GT 65- Wiz vs Portland (10:00 p.m. Eastern)

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Screw Portland fans' and the organization's feelings.

I still remember the Trailblazers org. trolling the whole Eastern Conference that season when they finally put together a solid season.

[Kanyewest]

I missed the 2nd half. I note that Sato was +5 in 6 minutes in the 2nd half after not playing the first. Was his defense on their guards noteworthy, or was the positive on/off differential just a fluke?

It was alright but I believe he left McCollum open for a wide open 3 but he just happened to miss.

[GOD_SHAMMGOD]

Chris Forsberg
ESPN Staff Writer

The Celtics and Wizards are essentially even in the race for the No. 2 seed in the East. Does Jae Crowder watch the standings? "I went to dinner with Isaiah [Thomas] after the Denver game and he was pretty pissed because the Wizards had won and gained second place. I told him, 'Don't worry about it. We got a lot of games left and we'll get them back. We just have to take care of each game at a time.' I don't check too often; Isaiah checks a lot." Celtics-Wiz final meeting on March 20.

[gravytrain24]

Chris Forsberg
ESPN Staff Writer

The Celtics and Wizards are essentially even in the race for the No. 2 seed in the East. Does Jae Crowder watch the standings? "I went to dinner with Isaiah [Thomas] after the Denver game and he was pretty pissed because the Wizards had won and gained second place. I told him, 'Don't worry about it. We got a lot of games left and we'll get them back. We just have to take care of each game at a time.' I don't check too often; Isaiah checks a lot." Celtics-Wiz final meeting on March 20.

This should be a "players only" televised game, if not the league has some issues.

[JWizmentality]

Read on Twitter

I noticed a lot of Blazer fans harping on that too. All you had to do was look at Lillard's non-reaction to know it was clean. I guess when you have a PG whose defense is as lousy and Lillard's....

[perempe20]

Wall harassed the opponents with his post ups.

[CobraCommander]

Read on Twitter

I noticed a lot of Blazer fans harping on that too. All you had to do was look at Lillard's non-reaction to know it was clean. I guess when you have a PG whose defense is as lousy and Lillard's....

I remember when people used to say they would take Lillard over Wall. Well when you ask about leadership, passing and defense its Wall. If its one shot...its Lillard. But if its ONE shot...and Wall on Lillard I take the Wizards to Win.

Btw...Dame came back and took his anger out on Booker and the Suns...

[Illmatic12]

The team to avoid is definitely Miami.. elite defense + Whiteside destroys Gortat every time. Followed by Indy who has a player who can go into superstar mode (PG) , plus some vets with playoff experience.

Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago wouldn't give us as many problems as those two. Complete lack of shooting/spacing for those squads, and lack of experience I think would do them in vs Washington.

I'm not worried about Indy. The only teams that have more than a 10% chance of beating us in a 7 game series are Cleveland, Boston, Toronto, Atlanta and Miami.

Hmmm. I think I'm going to walk back my comment with respect to Milwaukee. Khris Middleton is back and I see that they're 7-0 in games when he has started.

Milwaukee will present some challenges, but I'd still rather play them than Indy. We just have no matchup for PG whatsoever and he knows it too, he has experience killing us in the playoffs.

I don't think Giannis can carry a team in a playoff series just yet, he's still pretty iffy as a halfcourt player. If guys like Snell, Delly etc are in their postseason rotation the skill level gap between the Bucks and us will be too great, and the inexperience would do them in.

[dobrojim]

Unless he's playing on a team with LBJ, I don't fear a team that has Delly
as a full time rotation player.

[dobrojim]

At this point, just want to be in the top three. There are no gimmes in the first round and everyone is jockeying for position. I'd like to avoid Miami.

I'd also like to avoid Cleveland in the 2nd round. I actually think we might be straight up better than they are, but LeCrab Dribble will get every call that matters, so they will be an extremely tough out.

We're also pretty dang good on the road, so I'm not worried about an extra game in Bahhhstan.

3rd would be a remarkable achievement given expectations before the season as well as after going 2-8
and the talk about (paraphrasing) Wall deserves better than this.

that said, I would feel a whole lot happier if we had home court advantage against
(presumably) BOS in the 2nd round. It's going to be hard enough to beat them with
home court.

That just brought up a bad memory, where was Gortat when Horford ripped the rebound
away from Nene to win game 5 vs ATL 2 years ago?

[edit to add] Now reading more of the thread, I see a number of folks
are thinking similarly. We want HCA for as long as we can get it. We kick ass at home.
Also wondering what BOS (2nd rnd) or CLE ECF tickets would go for on the secondary
market. Bullets fever all over again. It's been a while.