Source:NBA Entertainment
Tonight the Washington Wizards went up against another struggling team on the road – the Detroit Pistons. And eerily similar to many of their previous road games they looked as if they were disinterested, in a malaise or completely disoriented.
And I can already imagine the explanation:
Unlike the previous two loses in which the Wizards played well and were able to take away some small moral victories, there would be none taken away from this game. The Wizards were over-matched in nearly every phase of the game and lost to the Bulls 105 – 77. Early in the game, the Bulls were unstoppable in the paint and finished the game with 48 points in the paint. The Bulls were also able to own the boards, pulling down 56 rebounds – 17 more than the Wizards. Following the game, Flip Saunders put it bluntly, “There bigs kicked our butt.” High percentage shots in the paint combined with their success on the backboards enabled Chicago to hit 48% from the field.
Andray Blatche finished the game with a double-double, he led the Wizards with 15 points and 11 rebounds. However those statistics, as they often are with him, are misleading. Andray is rarely in good rebounding position, often is slow getting back on defense and doesn’t appear to be focused when on defense. Those shortcomings can and were exploited by a team like the Bulls. Andray can put points on the scoreboard but they often come at the expense of good offensive flow.
Another video against the Spurs. In this short video clip, notice how Andray Blatche quickly looks at the offensive player as the shot is going up. Rather than put a body on him… he looks at him. The rebound goes long and guess who is there to get the ball… no not Andray Blatche. See if you can catch John Wall’s expression at the very end of the clip.
Issac Baldizon/NBAE/Getty Images
Certain loses are easier to take than others and the Wizards eight point loss to the Heat is one of those loses. When you consider the way the Wizards played in their recent games against Orlando, Indiana and Philadelphia, that they were without Andray Blatche and Al Thornton who were nursing injuries, and that they were adding three new players into the mix (Mike Bibby, Maurice Evans and Jordan Crawford) – a beat down against the Miami Heat would have been expected. However, the Wizards elected to play with a little passion. And while they ultimately lost the game, it was a competitive and entertaining game throughout.
The Heat secured the win with an good game by Bosh (15 pts & 8 reb), great game by LeBron James (25 pts, 9 reb & 7 ast) and an incredible scoring performance by Dwyane Wade (41 points). They also received a little help by the officiating crew as the Heat shot 45 free throws versus 23 by the Wizards. (In fact, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade (28 FTs) attempted more foul shots that the entire Wizards team (23).)
Credit: NBAE/Getty Images
Good NBA teams hover around .500 on the road and the best teams have winning road records, but few teams (and none so far this season) have better records on the road versus at home. So, given this it goes without saying that the Wizards will generally get their opponents best effort – since their opponent will be at home where they play their best ball.
In this article, we explore whether the blame solely rests on the team’s defensive effort or whether there are other contributing factors.
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The Heat – Wizards game, minus Gilbert Arenas, ended up being much more competitive than the Heat – in the quiet recesses of their minds – likely thought it would. Hell, in their previous game (with him) they were down by 23 to the Nets… yes, those Nets. So surely they would struggle even further without him.
Well, the Wizards played like a different team and led for many stretches of the game. Early in the third quarter, the Heat were able to reclaim the lead for a bit, in part behind a couple of LeBron James threes. But the Wizards kept playing hard.
Then came this series of possessions:
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This was the type of game that you expected the Wizards to lose. They began the game without John Wall and Andray Blatche, then lost Yi Jianlian to a knee injury early in the first quarter. This Wizards team was over-matched from the opening tip. And when you combine that with a cold shooting night and the team is lucky to have only lost by 14 points.
I read Mike Prada’s article, “It’s time to hold Andray Blatche accountable for his bad defense” and it reminded me of something that I had noticed during the Knicks game. There was a play – during a stretch in the game in which the Knicks began to pull away – when the Knicks guard easily drove to the hoop for a layup following a relatively routine pick-and-roll play. In frustration, Flip Saunders called a timeout and before CSN went to commercial you could see what appeared to be Flip giving “tough love” to JaVale McGee.
So I decided to watch that play over to see what made Flip so angry. However, what I noticed was that the player who appeared to be most at fault was Andray Blatche. At the start of the play, John Wall was rubbed off on a pick that was set by Andray’s man. Instead of hedging and either stopping the penetration of the Knicks guard or at least forcing him out further on the floor, Andray decides to stay in no-man’s land and did neither. Instead he looked at the guard while barely leaving the paint. Yes, he looked at him. Worse yet he actually appeared to screen off John Wall, who was hustling to get back on defense. Worse still as the Knicks guard realized that he had John Wall at a disadvantage and Andray Blatche did not seem intent on stopping his penetration, he decided to keep driving to the hoop.
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