Game 2 EC SemiFinals: Wizards @ Celtics 8 PM (TNT/1500 AM) [5/2/17]

[ballup]

It's surprising that Lopez alone wrecked havoc on the Celtics yet the Wizards with the better rebounding frontcourt is barely out rebounding the Celtics. Desire is a cliche fallback, but I think it really fits in this situation. I'm not seeing Gortat and Kieff go out and get it. There's a lot to be said when Jason Smith is the most impactful bench player. Oubre didn't look very keyed in. The refs weren't egregious, but bad calls thrown left and right.

Wall was amazing but you can see how much the load weighed him down in the 4th/OT. He was deadly with those mid range pull ups to combine with his passing and speed.

[nuposse04]

Same people that diss the team and whine about Ernie and Ted 24/7 wanna complain about negativity when the team blows back to back 15 point leads

I dislike Brooks as much as the next guy, but Wall was done tired, mostly cause his backups are trash. Part of that trash is the fact Brooks lacks an ounce of trust or creativity with young guys. Stevens doesn't, he got good minutes from youth and they rewarded him. Brooks is however, playing the cards EG and company gave em. Its also EG's fault for hiring an overrated coach and thinking he would mask his own overall retardedness. These losses are part of a systemic problem.

[NatP4]

Same people that diss the team and whine about Ernie and Ted 24/7 wanna complain about negativity when the team blows back to back 15 point leads

I dislike Brooks as much as the next guy, but Wall was done tired, mostly cause his backups are trash. Part of that trash is the fact Brooks lacks an ounce of trust or creativity with young guys. Stevens doesn't, he got good minutes from youth and they rewarded him. Brooks is however, playing the cards EG and company gave em. Its also EG's fault for hiring an overrated coach and thinking he would mask his own overall retardedness. These losses are part of a systemic problem.

Best post I've seen on here in a long time. This guy gets it.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Yup. AND we don't have a 1st round draft pick too

SO WIZARDS, we called it early, WE NEEDED that 1st round pick. If Ted had half a brain he would fire Ernie when this is over.

The Bogdanovic trade was one of the worst trades EG has done. The only other one I can think of was the 5th pick for Foye/Miller but that was defensible without the benefit of hindsight. The Bogdanovic trade made no sense.

In light of McCullough apparently being considered nothing to Brooks; you're right.

I saw the day of that deal MCCULLOUGH was maybe a diamond in the rough. The only thing worth a future look.

I cannot fathom why Brooks would not see the talent that Bogdanovic says he sees in McCullough.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Tony Massenburg speaking the truth.

Make it friggin physical. If the Cs are going to get all the touch calls, don't commit touch fouls. Commit hard fouls!!!

Been saying this.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I guarantee Beal will have a terrific game-3. Wall will probably struggle. He'll put up a seemingly decent stat line but on poor efficiency and nowhere near the control of the ballgame he's shown for most of the season (Law of averages).

It will be another close game and we'll probably pull it out since we're at home.

But we're not taking both at home. And clearly, we can't win in Boston.

Your bottom line is hopefully not correct.

It is logical.

I'm hoping for two home blowout wins.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

in game 3 if I'm scott brooks I'm using some lineups that feature Otto Porter at the center position and seeing if he can guard IT on switches. Boston is playing super small ball lineups all game and we can't prevent dribble penetration or guard in isolation.

Satoransky should also be playing. play all the perimeter defenders that you have. **** it play McClellan, he can defend also. you have to go smaller to guard these guys.

The single biggest difference between the Wizards and Boston IMO is coaching.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Sucked to lose, but you guys are way too negative. Despite Beal playing so bad and Morrison having no mobility we would have won it but for some home cooking by the refs. Wall gave everything he had, was playing on fumes. Anyone who wants to putilize him down now is delusional

Yeah the real problem is our lack of depth. Our key midseason acquisition played 8 minutes today. Also, Mahinmi needs to get his ass off the bench and make a difference. I still think we can win Game 3 and 4.

Markieff played through injury.

Mahinmi is from France. (Okay, that was a bad joke. Sue me.)

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[truwizfan4evr]

We need to solve the big man switch on guards.

[WashWiz54]

The Celtics have some really knowledgeable and insightful fans, but most of them (at least on the general board) seriously suck. They have the "they hat us because they ain't us" mentality which isn't the case.

We hate you because you have zero objectivity even when neutral fans tell you something. We hate you because your team plays a brand of basketball that encourages hurting their opposition. We hate you because your fans cheer when our players go down. We hate you because your trolling sucks.

Seriously, your fan base has a warning on the general board with the Raptor fans, but at least Raptor fans have a sense of humor! You guys just have such a fragile ego that needs to be stroked or you think the world is against you. I hope for their sake they are all 13 years old and just haven't matured yet.

/rant over.

[WallToWall]

Same people that diss the team and whine about Ernie and Ted 24/7 wanna complain about negativity when the team blows back to back 15 point leads

I dislike Brooks as much as the next guy, but Wall was done tired, mostly cause his backups are trash. Part of that trash is the fact Brooks lacks an ounce of trust or creativity with young guys. Stevens doesn't, he got good minutes from youth and they rewarded him. Brooks is however, playing the cards EG and company gave em. Its also EG's fault for hiring an overrated coach and thinking he would mask his own overall retardedness. These losses are part of a systemic problem.

Brooks gives plenty of chances to young guys (or bench players) who have an ounce of talent. He can groom them well. His track record is proof.
What is wrong here is that the folks behind Wall and most all other positions are HUGE drop offs in talent. They tend to be worse than the bench of the opponent. You just cant manage/coach your way out of the problem of having no bench.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

SO WIZARDS, we called it early, WE NEEDED that 1st round pick. If Ted had half a brain he would fire Ernie when this is over.

The Bogdanovic trade was one of the worst trades EG has done. The only other one I can think of was the 5th pick for Foye/Miller but that was defensible without the benefit of hindsight. The Bogdanovic trade made no sense.

How did that trade make no sense? It was done to get rid of Nicholson's contract and help a terrible bench that was near the bottom of the league in production. You also have a GM who has been pretty bad at drafting outside the top 10 (maybe Oubre was good) and it's not that bad on paper. When he doesn't score, it does look bad but EG would have f-cked that pick up anyway.

Forgot about the undoing Nicholson mistake. Who should not have been signed in addition to Smith, as both were languishing at Orlando.

I believe the deal was a wait and see.

Thought Bogs would be better in the playoffs. He did show up against ATL.



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[80sballboy]

One guy who did play pretty well off the bench was Jason Smith with 10 points and two 3s. But in 16 minutes, you have to get more than one rebound when you are 7-feet.

you guys have to stop assessing players by their point total. we gave up 120 points twice in a row. Jason Smith could not guard anyone on the court, every time he was in the game, Boston would give the ball to whoever he was guarding and just ISO against him and get easy free throws or a layup.

Brad Stevens is coaching a lap around us. He's been fantastic.

I have to do what? How about you stop assessing coaches who have much more talent and options than Brooks has. You mean the same Brad Stevens that put out the small lineup in the second half and was down by 10 very quickly?

Smith never can really guard anybody but at center, if you put him against the backup center, he can do a decent job. Or the backup PF. It's tough to ask him to defend Horford. I have more of an issue of not rebounding and those lack of defensive rebounds by all included help lead to those 129 points in Game 2. But I'm sure if we had Gary Sato Paytoransky in the game, he would have held IT scoreless when he was on the floor. That dude cannot defend quick point guards and has very little offensive game for the NBA.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Sucked to lose, but you guys are way too negative. Despite Beal playing so bad and Morrison having no mobility we would have won it but for some home cooking by the refs. Wall gave everything he had, was playing on fumes. Anyone who wants to putilize him down now is delusional

Put it this way. If Wall played at an unsustainably phenomenal level and dropped 40 and 13 and we still lost, things are bleak. What will happen when he comes back to Earth and gets 23 and 10? What if he has a bad game and gets 16?

When your stars over-perform, and you still lose, it's called a wasted game.

Not to mention the very real psychological toll of blowing big leads 2 straight games. They will feel like they can't win a game no matter what. If they're up 20, if they're up 15, that anxiety is in the back of their minds.

Cannot disagree.

Alternative point of view: We will get big leads and expand on them in DC.

We could easily be 1-1 or even 2-0 if Kieff was healthy in game one.

Free throw attempts will swing and refs want this series to go seven.

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[truwizfan4evr]

When a big man is switched on Thomas we need to trap him every time and force him to give up the ball up. Or At least switch a guard back on him.

[AFM]

in game 3 if I'm scott brooks I'm using some lineups that feature Otto Porter at the center position and seeing if he can guard IT on switches. Boston is playing super small ball lineups all game and we can't prevent dribble penetration or guard in isolation.

Satoransky should also be playing. play all the perimeter defenders that you have. **** it play McClellan, he can defend also. you have to go smaller to guard these guys.

The single biggest difference between the Wizards and Boston IMO is coaching.

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I think the biggest difference is that they have a bench and we don't.

Can't ask Wall to play the entire game. Man, Jennings can't do ANYTHING? He can't give Wall 10 minutes of quality rest?

[80sballboy]

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

All we need is a Wall or Beal jumper and it's tied 1-1. They aren't better by much. They just have a player on a mission who is driving the lane at will, not every getting hit by a soft defense.

When they missed I knew they were going to lose in OT because we were lucky to be tied with the ball at the end of regulation.

Well it's over now. You lost 2 games where you had a mathematically higher than 80% chance of winning at various points of the game (Game 1 up 16-0; Game 2 6 point lead with few minutes left in the 4th). Wall over-achieved and will not have an offensive game like tonight again.

Make Otto the primary scorer.

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[nuposse04]

Same people that diss the team and whine about Ernie and Ted 24/7 wanna complain about negativity when the team blows back to back 15 point leads

I dislike Brooks as much as the next guy, but Wall was done tired, mostly cause his backups are trash. Part of that trash is the fact Brooks lacks an ounce of trust or creativity with young guys. Stevens doesn't, he got good minutes from youth and they rewarded him. Brooks is however, playing the cards EG and company gave em. Its also EG's fault for hiring an overrated coach and thinking he would mask his own overall retardedness. These losses are part of a systemic problem.

Brooks gives plenty of chances to young guys (or bench players) who have an ounce of talent. He can groom them well. His track record is proof.
What is wrong here is that the folks behind Wall and most all other positions are HUGE drop offs in talent. They tend to be worse than the bench of the opponent. You just cant manage/coach your way out of the problem of having no bench.

Durant, Harden and Westbrook seem to be generational players, So I'm not sure how much Brooks had to do with them ascending into who they are. Yah he might have developed Ibaka into a better player past his pedigree... but Porter has been on an upward swing independent of Brooks. Maybe Beal and Wall benefit some, but save for that I don't see who he has REALLY improved in terms of role players. Yes his offense is better then Wittman's by a mile, but his game management and X's and O's seem to be 2nd tier. He seemed to have a shorter leash with guys like Sheldon early in the season... to be fair he did give Tomas decent chances.

I don't see offense as the issue with the 2nd unit, but more so the defense. Running Jennings and Bojan has not worked. He has to try other guys. If he doesn't then the result shouldn't come as a surprise. We are going to lose, maybe in 5. Worst of all, Ted will give Grunfeld a chance to rebuild the **** bench HE created.

[80sballboy]

Ok, maybe I'm starting to see what Brooks is talking about. Hate bitching about refs but this was a huge play.

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