just as this one was apparently then why the hell hasn't Nate33 appeased you by locking it?

[payitforward]

Can't see a win tonight if you call her "lovely"

That one looks like she would wear you out though.

Build country strong and looks like a wild thing.

You should really look into seeing what Nate33 can do about making you a moderator. Then you'd have the power to lock or delete every post and/or thread you took issue with instead of rushing to make overly emotional threads, leaving out all types of punctuation marks and coming off as whiny where you're essentially begging to get your way. 17,500 posts have got to be good for something, certainly must qualify you as a 'regular'. Disregard the insight or lack of it that is produced as your fingers strike the keyboard, 17,500 posts have gotta be good for something.

This is the second time in a short time that you've taken issue with a thread I've started...if the other is so out of line just as this one was apparently then why the hell hasn't Nate33 appeased you by locking it?

Whoa there pardner.... Let me step in here and defend my friend Hands (w/ whom I almost *never* agree about anything, btw!!). Isn't it Podawcia, the previous poster, you are really taking issue with?

Just asking...?

[payitforward]

Speaking of which, perhaps this is the place for me to point out that all these dopey sexist avatars around here make some of you come off as pimply little kids showing off pictures of what you have zero access to.

Just saying....

Oh, and maybe you should consider the fact that there are female sports fans, female NBA fans, female Wizards fans, and maybe even a few female participants here?

[payitforward]

Forgot one more thing....



GO WIZARDS!!

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

That one looks like she would wear you out though.

Build country strong and looks like a wild thing.

You should really look into seeing what Nate33 can do about making you a moderator. Then you'd have the power to lock or delete every post and/or thread you took issue with instead of rushing to make overly emotional threads, leaving out all types of punctuation marks and coming off as whiny where you're essentially begging to get your way. 17,500 posts have got to be good for something, certainly must qualify you as a 'regular'. Disregard the insight or lack of it that is produced as your fingers strike the keyboard, 17,500 posts have gotta be good for something.

This is the second time in a short time that you've taken issue with a thread I've started...if the other is so out of line just as this one was apparently then why the hell hasn't Nate33 appeased you by locking it?

Whoa there pardner.... Let me step in here and defend my friend Hands (w/ whom I almost *never* agree about anything, btw!!). Isn't it Podawcia, the previous poster, you are really taking issue with?

Just asking...?

There is no Podawcia. And no, dopawcia isn't who i'm really taking issue with. Don't know how you came to that.

A 1,000 post kinship? IDK....

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Their two points of attack are where our best perimeter defenders are in wall and ariza. While our scoring in the starting unit is pretty well rounded. So I'm hoping ariza and wall are defensively a thing of beauty.
It'll be interesting to see how wall does against Westbrook. I also hope his back has stopped bothering him. ,the difference between okc and us is durant and that's it. Oh their bench is more productive since we don't have our otto porters. I like our bigs better than theirs if nene comes to play.

Remember when people thought lamb was as good as Beal?

I resemble that remark. I remember posting as much a while back.

I never panicked and thought Beal was a bust, however. I remember Lamb dominating summer league and thought Lamb would be a great player. On that, I was really wrong.

FWIW, Lamb's been very much improved this season. Bruce, take a look at Lamb's season so far in terms of points, rebounds, assists, etc per-36, PER, and WS/48.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... bje01.html

I think Lamb has the physical tools to be every bit as good as Kevin Martin. He's not a sharp, competitive, confident, strong kid like Beal. OTOH, he's got length and a good shot, too.

[payitforward]

Their two points of attack are where our best perimeter defenders are in wall and ariza. While our scoring in the starting unit is pretty well rounded. So I'm hoping ariza and wall are defensively a thing of beauty.
It'll be interesting to see how wall does against Westbrook. I also hope his back has stopped bothering him. ,the difference between okc and us is durant and that's it. Oh their bench is more productive since we don't have our otto porters. I like our bigs better than theirs if nene comes to play.

Remember when people thought lamb was as good as Beal?

I resemble that remark. I remember posting as much a while back.

I never panicked and thought Beal was a bust, however. I remember Lamb dominating summer league and thought Lamb would be a great player. On that, I was really wrong.

FWIW, Lamb's been very much improved this season. Bruce, take a look at Lamb's season so far in terms of points, rebounds, assists, etc per-36, PER, and WS/48.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... bje01.html

I think Lamb has the physical tools to be every bit as good as Kevin Martin. He's not a sharp, competitive, confident, strong kid like Beal. OTOH, he's got length and a good shot, too.

Lamb is playing very well -- in about 90 minutes so far, which really doesn't mean much. But, still....

Nate Wolters -- whom both you and I wanted at #38 last year (and got... for a split second!) is also playing very well, especially for a rookie. He's now the Bucks starting point guard! Gee, would you rather him than Maynor? I sure think so, especially when we could have used the money spent on Maynor to acquire a pretty good FA big (Dejuan Blair??).

Who's running this franchise, anyhow? Oh... I remember.

[hands11]

Sorry CCJ

But this is likely to be a mugging. I don't have much faith Randy is nibble enough to match up with the different combinations and strategy that will get thrown at him.

OKC at home, and Randy hasn't developed rotations using enough of the bench yet. OKC has played 11 players 4 games or more and all 13 at least once. They can keep running bodies and combinations at us. Randy should just try to come out of this healthy and regroup for Dallas who is older, slower and not as physical.

If I was Randy, I would call this a throw away game and use it to get Glen, Ves, Kevin and even Booker some minutes. If he waits to long to use them earlier, it will be to late and the game to out of hand to make a difference because of foul trouble.

Get creative...

Perkins is starting and coming out of the rotation early and replaced by Adam who will bang and run on you after Perkins softens you up. Randy has to plan for that.

Serge shoots a lot at the rim but also from all over the floor as well. Force him to the right and keep him off the baseline. If you have to give something up. Give up the left side.

Wall has to be out there every minutes Westbrook is. No one else can cover him. And Wall needs to make this a track meet when he can.

Beal has problems against taller SG. Maybe start Temple on T Sefolosha and roll Beal out with the 2nd unit to light it up in a shoot out with Lamb who is the better scorer and off the bench.

OKC comes out with KD, Westbrook and Serge looking to score. Perkins is no real threat so let Kevin take a lot of that pounding and Sefolosha is there for 3 pt spacing and to be a long perimeter defender.

So get creative and match up against what they are doing in their first wave and then hit them with your second wave.

Wall, Temple, Trevor A, Ves, Kevin
vs
RB, TSefolosha, KD, Serge, Perkins ( Bench ) Reggie Jackson, D Fisher, Lamb, Nick Collision, Adams, , Perry

For one, this should throw OKC off. They won't expect this. Temple, Ves and Kevin are only out there as a test and to play tough scrappy energy D. If it doesn't work, that's fine, you have vets in reserve and can yank the experiment at any time. But if it works, you just gained a advantage.

Wall and Westbrook are going to do battle one and one anyway.
Trevor A guarding KD with Temple helping on the perimeter. Maybe even try Glen Glen or Webster if you need a little more scoring.

Let Kevin beat on Perkins. Just tell him to go pound. Don't worry if he gives up a foul. You can always bring in Gortat. Besides, Perkins isn't staying out there that long. And Kevin can probably school his slow ass on offense with his post moves and baby hooks. Perkins isn't nimble enough to keep up with Kevin but Kevin is big enough to bang with Perkins. Advantage.. Kevin. And it keeps Nene and Gortat fresh.

Ves can run around covering Serge on the perimeter and if he has to give up a few early fouls inside, no big deal. Make it an ugly game. I would rather Ves get them then Nene or Gortat. Westbrook will be driving. We don't want Nene and Gortat in foul trouble early. Thats OKC game so plan for it.

Then roll in

Mayor, Beal, Webster, Nene and Gortat so they can work over their second line of
Reggie Jackson, D Fisher, Lamb, Nick Collision, Adams

Now I don't expect them to do this so we will never know if it would work, but it was fun coming up with something creative that might give the Wizards and advantage. Even if that starting line went down a few pts while making the game ugly, we would have a pretty big advantage with out second line. And there really wouldn't be much OKC could do to adjust to that. If it actually worked, they would have to adjust by going to them bench early, basically pulling out Serge so he was available for play against Nene.

It would make for a very interesting game of moves and counter moves.

[hands11]

Can't see a win tonight if you call her "lovely"

That one looks like she would wear you out though.

Build country strong and looks like a wild thing.

You should really look into seeing what Nate33 can do about making you a moderator. Then you'd have the power to lock or delete every post and/or thread you took issue with instead of rushing to make overly emotional threads, leaving out all types of punctuation marks and coming off as whiny where you're essentially begging to get your way. 17,500 posts have got to be good for something, certainly must qualify you as a 'regular'. Disregard the insight or lack of it that is produced as your fingers strike the keyboard, 17,500 posts have gotta be good for something.

This is the second time in a short time that you've taken issue with a thread I've started...if the other is so out of line just as this one was apparently then why the hell hasn't Nate33 appeased you by locking it?

Lighten up. When I started posting here, the regulars that were here told me about a few traditions. Starting the game thread after you started one and the team won wasn't something I created. It was something I was told about.

All I did was ask the board what they wanted to do so we knew what to do moving forward. I didn't tell anyone to do anything. If things have changed, it would be nice to know about it.

Another tradition was not to start a bunch of threads about the same topic. Usually the mods sweep in and merge those.

So don't shoot the messenger brother. I made neither of those rules.

[hands11]

Speaking of which, perhaps this is the place for me to point out that all these dopey sexist avatars around here make some of you come off as pimply little kids showing off pictures of what you have zero access to.

Just saying....

Oh, and maybe you should consider the fact that there are female sports fans, female NBA fans, female Wizards fans, and maybe even a few female participants here?

First, thank for chiming in on the first one.

Second, PIF.. The NBA dresses them like that and puts them on the sidelines and them strolls them out on the court to kick their legs up and bend and shack their bootie.

Its not like people are posting porn stars or strippers. These are NBA cheerleaders. They make calendars and video and everything. Now me personally, I do go out of my way to look them up or care for the love a Bull postings. But I think any women NBA fans see what we see. And in todays world, there might be a few that like what they see.

Just saying...