John Wall played quite well last night – scoring a career high 38 points – with 8 assists – 6 rebounds; he ran the floor well; played great defense and handled the ball well with very few turn overs. Our team shot 48 percent – we rebounded well; we just can’t close out games – we don’t shoot free throws well enough and we make a few extra turn overs showing our immaturity and inexperience compared to vet laden teams. The stats were very even last night – little things are derailing us now as a team from being competitive to winning close games.
It is a shame that we continue to create distractions for our franchise – we just need to focus on incremental improvements as a team. We need to be a meat and potatoes team; focused on fundamentals and playing the young players to gain experience. We also need to meet the other team’s runs at us – and match it with smart well executed runs of our own.
I like our team when we run and show athleticism – we hit a few more free throws; we close out a few lay ups in traffic; we take care of the ball a bit more carefully and we would have a few more wins.
The line between success and failure in pro sports is in the tiny details sometimes; we need to focus on little things every day – and NOT get distracted by drama and noise.
Ted, the place was just dead on Monday. I have season tickets and make most of the games, and that was probably the flattest, most disinterested crowd I’ve seen in quite awhile. My wife spent the 4th quarter playing a game on her phone, and for the first time ever, one of my kids wanted to leave a game early. You can’t do much about their record, but the little things that get the crowd into it, like the tee shirt toss and burrito toss, are so brief and so few items are actually tossed, that they are kind of a non-event lately. And just an FYI to the crew there, the people in the VIP seats already get free food, so they don’t need to hand out half the burritos to those people. If I’m not mistaken, there was no Kiss-Cam during Monday’s game either. Even the player intros are boring. Maybe the old Wizards logo is being phased out, but people loved that thing hanging from the ceiling shooting flames out during the intros, and now it’s gone. My point being, when the action on the court isn’t going well, the in-game extras for the fans help keep the energy level in the crowd up, and that’s not happening much this season.
Rebuilding a franchise is Difficult for the FANS, players and front office. In the start of the season it was noted that we will have growing PAINS. All great franchises have experienced frustrating years. The front office has experience– we must have fate they will make the right decisions. They know the process to turn a franchise completely around– IT WAS DONE BEFORE WITH THE CAPS. Right now it HURTS seeing our team lose, but we must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. WE WILL GET BETTER we have no other choice.
On a more Positive note– the 38 points by John Wall is exactly what the doctor ordered “CONFIDENCE”
This team is downright awful and it’s a real disservice to loyal fans to try and sell the idea that a few more made Free Throws or Layups would make any difference. Currently the worst offense in NBA history and that is solely due to the way the GM has constructed the roster. We had no shooters aside from Nick Young at the end of last year, yet we drafted 2 SFs that cant shoot with our 1st round picks and signed Roger Mason who shot 33%FG last season…now predictably the team is horrible because it can’t score. Putting the basketball through the hoop is the essence of “meat and potatoes”, one bad judgment call by an overly exuberant player on a dunk does not address the fundamental reasons the team is 1-12. Thanks
There was nothing wrong with McGee’s dunk. It has been done by stars on winning teams and on losing teams. If he had stopped to test out his new hook shot, then you have an issues. If he had missed it, then it would have been an issues. But the score was close at the time and it was a hype play just as he said. The problem is that flipped yanked him and made a big deal about it instead of letting the energy flow.
As an aside: I don’t think Flip wants to be coaching this team. He came he to coach stars to the playoffs and beyond, then brought some of his own “sharp shooters” to augment, but Arenas caused the whole team to implode and now he is stuck rebuilding. I think it is effecting his attitude toward the team. Guys do highlight dunks around the league on fast breaks all of the time and it’s no problem. Flip overreacted to overcompensate for the fact that he could really care less about coaching this team.
Wouldn’t it help if the drama and noise didn’t come from the team? McGee and Blatche are distractions and shouldn’t be a part of this team if the continue to be unable to “get it”.
McGee’s dunk was an example of exactly what the Wizards don’t need and so far it seems like nothing will be done about it.
Let’s be honest, this year’s team is not a playoff team or even .500 team. Shouldn’t we be building for the future and not wasting our time with showboats and players who’s only contribution seems to be off-court talk.
I’m sorry, but we were beat by the Houston Rockets. They aren’t a veteran laden team. They are younger than the Wizards.