The word is "finish": Hawks 102, Wizards 98

by JakeTheSnake on Nov 30, 2008 1:15 PM EST in Recaps Comment 8 comments

Box Score
Game Flow
Post Recap
Times Recap
Truth is glazed and the Wizards are basted
Peachtree Hoops

Highest Plus/Minus: Antawn Jamison (+14 in 37:35)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Juan Dixon (-16 in 7:00)
Best Five Man Unit: Antonio Daniels, Nick Young, Antawn Jamison, Darius Songaila, Andray Blatche (+4 for the start of the 4^th quarter)
Worst Five Man Unit: Dee Brown, DeShawn Stevenson, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, JaVale McGee (-9 to start the game)

Four factors:

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
ATL	86.4	1.18	57.4	22.9	25	16.2
WAS	86.4	1.13	46.2	30	32.6	11.6

Last night's game more or less followed the script that we've seen far too often this season: Wizards find themselves in a early hole at the end of the first quarter, start to make a comeback in the second, struggle at the start of the third, make another comeback to get close and then they can't finish at the end. I think this quote from the Wizards Insider recap really says it all:

Well, as a Wiz vet said to me a few minutes ago in the locker room: "Same old (stuff)."

Obviously, there's been a lot of tough losses this season and you can see that it's starting to wear on some of the players. The key right now is to focus on execution and keep things upbeat, because the last thing we need right now is for the players to start thinking beforehand that they're going to mess things up late in the game. The last thing a 2-12 team needs is self-fulfilling prophecy working against them.

Other thoughts from last night's game:

At this point, we all know what Darius can and can't do as a player. We know he's not going to get a bunch of blocks or dunks, but he can make some shots and he work well within the frame of the offense. Last night he did a good job of playing to his strenghts. Other than Andray Blatche, Darius has benefited the most from the coaching change, in this blogger's opinion.
I admire the thought of Andray to go and use his long arms to try and poke the ball away from the other team when they grab a defensive rebound, but he really needs to stop doing it. He's gotten way more fouls doing that than he has steals.
There are three ways to get open three point shots in the NBA:
- Work the ball around, force the defense to over-commit and leave a man open beyond the arc.
- Play against the Wizards.
- Be DeShawn Stevenson. Teams will give you all the space you want to shoot a three when you're only making 26.9% of them.
Antonio Daniels hit two three pointers last night! The last time AD made two triples in the same game was November 24, 2007. The rest of Daniels' game was also solid, I don't think it will be long until we see him back in the starting lineup.
The rebounding was very good last night. I know the Hawks were without Josh Smith and Zaza Pachulia, but the Wizards didn't get any rebounds from JaVale McGee, Dominic McGuire, or Etan Thomas and they still managed to win the rebounding battle. I'll take it.
To be honest, I didn't know a whole lot lot about Solomon Jones before tonight's game, but I was impressed with his performance tonight. Getting 5 blocks in 15 minutes has a way of getting people to notice you.
I believe the Wizards have benefitted more from technicals from players in street clothes than any other team this season. Joey Dorsey got T'd up in that infamous Summer League game in July and Josh Smith got a tech last night for arguing from the bench. At least one thing has been going our way this season.

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Comments

i find it almost creepy

bad nba teams seem to find a way to lose in the exact same way.

the script for the Hawks the past few years has been:
1. go down big.
2. make run.
3. crap out the last few minutes.

only sometimes changing to:
1. Go up big.
2. other team makes run.
3. can’t respond.

obviously, yall may be more injured than bad, but the creepiness remains.

by hawksdawgs on Nov 30, 2008 4:54 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

We are both

Injured and bad right now, but the “bad” is really all that matters. We don’t do the little things that have less to do with talent and more to do with effort, concentration, and coaching.

Getting buckets since 2003.

by Icantfeelmyface on Nov 30, 2008 7:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah - I agree

But the difference is, when the Team is intact (with a healthy Arenas, Haywood, Butler and Jamison) – those deficiencies don’t matter as much – because the team is so efficient at the Offensive end; and because Arenas can break down Defenses late in games.

When they lose a high volume scorer and their best player (Arenas), and then they lose their only real inside threat and their best interior defender (Haywood)- and then let their most consistent 3-point shooter leave for Free Agency (Mason); Those deficiencies (lack of talent, inconsistent concentration, poor execution and questionable Coaching) are now causing them to lose games.

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on Nov 30, 2008 7:47 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

by that logic

any team with a losing record is bad because of poor concentration, poor coaching, poor execution… not because they have huge gaping holes in their lineup or poor chemistry.

lessee, the spurs won 20 games in ‘96-’97 because of poor execution and poor concentration, not because they didn’t have david robinson…
1997-98 56 26 .683
1996-97 20 62 .244
1995-96 59 23 .720

and the hawks aren’t better this year because they finally have an integrated point guard, an improved al horford, a three-point shooting marvin williams and bench, and some confidence in themselves. it’s just concentration and execution and coaching.

wizards execution and scheme could be better, but you take BTH, GA, and AD off the team, and have DS ice cold for the first 15 games (when all the guy can do is take jump shots)… the team’s not going to be very good, period.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Dec 1, 2008 7:39 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You missed my point

Point was that with the whole team healthy (including Arenas and Haywood), those deficiencies (poor coaching, poor execution, etc…) are mitigated. Arenas, because he is one of the best players in the league, is able to hide the other problems with the team.

Without Arenas (and to a lesser extent, Haywood) the Wizards margin for error is razor thin. If they don’t play with energy, concentrate, and execute; they’ll lose…. WITH Arenas, they would still have a chance to win – even WITH lapses in concentration or execution.

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on Dec 1, 2008 9:28 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yes but that's not your entire point

If they don’t play with energy, concentrate, and execute; they’ll lose

you’re implying that if they do those things, then they’ll win… my point is that even if they do play with all of the above right now, they’ll probably still lose most of the time. i think that was the point the poster from the hawks was making.

i don’t think we’re underperforming that badly right now with what we’ve got available. the loss to the bucks and the first loss to the hawks hurt, but if we win one of those games… 3-11 is about where the team belongs right now.

as for how poorly the team executes and how much the talent covers it up when we’ve got a full squad… i think it’s a lot easier to execute when you’ve got a tim duncan or a kevin garnett anchoring your team. not as easy to “win” on both ends of the court when you’ve got an antawn jamison forming the foundation. i think the team was more or less maximizing what they had in recent years. the wizards have just never been a complete team up to this point.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Dec 2, 2008 11:08 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs