The Wizards looked outstanding tonight. Everyone hustled, played hard, and worked for the win. Hopefully there’s more where this came from.

Also, it was interesting that Don Nelson called a full timeout with 1 second left and the game well in hand. He must have felt the Wizards were running up the score or something. Who cares. If you’re getting blown out by a 1-10 team, you shouldn’t be whining about it.

But boy did you miss a game from the Wiz. If you can get a hold of a tivo or replay of this game, you gotta catch it. We did too many good things – things that we SHOULD be doing night in and night out, including:

playing with energy, playing defense, rotating defensively, rebounding, staying active with hands on defense, PASSING the ball, not settling for the first option on offense, crashing the boards on offense, moving without the ball, getting JaVale the oop, Andray finishing strong, Caron being aggressive, Deshawn moving the ball, getting AJ the ball on the block, and getting out on the break (which we did a lot and we did it well, and a lot of this was a result of getting steals).

I’m sure I’m missing some things, but these are the ones that stood out to me. Tapscott played JaVale and Andray together, with AJ at the 3, which was a nice lineup. I liked the rotation that was used tonight, and everyone played aggressively. Just an overall good game, and it looked like these guys had something to prove, or to play for.

I wondered if it was really happening. Andray was every bit as dominant as the statline, and if firing EJ was the way to get him going (and we are a LONG way from knowing that), then it was a move that had to be made.

Betcha we see a lot of Andray against Dwight Howard Thursday.

But Javalius Superius Maximus was friggin freakish again! That tip and slam to open the game was … rather unusual.

Superiorus – Sorry for the typo. I checked the birth certificate. Javalius Superiorus Maximus McGee.

While I didn’t catch the game, I saw the postgame show and I thought I heard something to the extent of Andray saying he felt “free.” Did anyone else catch that?

5 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 3 fouls for Taser.
That is soooo much more in line with what i think most wiz fans want/expect from him.

Is the fact that the Wizards actually played defense, particularly 3-point defense. Also keep in mind how free the Warriors offense is and how they throw up 3’s like it’s nothing. I also like that we’re pushing the ball more which is what we were doing when we were at the top of the Eastern conference. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but can Eddie Tapscott be the next Bruce Boudreau? We all were trying to find who was going to be our next permanent head coach but based on tonight’s performance we may already have found him. I just hope that we’ll continue playing this way the rest of the season. We’ll find out much more about the team this Thursday when we face the Magic. I can’t believe it, I actually can’t wait to see the Wizards play again.

No minutes for Thomas – check
No minutes for Daniels (inactive) – check
No minutes for Pech – check

Reduced rotation – 10 players in the game, and only 9 with significant minutes – check

Juan Dixon with 9 minutes (garbage time) – check
Songaila with with 14 minutes (none at Center) – check
McGuire with 16 solid minutes rebounding & blocking shots – check, check
Brown with 21 minutes at PG, hitting 3-pointers – check, check
Nick Young with 21 minutes at SG – check
Andray Blatche with 29 minutes, spread between C, PF & SF – check, check, check
Stevenson with 32 minutes – too many…..NO CHECK
McGee started and played 20 minutes at Center – check, check
Butler played almost 38 minutes, some at SG !!! – check, check
Jamison played 38 minutes, some at SF, some at PF – check, check
Tapscott went BIG (with D-Steve, CB3, Jamison, Blatche and McGee) – BIG CHECK</strong?
Tapscott NEVER went small – check
Wizards players showed effort on Defense – check

hmmm…………. Wizards WIN… how-bout-that…

More observations:
Tapscott certainly didn’t have any compunction against playing Caron Butler at Shooting Guard….. Butler scored 35 points, had 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals…. Playing at SG certainly didn’t seem to throw off his game.

The BIG lineup worked like a charm. The Wizards played the their best defense of the game when Tapscott inserted Butler at SG, and Jamison at SF. Blatche and McGee patrolled the middle and D-Steve played Point Guard. The Wizards INCREASED their lead, based mostly on Defensive stops, and good rebounding while playing that big lineup.

Before we get too full of ourselves after only one good game – Golden State is a poor 3-point shooting team.. The Wizards were hitting shots that they have NOT hit all year. Andray Blatche decided to show up, which may not happen again. Dee Brown hit two 3-point shots, which may also not happen again. The only Wizards that played like they have all year were Deshawn Stevenson (bad) and Antawn Jamison (good). Point is, this game could have been a fluke.

Here are my observations:

This is from the Washington Post Comments section for Michael Wilbon’s column. I agree with everything this poster said, word for word. Consider this post an endorsement of these views.

uranderson wrote:
“Blatche is what is called in the trade "a coach killer,” a guy who shows you just enough to get your hopes out of whack.

He and Arenas can turn a coach into a broadcaster almost overnight."

This is totally one-sided in favor of Jordan. Let’s take a look at the other perspective for a minute.

Jordan had a penchant for putting very good players in the doghouse and keeping them there whether they deserved it or not. It’s what he did to Haywood for several years and it’s what he did to Blatche. Haywood would’ve been an impact player for this franchise two years earlier if it wasn’t for Jordan and his nonsense. He was benched immediately if he made a single mistake, or even if he didn’t make any mistakes, sometimes it was just Eddie having a freaking whim. It took an injury to Etan to force Jordan’s hand and that’s pathetic. A blind hamster could’ve seen the difference in caliber between Haywood and Etan Thomas. It took Jordan years.

Let me repeat that: It took Jordan years to see the difference between Haywood and Thomas.

We saw a similar treatment being given to Blatche. A single mistake and wham! Back to the bench for a quarter or a half, and the young player had absolutely zero confidence or development. That’s pretty much a theme for Jordan throughout his tenure. He didn’t develop a single young player. He did well with established offensive talents, like Butler, Arenas and Jamison, pushing them to new heights, but hey, you know what? If you give any guy in this league carte blanche to jack shots and play zero defense he’s going to put up career numbers. His team is also never going to achieve anything significant.

I think that Blatche’s performance tonight is an example of a young player showing what he can do when a huge millstone named Eddie Jordan is taken from around his neck. Whether or not he builds on this remains to be seen, but under Jordan he was going nowhere.

As for your suggestion that Arenas is a coach-killer, I’m just not seeing it. He might have quirks but he’s also a consummate offensive player who can keep coaches in their jobs who probably should be fired. Which is exactly what he did for Jordan for 2-3 years before he got hurt. Incidentally, Arenas blamed Jordan for his knee injury. Fair or not, it does point to Jordan’s tendency to play his injured or recovering stars heavy minutes. That’s one of the major reasons the Wizards haven’t really been healthy for his entire tenure.

And just for the record, a good coach would turn Arenas into a better defensive player.