I haven’t watched the game yet…. although I did hear on the radio that the Wizards lost.

I can almost guarantee that Eddie started his favorite 5 (Stevenson, Dixon, Jamison, Butler and Thomas) – and that the Wizards dug a hole in the 1st quarter again….

I’d guess that the Wizards fought back to tie or maybe take a lead at halftime – but then Eddie threw that same starting lineup out there for the 3rd quarter – and that was the game!!

No amount of fine play by Nick Young or Andray Blatche off the bench will be able to offset the poor starts in the 1st and 3rd quarters by the “starters”.

I’ll watch the game on my DVR and post my thoughts later.

Etan Thomas is one of the great mistakes that Eddie Jordan has made as Wizards coach. Putting him on par with Haywood for the past several years, and giving him even a smidgen a playing time this year is absurd. The Wizards are at a tremendous disadvantage with him on the floor, he’s got about as much offensive game as Michael Ruffin, gets pushed around on defense, and generally does no good (although supposedly at one time he was a great hustle player, whatever that means). I’d almost rather have Calvin Booth back on the team taking Etan’s minutes.
Hopefully he’ll have some takers with his contract expiring in 2010 (the year Lebrons a free agent) and we get something (even if its just Etan Thomas off this team and eliminated as a possibility for Eddie Jordan to give excessive playing time to).

The defensive schemes need to be totally revamped. Our strategy seems to be to dare teams to shoot the open 3. Time after time I watch a 3 point shooter waiting in the corner while our defender drifts inside the paint, leading to an easy open 3. I thought these were mental errors, but I’ve seen it so much that I think it’s a strategy. A slightly patient team can get an open jumper almost anywhere on the floor against us and I don’t think it’s because individual players are poor defenders. I think it’s the scheme.

I can spot his throw-aways and offensive fouls a good 5-10 seconds before he commits them. He should concentrate on his mid and inside game and stop being so chippy outside.

His handle seems to have gone way downhill this year. How does that happen?

Confidence I guess.

Kevin Arnovitz at ClipperBlog made this point in a post earlier today:

In basketball, the three points yielded by a blown possession in the second quarter count as much as a 3PM in the final set. Some might argue that the second quarter possession is even more important, because it informs both teams’ tactics down the stretch.