Washington Wizards @ Atlanta Hawks Game Thread 10/30/2009

JWizmentality · Post #161 » by **JWizmentality** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:22 am

We started off soooo good, then they all got too excited. Add to the fact that the refs really shoved a hard one up our arses early. I'm not too worried. Still a work in progress.

Brick Young needs to be traded.

Post #162 » by **nate33** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:26 am

I agree that Haywood didn't look all that sharp. The good news is that he managed 19 points, 9 boards, 2 blocks and 58% shooting in 33 minutes. Our expectations are pretty damn high if we consider that a bad game.

Zerocious · Post #163 » by **Zerocious** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:30 am

WTF, i was all relaxed and S, watching us take a nice lead, then we got it the rear. WTF is up with Soft drink (Tough Juice, right? up high) he is wearing knee pads and still he gets his knee hurt on a dive on his stomach. Trade the mf'in butler, should have gotten rid of him when we had the chance. And i am saying this sporting him on my signature. i love the guy but he aint no tough juice no more

bummer loss, god the refs sucked in the first half AND!!! still no perimeter defense. did they even miss a three.

serious wtf, game. i am gon to home opener and all that's yet to happen is gilbert falling out of the bus and still wont see any of big three play at home.

where's that hgh when you need it....call the crybaby!

dandridge 10 · Post #164 » by **dandridge 10** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:34 am

GilArenas88 wrote:Im not to dissapointed in tonights loss. We basically played without Butler and Jamison and cut it to 6-7 a few times when no one was making anything. Our defense was poor the first half but didnt do to shabby the second half. Blatche played pretty well on offense, could have played better defense and rebounding, but atleast he showed some consistency on offense. Brendan was solid, Gil had a good 4th quarter. They shoot only 41% from the field and 25% from three, again thats good. Things that killed us was there fast breaking in the end of the first and second period off of our careless turnovers and bad shot attempts. This actually wasn't that bad of a loss, like you would feel in the past, we just didn't make shots and turned the ball over.

This is how I feel about tonights loss as well. The second quarter killed us with the bogus ref calls and Arenas' turnovers and it kind of got us out of our rhythym. But, despite both Butler and Jamison out and an off game from just about everyone shooting wise, we still kept in the game. The last few years, this would have been a 20 pt loss with the Hawks scoring 120 points. The Wizards at least continued to defend in the second half.

Good to see Blatche have a decent game again, but he still needs to improve conditioning and defensive rebounding. It seems like he always starts off well, but trails off at the end. Perhaps having Jamison back will allow Blatche to be more of a sparkplug off the bench and help keep his energy level up.

I agree Miller needs to shoot more. I think a couple of his passes were picked off tonight because the Hawks were anticipating he would pass instead of shoot. Its rare to say about a player, but he needs to be more selfish.

If McGee learns how to play this game and bulks up a little, he is going to be a superstar.

I know he didn't have a great shooting game, but I really love Foye. I just like his demeanor on the court. I also thought he ran the team pretty well tonight.

Hopefully Caron is ok and the Wiz bounce back tomorrow.

dandridge 10 · Post #165 » by **dandridge 10** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:38 am

JWizmentality wrote:We started off soooo good, then they all got too excited. Add to the fact that the refs really shoved a hard one up our arses early. I'm not too worried. Still a work in progress.

Brick Young needs to be traded.

The problem is is we won't get much value for him right now.

closg00 · Post #166 » by **closg00** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:42 am

Young has ZERO trade value now. Well, perhaps a 2nd round pick.

Post #167 » by **nate33** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:46 am

Relax people. Young didn't suddenly forget everything he knew about basketball. He's in a bad slump right now and is pressing too much, but he's not going to go 0-8 every night. He's still a guy that can get 20 points per 36 minutes with decent percentages (while contributing nothing else in the box score). He just has to break out of this slump.

I'm disappointed that he hasn't figured out how else to contribute besides scoring, but I'm not worried about him scoring. That'll come around.

Chocolate City Jordanaire · Post #168 » by **Chocolate City Jordanaire** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:58 am

nate, my main comment about the game was in the fourth sitting McGee shouldn't have been the only option for getting Haywood in the game.

Wizards are going to lose when Gil turns it over so frequently. ATL's better now, but I don't think they're going to be better than the Wizards for long.

For all the criticisms of EJ, I never saw Young so tight or him nail McGee to the bench. Relax folks. Flip's done about 80% better than EJ, but if I have an observation it's that Flip wants young guys to know where to be and what to do. I don't think Young will get it for quite a while. Same with McGee.

McGee, however, demonstrated today how much he can do to change a game.

Gotta find a way to put him out there with Haywood at least a couple minutes here and there.

go'stags · Post #169 » by **go'stags** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:59 am

I actually thought Young's defense was pretty solid tonight. He played Johnson pretty well, forcing him into a travel, and didn't seem to be lost on team defense. Probably part of the reason Flip started him in the second half, while hoping he could get his shot falling.

Chocolate City Jordanaire · Post #170 » by **Chocolate City Jordanaire** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:59 am

daSwami wrote:
Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:Love the hustle by Butler, diving on the floor.

Then again, 80 games left. Don't get hurt, Tough Juice.

there's your curse. thanks ccj.

F'n curse is alive and well, Swami.

go'stags · Post #171 » by **go'stags** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:01 am

As for McGee, he showed how much he can affect a game without even really knowing what he is doing. He did seem to have a better idea of what was going on as the game went on however.Once he gets it together, watch out.

Chocolate City Jordanaire · Post #172 » by **Chocolate City Jordanaire** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:02 am

go'stags wrote:I actually thought Young's defense was pretty solid tonight. He played Johnson pretty well, forcing him into a travel, and didn't seem to be lost on team defense. Probably part of the reason Flip started him in the second half, while hoping he could get his shot falling.

stags, I agree with your earlier optimistic post, BTW. Just in a hurry or I'd have quoted you.

Post #173 » by **nate33** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:03 am

I dunno CCJ.

McGee gave some good minutes, but he was sprinting full speed every moment he was out there. I think he got winded, that's why Flip took him out. He was in there 10 straight minutes. That's a lot for a big guy who moves that much.

Man I hope McGee one day figures out the game of basketball. His physical abilities are absolutely breathtaking. It's games like this that make me reconsider any trade involving McGee.

Post #174 » by **nate33** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:04 am

go'stags wrote:I actually thought Young's defense was pretty solid tonight. He played Johnson pretty well, forcing him into a travel, and didn't seem to be lost on team defense. Probably part of the reason Flip started him in the second half, while hoping he could get his shot falling.

You gotta give Flip tons of credit for starting him. Flip saw that Young's confidence was low after his lousy 2nd quarter stint so he tried to give him a boost. It didn't pay off, but I love the psychology.

keynote · Post #175 » by **keynote** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:05 am

I wonder whether that DNP got into Young's head a little bit. It got some press (WaPo, ESPN's Daily Dime, etc), and he was certainly tight out there. Add that to the fact that he's learning how to be a more efficient Rip/Miller type player on the fly (thereby robbing him of the option of building a rhythm through the bounce and rock of the 1-on-1 dribble), and he'll need some time to adjust.

Re: Miller. Yeah, he's gotta shoot. He also didn't look quite as athletic versus the uber-athletic wings on ATL. A few times in the 4Q, he drove to the basket and couldn't get any separation vs. Marv or Joe Johnson. Miller's got a little Jason Campbell in his game, in that his conservative play can make him look good (few TOs/INTs, high percentage) *and* bad (unwilling to go for the big play). He'll be a great fit with a healthy Caron and Jamison, but he's gotta do more for a team with DeShawn and Oberto.

go'stags · Post #176 » by **go'stags** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:07 am

Agree completely, Nate. I was really expecting him to be glued to the bench the rest of the game, but I think it was a very good decision by Flip. Could definitely pay off in the long run.

hands11 · Post #177 » by **hands11** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:17 am

80sballboy wrote:I don't care about his solid defense tonight. Miller has to shoot it. The guy is such a good shooter and has the handle to create separation.

Agreed. Im not to worried but this was a disappointment.

I expected more out of Flip.

How could he not get MM to shoot at least one 3.

When MM is such a good shooter Flip let him get away with 5 shots in 33 minutes.

How could Flip no see we were going to have to give McGee a chance, ready or not. Against that athletic of a team, we needed energy and some kind of mismatch. McGee was an obvious choice. I called that before tip off. What took him so long to make the move.

DSleezy 11 minutes 4 fouls

Im glad he gave NY a chance because we had to try something but Nick blow that one. 13 mins 0-8
Come on NY. There are rookies coming right into the league putting you to shame.

Blatche and Wood were ready the only two players played respectable ball.

I still believe a line up of Haywood, McGee, Blatche, MM and GA could have made some noise but Flip never found that combo. He got close with McGee, Blatche, MM, Foye and GA.

But consider how badly this team was coached and how badly NY played when we needed him and that MM didnt want to shoot, we were still in it at the end. Had the refs not totally blown chunks, we could have actually pulled this out.

That said, I have hope still. Not our error are fixable. Flip is still new to knowing his talent and ATL is a touch match up for us, specially on the road.

Tomorrow is another day.

SAUCERY_SWEET · Post #178 » by **SAUCERY_SWEET** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:30 am

Y'all should have known this game was going to be tough as heck to win, the Hawks play like Champions in Atlanta and can beat anybody. It's on the road where they are sub-par and unravel at times, y'all probably needed a lot of help from the refs to win instead it sounds like it was the opposite. Hawks are established now, this is not the same squad that the 04-07 Wizards used to beat up on. I say that because i was :no:

my head reading all the double digit sitting our starters predictions about this game, You weren't playing the Bobcats.

Ji · Post #179 » by Ji » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:38 am

did we make a mistake trading away our draft picks....looks like a star studded draft now...Flynn,Evans,Curry...and how about Brandon Jennings 19-9-9 tonight. I wonder how many All stars come out of this draft class while all we are left with Foye

bad trade....we cant win a title with this lineup so the trade was not worth it imo

keynote · Post #180 » by **keynote** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:42 am

I'm not one to harp on the refs, but the box score was telling:

FGA: WAS 79, ATL 78
FG%: WAS 44.3%, ATL 41.0%
3PTM: WAS 5, ATL 5

FTA/FTM: WAS 14-22, ATL 31-34.

One could argue that ATL's higher number of FTA and FTM made the difference in the game. Neither team features a post-centric attack, but WAS was slower to rotate over to defend against ATL's more athletic slashers.