GT - Washington Wizards @ Phoenix (12-5-2010)

[DallasShalDune]

We got the win! Now, let's see if my mojo works well enough for our first ROAD win.

Game Time: 8:00 PM EST on December 5th, 2010.
Locale: In Phoenix
Broadcast Information:
CSN HD and 106.7 The Fan

Lineups:

Washington
PG: John Wall -- 2
SG: Klark Hinrich -- 12
SF: Alonzo Gee -- 15
PF: Andray Blatche -- 7
C: Javale McGee -- 34

PG: Steve Nash -- 13
SG: Jason Richardson -- 23
SF: Grant Hill -- 33
PF: Earl Barron -- 30
C: Channing Frye -- 8

Key Match-Up of the Game:
Gilbert Arenas v. Jason Richardson
Who knows if Gilbert is coming off of the bench again or not. What we do know is that he is going to have to have a monster performance in Phoenix if we want to pull out a win over the Suns. Gilbert has done it before. In his best season, on a road trip where we had to face the Lakers and the Suns, Gilbert dominated and came out as one of the best offensive players of the decade. He is not the same player, but he is still capable of dropping 40 or 50 if he can find the rhythm in his jump shot. J-Rich, meanwhile, is on fire and has thus far had a better season than Agent 9. There is a great chance that J-Rich hits 10 3s on us in this match up, and if he does that, we don't stand much of a chance.

Big Questions of the Game:
1. Who will start for the Wizards? This was a question against Portland and it is a question against Phoenix.

2. Two streaks enter, one streak leaves--the undefeatedness against the West or the complete incompetency on the road? Now, we won't win every game against the West, but so far this season, we have. What perfect streak will be broken first? One of them has to end this game. (Based on the laws of physics and such).

3. How healthy is Wall? Wall has struggled in his two games back from the knee bruise, and he isn't nearly as dominant as he was in the beginning of our season. With Blake Griffin running away with the ROY Award, will Wall step up his game? Is he capable, or is he too banged up and fatigued?

Emoticon (because we need at least ONE) to describe DallasShalDune's feeling on this matchup: (for the Suns. . . get it?)

[pineappleheadindc]

Nice win vs Portland. Take us on a long winning streak dude.

[nuposse04]

arenas drops 40+ although we can abuse Phx's interior. With how horrible our transition D is, this may become laughable early though :/

[nate33]

We absolutely have to get back on D. If we can do that, we can make a game out of it. If we can't, we lose.

[Zonkerbl]

Can't take a lot of jumpers then. Have to attack the interior.

[closg00]

The Suns are still a high-scoring running squad which = trouble for us. If McGee can alter enough shots and Nick Young plays some good D on Richardson, we might have a chance.

Side-note: We've have played in 3 OT games so-far.

[dopeismarcus]

Release Hilton Armstrong

[GhostsOfGil]

http://www.nba.com/wizards/video/2010/1 ... index.html

alot of ppl were disappointed in walls body language in teh game against portland. this post game view talks about it. pretty much says he was frustrated he wasnt hitting open shots.

one thing i notice from the portland game is that gil had 6 fouls? i didnt see this game but i notice gil has been averaging a team high 3.5 fpg in only 33mpg. i hate to beat a dead horse but it looks like gil has been really getting shafted on both ends by the refs.

edit* on second look, out of the top 25 leauge leaders in fpg, gil and steph curry are the only guards to rank. gil ranks 13

[JWizmentality]

It was clear he was frustrated with his play. I noticed it too but didn't think too much of it. I hope he has set a high standard for himself.

[tontoz]

Gil and Wall need to produce. Last nights 9 fg/9 turnover game from those two isn't going to get it done.

[nate33]

http://www.nba.com/wizards/video/2010/12/03/WallPostgame1203flv-1485222/index.html

alot of ppl were disappointed in walls body language in teh game against portland. this post game view talks about it. pretty much says he was frustrated he wasnt hitting open shots.

one thing i notice from the portland game is that gil had 6 fouls? i didnt see this game but i notice gil has been averaging a team high 3.5 fpg in only 33mpg. i hate to beat a dead horse but it looks like gil has been really getting shafted on both ends by the refs.

edit* on second look, out of the top 25 leauge leaders in fpg, gil and steph curry are the only guards to rank. gil ranks 13

Part of that is that Gil is being screwed by the refs. But the other part is that Gil, when he comes off the bench, is aware that he will be playing fewer total minutes. He is much more willing to give up a foul to stop a fast break or to screw up an opponent's last-second isolation play. If Gil wanted to, he could cut back on his foul rate pretty easily

[dlts20]

I still say start them both without Kirk and we win this game without a doubt while both of them play well but thats not going to happen so Im not going to keep talking about it. Some say it was because NY was out. Really? So Jr Smith misses a game and Denver thinks "lets bring our best scorer in Melo off the bench to makeup for his production". Its a joke.

[tontoz]

I still say start them both without Kirk and we win this game without a doubt while both of them play well but thats not going to happen so Im not going to keep talking about it. Some say it was because NY was out. Really? So Jr Smith misses a game and Denver thinks "lets bring our best scorer in Melo off the bench to makeup for his production". Its a joke.

The Wizards best scorer is shooting 9% worse from the field than Hinrich and committing nearly twice as many turnovers. Considering Hinrich hasn't exactly been steller this year that doesn't say much for Arenas.

Let me know when you see Melo shooting 38% from the field over a month.

Bottom line is that i don't think Arenas is 100%. I think he is either hurting somewhat or struggling to get back into game shape. Playing fewer minutes might actually help him especially at the end of games.

[hands11]

Nice win vs Portland. Take us on a long winning streak dude.

Now that's just silly.

He doesn't even play for the Wizards.

[pineappleheadindc]

^
Don't ruin the juju, man.

[JWizmentality]

Nice win vs Portland. Take us on a long winning streak dude.

Now that's just silly.

He doesn't even play for the Wizards.

You should be taken out into the streets and beaten mercilessly. The thread maker is key to our season.



OT: Why am I being attacked by viruses on this site? My norton has taken out one each time I open this site since last week.

[Benjammin]

Nice win vs Portland. Take us on a long winning streak dude.

Now that's just silly.

He doesn't even play for the Wizards.

You should be taken out into the streets and beaten mercilessly. The thread maker is key to our season.



OT: Why am I being attacked by viruses on this site? My norton has taken out one each time I open this site since last week.

It happened to me as well JWiz. If this site can't provide a safe experience free of viruses, then they need to get their act together.

[hands11]

I still say start them both without Kirk and we win this game without a doubt while both of them play well but thats not going to happen so Im not going to keep talking about it. Some say it was because NY was out. Really? So Jr Smith misses a game and Denver thinks "lets bring our best scorer in Melo off the bench to makeup for his production". Its a joke.

I think what you may be missing is that Flip is a head coach. Not a fan.

He has information and observations about day by day health of players and where they are with their games and who mixes best that we don't. He is also trying to balance that with getting the team to mesh.

I have no problem with him bringing Gil off the bench last game or to start the season. It makes sense what he is doing, if you care to try to understand and take more things into consideration.

One is health. Gil needed to start the season slow. That explains the start of the year off the bench. As for last game, Gil had just played six games of 40 minutes with Wall out. 30 minutes for a few games now would be a good idea for Gil to get some spring back in his legs and you want him fresh to close the game. Then he will be ready for 40 minutes again when we need that.

Two is mixing Wall and Gil and allowing both of them enough room to establish their games. There is a balance here. We knew them mixing talent on the court was going to be a process and they both also need room to have their individual games to expand. Keeping them separate allows for the later and mixing them during the game give them a chance to work on meshing.

Three is defense. Actually, this should have been #1. This team needs improved D and Wall and Kirk are the two best perimeter defenders. The logic here is start your best two way players who can defend well. Bring in your point production people or pure defensive specialist off the bench. Now this goes back to Gils legs, minutes, and his new focus on playing better D. While it looks like Gil is playing better D, I'm not sure he is at Kirks level just yet. Plus, Gil has to get past the refs not giving him a break.

In time, I think we will see more Gil and Wall starting. I'm not really worried about that at all right now.

Ahh, #4. Rotations. Flip has said he wants to get more consistent here and I think he, and several others here, like seeing Gil and Nick ball together. Nick shouldn't be out for long enough to mess with the rotations right now if we want them playing together in a game or two. So Wall and Kirk start off with a D focus where Dray can get his early before he gets tired. Wall can drive. McGee can clean up. We just need a productive SF to score along with them. AT has been hurt and Gee is new again so lets give it a few games. Then you bring in the Gil and Nick show against the second team.

So when you add all of those things up, you get Gil coming of the bench. I would expect the same for this game as well. I expect Flip to target Gil for 30 minutes again. These are the other things it doesn't seem like you are giving enough weight to. Flip is thinking long term and short term. He is working a bigger picture.

[hands11]

^
Don't ruin the juju, man.

I'm going to have to dig up my magic chicken feet and crystals and see if that helps.

Guess I haven't been doing my part.

So what other magical/good luck items do you'll have? I don't think relying on who starts the thread is working well enough. We need to pull out everything at our disposal so we can get on a roll. Specially so we can get our first road win.

We need to exercise this demon of darkness called EL ROADARO.

[pancakes3]

Release Hilton Armstrong

i'm assuming this was meant to be read in a liam-neeson-in-clash-of-the-titans-esque voice? if not, it should.

"RELEASE THE NECK!"