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Highest Plus/Minus: Darius Songaila (+3)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Javaris Crittenton (-13)
Best Five Man Unit: Mike James, Nick Young, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Darius Songaila (+6 to end the 2nd Quarter)
Worst Five Man Unit: Mike James, Dominic McGuire, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Darius Songaila (-5 in the 4th Quarter)
The latest episode of "If we're going to go down, we're going to go down with Antawn & Caron kicking and screaming at everybody" went down last night in the closing seconds. Here are the details in case you missed it:
With his team less than 10 seconds away from another collapse, Wizards All-Star forward Caron Butler fumed as he returned to the bench during a timeout. He cursed bitterly as he sat down, stood back up, cursed some more and then walked out of the huddle and to the end of the bench, where he plopped down in frustration.
Rumor has it that Caron was walking around the locker room afterwards shouting "What does Marsellus Wallace look like?"
Obviously, Oleksiy Pecherov (seen here working at his other job) was quite shaken by the whole incident, but after Ed Tapscott explained that What actually wasn't a country he calmed down. He's still scared of talking to Caron, but he's calmed down.
Now as for what actually happened during the game, here's some notes:
- I said in the game preview that if the Wizards wanted to have any chance, they would have to be as effective in defending the 3 point line as they were last year against the Mavs. Surprisingly enough, they answered the call holding the Mavs to under 17% (5 of 30) from three point land. In fact, if it hadn't been for Jason Terry, Dallas would've shot a dismal 1 for 22 last night.
- What really did the Wizards in tonight was their defense of everything inside the three point line. The Mavs hit 61.4% (35 for 57) on two point shots.
- Javaris Crittenton got his first taste of extended, meaningful playing time as a Wizard last night and while he wasn't exactly spectacular, you can see that he's come a long way in learning the offense in the short time that he's been here. He still has a ways to go, but I'm encouraged by how far he's come since his first appearancd.
- Devean George finished an alley-oop. I think that speaks for itself.
- James Singleton had 13 rebounds last night. Again, I think that speaks for itself.
- I've probably been a little too critical of Mike James since he's come to Washington (his appearance of Supernanny didn't help his cause, I can't stress this enough) but he had a solid game. His shooting performance wasn't great (6 for 15) but he contributed in other areas (8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) which was my biggest concern with him coming in. He's not stellar by any means, but he's been better than I thought he'd be.