Spud2nique wrote:Fourteen months ago was the last time we beat the Washington Wizards at Philip arena (not including last year's 2 wins in the playoffs). Gone are the days of the low post wizardry (pun intended) of Paul Millsap, the anticipation of our beloved high school sweetheart Dwight Howard being the savior and any hopes of a twin tower domination in the ATL.
The ending of a promising era without a title is nothing new to the Washington Wizards, at least since the last time they held the Walter A. Brown trophy (Larry O'Brien) in 1978 behind as the Bullets behind a couple of franchise mainstays in Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and big man "do it all" extraordinaire Wes Unseld, both #2 picks of the Baltimore Bullets (Monroe in 1967 and Unseld in 68). Coincidentally, the first pick in the 1968 draft was Elvin Hayes, drafted first overall by the San Diego Rockets, who would later join the Bullets in winning their one and only title in 1978.
After winning four conference titles and six division titles in the 70's, the 80's seemed more of a rebuilding decade for the Bullets as they tried to jumpstart the franchise with a couple of Malone's in the 80's with Jeff and X Hawk Moses to no avail. That was followed by having the tallest and short players in NBA history on the same team in the same season in Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues. The 90's weren't much better for them as they had many top flight players in Michael Adams, Chris Webber, Rasheed Wallace, and Mitch Richmond (Cwebb and Mitch traded for each other), but no player or group of players were able to lead them back to the glory days. The 2000's were similar as again they were able to make little noise with guys like Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and company.
Washington is hoping the new era of Wizards basketball featuring the dynamic backcourt of John Wall and Beal can bring a trophy to DC at some point in their tenure. The last few years they have been building chemistry with Wall, Beal and Gortat, and even coming within one game of the conference finals last season in the playoffs losing to the Boston Celtics in 7 games. Through 34 games this season, the Wizards are currently occupying the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference, boasting a record of 19-15. Bradley Beal is having a career year with averages of 23.1 ppg/4.3rpg/3.5apg and most likely will be making his first trip to the all star game in Los Angeles this season. The Wizards are 9-9 this season on the road and are coming off a huge 111-103 road win in Boston on Xmas day getting 25 points from Beal and 21 points and 14 dimes from Wall. "If we back this up with a win on Wednesday (against Atlanta), I think it gives us momentum going into Friday against Houston and going into the new year," Wall said. "But if we don't back it up, I think it's just doing the same thing over and over again. Playing against the great teams, you play up to the competition. Then play against the lower teams, you fail to win those games."
Beal said, "We've got to realize it's time for us to take off. We've got to start making some noise and really showing our identity each and every game."
Our beloved Hawks have a chance to win back to back games for the first time this season after a hard earned home win against our tanking rival, the Dallas Mavericks 112-107 on Saturday night. Dennis Schroder poured in a career high tying 33 points, 13 made fg and 4 three pointers. The Hawks were also able to get contributions from a suddenly healthier Ersan Ilyasova with 21 points (7-9fg)and 7 boards. "He's just doing a lot of everything," Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. "He's always great defensively, taking charges and getting rebounds. He's playing about as well as he has since we've had him." The Hawks also received steadily improving games from Collins and Prince. Plumlee was also a spark off the bench with a couple of resounding slam dunks to excite Philips arena crowd. The vision of Plumlee throwing it down had Hawks fans envisioning a similar play next year at this time by a player named Ayton, Bagley or Bamba. It's not illegal to dream in December but it's frowned upon.
Despite the win over the Mavs on Saturday, the Hawks stand currently at 8-25 with the worst record in the NBA ahead of the very same Mavs by a full game. But before anyone starts dreaming of the draft in June, we have that pesky rest of the season schedule to play out and it starts with the Wiz tonight who are favored by 6 points. Our motto has to be the same each and every night. Play hard, play for each other and have some fun out there. A cliche to end all cliches...
Let's take this baby one day at a time!
Ps Doin it for lw3!!!
