Wizards-76ers, my recap

[From the diaries. Here's a firsthand recap of the Sixers game. -Pradamaster]

I missed most of the first quarter in icy traffic, but my recap of what I saw of the game is as follows...

First off, thank God for the W.  It was dirty and they barely earned it, but it ought to wash the bad taste out of the team's collective mouth heading into the All-Star break.

Blatche looked great.  The guy has got a real feel for scoring when he gets around the basket, and there were long stretches last night where he was positively looking like a threat to the opposition.  And you just can't argue with 10 boards, 11 points, and 4 blocks.  I won't get too excited until he has a good game against a legitimate starter (Joe Smith was filling in for Steven Hunter), but this is a very positive sign.

The Best Moment of the Evening Award has to go to Songalia, who during the third period actually turned his back to the basket and exhibited some low post moves!  I'm pretty sure this marks the first time this season a Wizards player has executed basic low post offense.  If he keeps improving like that, he can add a lot of value come playoff time.

One place Songalia suffered was on the boards.  At this point, the guy really doesn't have very good hands at all.  On two possessions in a row, he would have had a board but he just couldn't bring the ball down.  Let's hope that's just a conditioning thing.

Speaking of hands, that's the one shout-out I've got to give to Jarvis.  His jumper may still be on extended leave, but he pulled down a couple of crucial boards with authority late in the game.  He isn't reliably great on the glass, but on a day when Brendan Haywood was on auto-pilot (man, how hard did Etan hit him, anyway?), everyone had to help fill in the gap.

As for the offense seeming dead, I have two observations:

1. Gilbert is just plain slumping.  Jamison went through this a couple times last year, and the other guys covered for him.  I mean, the 3's Gil was putting up are shots you want him to take.  His feet were set, he was in rhythm, no one was really challenging.  They just aren't falling right now, and with Antawn out, they're having problems picking up the slack.
2. Back when the offense was clicking, I read an interview with Gilbert (a real blogger would link here, of course) where he was saying that their offense works because they all do different things.  He mentioned that he and AJ run the pick &roll/pick & pop, while Caron gets his isolation plays.  That's part of why the offense is shutting down right now.  They're running the pick & roll with Caron and that isn't where he likes to get his offense.  So then they just do isolation plays, which leave four guys standing around and one trying to be a hero.  That was what went well yesterday about the subs being in during the 3rd/4th -- it was one of the few times they ran the offense the way it's drawn up.  Eddie Jordan has got to get someone else involved in those pick & rolls (Blatche, maybe?) because what they're doing right now reeeeally isn't working.

Besides that, solid defensive effort, they got stops when they needed them and got better and better at rebounding as the game progressed.  Let's hope the break is refreshing for everyone, Agent Zero gets his swag back, and Antawn is ready for action soon.