Round 2, Game 1: SET THE TONE! Wizards @ Pacers 7 PM TNT 5/5

[dlts20]

but my point is even if that 1st half Pacers team shows up, they still arent a ton better on paper. They were playing a ton better but I dont think if you look at the roster you will say they are.

After that I break it down like this. I always expect the worst so everything else is icing on the cake so Im going to go in thinking that he Pacers will play more like they did in the 1st half of the year then they have in the 2nd half. However, they still arent 33-7 good. Lets be real about that. Their 33-7 is kinda equal to the bulls regular season record. Meaning the Pacers were playing playoff basketball at that point while every other team was in regular season mode and the East at that point was maybe the worst its ever been. The conference got alot better in the 2nd half.

Now lets so they are still like 58-60 win good. Thats great but I cant stress this enough. With Nene starting, we are winning at a 55 win pace in the last 34 games. I think we are 23-11. Alot of that came with us having by far the worst bench in the laegue. When Indy was 33-7, if you looked at the rating of the starters we were 4th in the league. Thats with Indy & Mia playing like All Star teams and all the great teams out West. We were the #4 rated starting unit. You can look it up. However, it was more than offset by us having by far the worst bench in the league. Every game it was Temple-JV-Singleton-KS-and a sucky Porter. Even Book sucked.

Now Book is great, we have the professor, Web is finally healthy, Gooden, Harrington, and basically Beal is now a bench player. Early on he was a pure starter but now we bring him out early and he comes back with the 2nd unit. We are even doing that some with Nene. Im just saying, that even if the great Indy returns, they will be 58-60 win good and not 70 win good while we are a capable of being a 55 win team ourselves if we play our best. Ill say it again, Ive never ever seen us pass the ball like we did in that 4 game win streak to end the season.

Thats why I was so confident playing the great Bulls D. Our ball movement had become crazy good. Weve always had good D but we would put it on cruise control. We dont do that in the playoffs especially with all the rest we have. Wiz fans are underrating how good we can be. Indy is the real deal no doubt but we arent as far off as that regular season suggested. This matchup will show that if you ask me. Indy will play well and we will still give them trouble. Its a great matchup

[bealwithit]

Based on how Washington had no answers for Taj Gibson, I think Paul George will destroy Washington. Stephenson is better than Jimmy Butler. Nene won't dominate West or Hibbert.

I think Washington will lose in 5 or 6 games.

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George has struggled vs. Ariza.

If anyone goes off, it will be Stephenson..

I think the Taj comparison works more for Lance too, but in the rebounding category. In 3 games against us he's averaging 2.7 offensive rebounds and 11.7 total rebounds. That's the kind of thing that can kill a team like us if you give the Pacers second chances in addition to what Hibbert and West provide on the glass. He actually hasn't shot that well against us, average shooting pct being .379 and 10.3 PPG.

It's only 3 games, so a small sample size, but a 7 game series isn't that many either.

[dlts20]

Based on how Washington had no answers for Taj Gibson, I think Paul George will destroy Washington. Stephenson is better than Jimmy Butler. Nene won't dominate West or Hibbert.

I think Washington will lose in 5 or 6 games.

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come on ccj, how does that equate to eachother? PG doesnt play the same position or anything like Taj. Thats like saying based on the fits Mike Scott gave Indy, I know they wont be able to deal with Wall........lol

Also, Nene may not dominate West but West also domnated that Indy series and wont have it as easy with Nene. Stephenson was great and is better than Butler but when Beal plays right he is clearly better than Korver also so everything works both ways

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Based on how Washington had no answers for Taj Gibson, I think Paul George will destroy Washington. Stephenson is better than Jimmy Butler. Nene won't dominate West or Hibbert.

I think Washington will lose in 5 or 6 games.

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come on ccj, how does that equate to eachother? PG doesnt play the same position or anything like Taj. Thats like saying based on the fits Mike Scott gave Indy, I know they wont be able to deal with Wall........lol

Also, Nene may not dominate West but West also domnated that Indy series and wont have it as easy with Nene. Stephenson was great and is better than Butler but when Beal plays right he is clearly better than Korver also so everything works both ways

Athleticism and size will bother the Wizards. As others have noted, rebounds will be hard to grab. Indy will defend a lot better than Chicago because they are quicker and longer.

I hope I am wrong but I don't like this matchup.

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[dlts20]

Based on how Washington had no answers for Taj Gibson, I think Paul George will destroy Washington. Stephenson is better than Jimmy Butler. Nene won't dominate West or Hibbert.

I think Washington will lose in 5 or 6 games.

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come on ccj, how does that equate to eachother? PG doesnt play the same position or anything like Taj. Thats like saying based on the fits Mike Scott gave Indy, I know they wont be able to deal with Wall........lol

Also, Nene may not dominate West but West also domnated that Indy series and wont have it as easy with Nene. Stephenson was great and is better than Butler but when Beal plays right he is clearly better than Korver also so everything works both ways

Athleticism and size will bother the Wizards. As others have noted, rebounds will be hard to grab. Indy will defend a lot better than Chicago because they are quicker and longer.

I hope I am wrong but I don't like this matchup.

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you arent wrong. Everything you said is true but it all depends if we have turned the corner and I think we may have. I would feel alot better if Wall got his scoring touch back

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Double post.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

come on ccj, how does that equate to eachother? PG doesnt play the same position or anything like Taj. Thats like saying based on the fits Mike Scott gave Indy, I know they wont be able to deal with Wall........lol

Also, Nene may not dominate West but West also domnated that Indy series and wont have it as easy with Nene. Stephenson was great and is better than Butler but when Beal plays right he is clearly better than Korver also so everything works both ways

Athleticism and size will bother the Wizards. As others have noted, rebounds will be hard to grab. Indy will defend a lot better than Chicago because they are quicker and longer.

I hope I am wrong but I don't like this matchup.

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you arent wrong. Everything you said is true but it all depends if we have turned the corner and I think we may have. I would feel alot better if Wall got his scoring touch back

Teague and Mack each had their moments. Hopefully, Wall can find his stroke.

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[Wizardspride]

Based on how Washington had no answers for Taj Gibson, I think Paul George will destroy Washington. Stephenson is better than Jimmy Butler. Nene won't dominate West or Hibbert.

I think Washington will lose in 5 or 6 games.

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Yeah but Taj plays PF/C while George is SF.

George is Ariza's matchup

I'll take my chances.

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

I definitely like the matchup with Atlanta more on paper, but in the long term the matchup with Indy could be good for the franchise. Very few people were going to seriously watch Atlanta play us outside of the 2 fan bases. We will get more exposure this way... for whatever that's ultimately worth. Either way I still don't hate our chances. If we beat Indy we'll get some serious national recognition and respect.

[dlts20]

the last matchup and yes, Im cherry picking.....lol

We played Harrington & Gooden alot in this game to space the floor more. I wonder could they play more in this series. I dont think Witt will go that route unless he has to since Nene & Book played so well last series.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84bSbx9ptmA[/youtube]

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

I hope Al doesn't get a chance to leave the bench. If he plays significant minutes it means Nene headbutted Paul George into next week or something else has gone terribly wrong.

[FAH1223]

I hope Al doesn't get a chance to leave the bench. If he plays significant minutes it means Nene headbutted Paul George into next week or something else has gone terribly wrong.

I think we can limit Nene's minutes more and play a spread lineup

Atlanta had a lot of success. I'd be intrigued to play Gooden a bit in this series or Al

Here's the thing though, the Pacers turn it over A LOT! Which is great for us.

[dlts20]

I hope Al doesn't get a chance to leave the bench. If he plays significant minutes it means Nene headbutted Paul George into next week or something else has gone terribly wrong.

true but I saw a good interview with Witt before the playoffs started and he basically talked about different matchups and insinuated that he can change lineups and rotations based on the opponent

[WallToWall]

Wizards in 6 games. Blowouts for both Wiz and Pacers in their wins. Last game will be hard fought and tight. Keys for us to win will be tempo, turnovers, pressure defense, and rebounding from our guards.
We need to keep the tempo just a tad faster than when we played the Bulls, with fast breaks when we can.
We need to limit our turnovers to about the same as when we played the Bulls. Careless mistakes will cost us.
Pacer guards can rebound well. We need to box them out and get the rebounds.

[dlts20]

one thing I love is that our whole team is really buying into playoff basketball, Defense winning games, not saving ourselves anymore, and ball movement. They are all in on that right now

[nate33]

I really like a lot of our matchups. Their best two offensive threats: West and George, happen to play at the position where we have our best two defenders: Nene and Ariza.

Stephenson's propensity to crash the offensive glass may backfire on them because of our fast break attack.

Overall, I think Indy is going to have a real tough time scoring. The question is, will we be able to score against them? That's where I'm much less confident. We're going to need Wall to step it up big time because he probably has the best matchup offensively. I think he can get around George Hill. We're also going to have to get some points from our second unit. Gooden needs to regain the shooting form he showed when we first signed him. Hopefully, the Professor can take CJ Watson to school.

[Hypnotizer]

7 pm, FAH

[dangermouse]

In the Pacers games i looked at, Stephenson didnt look like the same player. Injured? Maybe a head injury because he was making dumb plays left and right. He looked like a star in the making earlier in the season, I didnt watch todays game, which Stephenson showed up?

[AFM]

CCJ, you really think Nene cant score on Hibbert?

Hibbert is stiff and unathletic. Nene will destroy him IMO. We saw what he did to Noah.

Hibbert's "skill" is being 7 foot 3.

[mhd]

We could go Atlanta mode and play both Gooden & Harrington (although we'd be a disaster on defense and rebounding).