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

[dobrojim]

WTF was that Ariza?

Awful. He's been great at catch and shoot. Solid when he takes it all the way
to the rim, but just terrible off the bounce on pull ups. Coach needs to gently
or not so gently remind him of that.

[dobrojim]

Why didn't Wall pass that?!

As a max player, you have a lane wide open for a layup. You better make it.

esp when the guy who bailed you out in the last game was ejected.
No Nene to put the miss back in.

[dobrojim]

1pt loss while giving up a 10pt lead in under 3min, giving up 16 offensive rebounds, going 13-26 from the line and Wall playing like crap

on the road

getting no luv from the zebras

[dobrojim]

Tough loss for the Wiz. This was my first time watching them this season (Grizz fan) but they look very promising. I was rooting for you guys.

Aside from missed freethrows, I saw alot of standing around by the Wizard players on loose balls and that really hurt them. Also letting Ariza and Webster touch the ball late hurt as well. Should have been Gortat, Wall, and Beal making plays at the end. After Gortat beat his man twice to the basket, it's a shame they didn't go back to that. Force OKC to stop it or if they doubled, he's a good enough passer to find the open man.

Also, I respect Wall for being unselfish and deferring to Beal when he had it going. I think he did what any good point guard is suppose to do. Get the ball to the guy with the hot hand. So I hope you guys aren't too hard on him for not being "dominant" this game. Oh...and he was definitely fouled on that last play.

Also, it doesn't seem like Beal or Wall attack the rim enough. They moved the ball well around the perimeter, but I didn't see enough attacking the basket from either of those two. Is this the norm?

thanks for your comments.

I think that is our norm for the most part. We let Nene and Gortat provide whatever inside
presence we can generate and then look to ball movement to generate open looks on the
perimeter for our 3 pt shooters. We just started to stall too early.

[dobrojim]

My thinking is that Wall didn't make the pass because he didn't think there was enough time left. The worst thing of all would be to pass up a makeable layup only to have the jump shooter not get the shot off in time.

Good point. There were only 4 sec left at the start of that play. It would have
cut it awfully close to make a pass there.

When I watched it last night I didn't realize Wall didn't go backboard. Strange.
Wall did sure believe he got fouled.

[dobrojim]

Sigh... I guess Wall will always be inconsistent . After the last 20 games of last season i thought he had learnt.

On the bright side Beal looks way more assertive, even in his bad games. I like his handle and aggressiveness to the rim, haven't seen wall do what beal has done.

very very few players are truly consistent and guards are less likely to be
than bigs I would think.

Wall isn't attacking all the time because he has gotten a lot smarter and more
experienced. He understands it is a team game and he does a great job (usually)
of exploiting the strengths of his teammates.

[GhostsOfGil]

To all the people bitching about Wall not performing like a max player. Do you even realize Wall is CURRENTLY NOT GETTING THE MAX!

Wall is getting a little under $7.5 Mil this season.

It also irritates the hell out of me that Beal can put up 5 stinkers and no one hardly says a peep or gets worried. Finally, he has one great game and everyone starts talking about how he's a potential superstar, while Wall who played quite well up to last night gets killed with every other post a reminder about how much he (incorrectly) makes.

It seems like theres a fine line around here between Wall hate and Wall criticism. When Beal was struggling, not many people were worried because he was still playing the right way. He was taking open shots, not forcing things, making quick decisions with the ball, and generally contributing in other areas.

With Wall, my only concern is his lack of aggressiveness. dlts is getting **** on around here but I tend to agree with some of his points. I think his criticism during the Nets game was unwarranted given the fact that Wall had 14 assists and was a key contributor in the game.. But during the OKC game, he had multiple possessions that just flat out killed us.

Wall attacked the rim ONCE in nearly 40 minutes of game time. His ability to run the team is not in question. I think we all agree that he has done a fantastic job in doing so. But his shot selection, and refusal to drive is mind boggling. Tontoz said it best: Wall is indeed struggling to score but maybe we should curb the criticism until we know how serious his back problems are..

[dobrojim]

Huh, no moral victories now? Oh really? Isn't this season one big moral victory seeking exercise?

I wouldn't say that. But we have differing views on the value of getting to the playoffs
even if we go out in the first round.

[Dat2U]

Huh, no moral victories now? Oh really? Isn't this season one big moral victory seeking exercise?

I wouldn't say that. But we have differing views on the value of getting to the playoffs
even if we go out in the first round.

But why isn't it? Seems pretty obvious that's what this entire year is about to Ernie & Ted. It's one big moral victory tour.

[dobrojim]

Because I don't believe making the playoffs is just a moral victory for a team
that hasn't been in a while. It's an important milestone. I understand you wish
they would take a longer term approach but I don't think there is any guarantee
that that would insure more success in that longer term.

Getting Wall and Beal into the playoff sooner rather than later will make
them both better players in the long term.

[Dark Faze]

Wall played a poor game, but it's like people don't even realize that Beal didn't even look like he knew how to play basketball when Wall was off the court for almost every other game this season.

[GhostsOfGil]

+1

Overall, I thought Wall had a pretty good game against some intense OKC defense while teamed with unreliable ball handlers. He had those two bad possessions down the stretch in regulation, but other than that, I don't really have a problem with the decisions he made all game.

That said, I'll also say that Beal has had more than one great game. He's had two great games in a row. Actually he's really only had the two godawful games at the start of the season. Since then he's been real good. Over the last 4 games, he is averaging:

24.8 points
4.3 boards
3.3 assists
1.0 steals
2.5 turnovers
.595 TS%

Those are essentially James Harden's numbers from last year, minus 2 assists and a turnover.

Even with those stinkers, Beal is now averaging 21 ppg 4 reb and 3 assists. He's raised his TS% to 52% and shooting an incredible 48% from 3 on 7 attempts per game!

One thing to note that we touched on earlier: Beal is averaging over 40 mpg. That has to come down. We're going to run this kid into the ground with his current minute distribution.

Wall played a poor game, but it's like people don't even realize that Beal didn't even look like he knew how to play basketball when Wall was off the court for almost every other game this season.

Normally I would agree but last night was different. Beal carried the team when Wall was out.

[LyricalRico]

Tough loss, but I agree that Wall/Beal were good. (Still wish Wall had passed to the corner on the last play in OT.) Also nice to see Nene play with some passion for the second game in a row. This is the team I was hoping to see, and against most other teams that effort would have been good enough to win.

[Dat2U]

Because I don't believe making the playoffs is just a moral victory for a team
that hasn't been in a while. It's an important milestone. I understand you wish
they would take a longer term approach but I don't think there is any guarantee
that that would insure more success in that longer term.

Getting Wall and Beal into the playoff sooner rather than later will make
them both better players in the long term.

Milestone? Something more than half of the teams in the league accomplish each year is a milestone for us? To me, that's the biggest problem. We think it's okay to lower the bar because we've been so bad. Apparently if your terrible enough, for a long enough period of time, it's actually okay to start grading yourself on a curve, because Lord knows, we don't want to start setting expectations that we know our humble front office and expensive roster can't reach.

Sorry but this just screams of a loser's mentality. Getting to the playoffs should be part of the process, not the actual destination.

[dobrojim]

And I get that.

But when you been so bad for so long, it's a necessary first step.
I doubt anyone is going to stop trying to get better once that happens.
Everyone knows it's a process. I'm in general agreement with many of
your criticisms of mgmt but setting a goal of making the playoffs
is not one of them. How much criticism and/or how useful would
it be to continue to be so bad that we don't make the playoffs for
another 2-3 years. If mgmt then said, we're not just trying to make
the playoffs but build a champion, people would rightfully scoff
and ridicule that. Championship? You can't even make the playoffs.

The point is to get better and barring a key injury or 2, I would expect
we will be quite a lot better.

[Higga]

Damn it that's a brutal loss. That could have been one of those milestone Ws that propels us. I know it's early and just one game out of 82 but for a young and inexperienced team like ours, we need that kinda positive momentum.

Bradley Beal is the best SG in the East. I said before the season started he'd make the All-Star game and I'm sticking with it.

[dckingsfan]

This one hurts so bad... being 3 and 3 would have been really good for this club. Sigh...

[nate33]

One thing to note that we touched on earlier: Beal is averaging over 40 mpg. That has to come down. We're going to run this kid into the ground with his current minute distribution.

The minutes are high, but don't forget that two overtime games were involved. Ignore the overtime minutes and he's averaging 38.7 minutes a game. That's a little high, but not that much for such a young player.

[jivelikenice]

I thought Wal played a decent game until the 4th yesterday. Its tricky coaching predicament. The backups were playing well (well actually Beal was but the unit was in the game). Wall typically needs to find rhythm when he comes back in but at that point there's no time for it.

Randy also can't wait to get Beal back in. Why won't Randy call a timeout to stop momentum and bring Beal back in?

Free throws in the end did us in though. Just a tough loss. Wizards losses haven't stuck with me recently as I knew they were bad. Now that I think there's a realistic shot at the playoffs and the team looks decent, they sting again.

[tontoz]

“I thought I got fouled, but you got to play through it,” Wall said. “It was an easy layup you work on every day. Can’t take it back, but it’s an easy point-blank shot I should’ve made. I didn’t do a good job of closing out the game, and we lost a tough one.”

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