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Miami Heat 93, Washington Wizards 89

Washington Wizards guard Randy Foye, right, passes the ball away from Miami Heat guard Mario Chalmers (6) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

More photos » Nick Wass - AP

3 months ago: Washington Wizards guard Randy Foye, right, passes the ball away from Miami Heat guard Mario Chalmers (6) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

We all know the truth.  How you start determines how you finish.  We lost this game at the beginning, not at the end. 

Commence venting.

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Damn

Gil…why?!?!

by DynaMix on Nov 4, 2009 9:52 PM EST via mobile reply actions   0 recs

My night

Sat ON THE FLOOR next to Ivan Carter…he is cool as hell… Wiz killin me!

by DynaMix on Nov 4, 2009 9:53 PM EST via mobile reply actions   0 recs

Gil's knee is back

But his shot isn’t.

by satchmore on Nov 4, 2009 9:54 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Yup

Neither is his swag or IMO, his decision making. He’s trying to be this chauncy billups type guard who knows when to shoot and when to distribute…it’s not him…at least not yet…

by DynaMix on Nov 4, 2009 9:57 PM EST via mobile up reply actions   0 recs

Agree with you

We were so bad. Arenas has disappointed me the last two games. 9/27?! Miller 3 shots?! Ridiculous. Looked like Arenas got fouled twice down the stretch and didn’t get the calls. But still. We had so many opportunities and we blew it. Deshawn, great D, but you can’t miss those! And he can’t hit an open shot. We certainly lost that from the get-go. So bad.

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Nov 4, 2009 9:56 PM EST via mobile reply actions   0 recs

exactly

9/27?

comes from too many jumpers. Recurring theme here. Wade goes to the basket, gets the foul, and usually makes the basket anyway. Added bonus is getting the other team in foul trouble. If Gil’s shot is off, he needs to go to the hole.

by CJHutch on Nov 4, 2009 9:59 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Again

Gil went to the hole plenty. I really don’t get how you’re not seeing this.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 4, 2009 10:18 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

That's true

I wouldn’t be surprised if more than half of those shots were driving to the basket. Couldn’t get every call. Caron really got clobbered on that one late in the game too. Man.

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Nov 4, 2009 10:44 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Yes, he

went to the hole a lot. But I really don’t see how you’re not getting this. I’m sure there’s a better place to find an actual graph of his shot selection, but here’s the full play by play of the game.

http://www.nba.com/games/20091104/MIAWAS/playbyplay.html

I count 16 missed jumpers/3 pointers, 5 makes. Add those together, that makes 21. That would be 21 jump shots out of 27 shots overall. So, like I said, he shot a lot of jumpers.

Now, don’t get this mixed up. I’m not saying Gilbert shouldn’t take jumpers. It’s what he does. But anyone who’s played basketball knows that if your shot isn’t falling, you go to the hole. THAT’s what I am saying.

by CJHutch on Nov 5, 2009 1:01 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

But that's unfair

Because when Gil drove, he got fouled a ton. Those don’t count as shot attempts.

He shot 15 free throws, so that’s roughly seven times when he drove and got fouled (maybe six). Gil also had three turnovers, and you can throw out that shot at the end of the half when all he did was shoot a jumper.

So now, we’re talking about 21 jump shots, 13 times when he didn’t shoot a jumper (six layups + seven free throws) and three turnovers. So out of 37 possessions Arenas ended, 21 of those were jumpers.

Now, Dwayne Wade ended 36 possessions last night, when you count free throws, turnovers and shots. Want to know how many of those ended in jumpers? 21. The exact same number of times Arenas possessions ended in jumpers.

Would you say Dwayne Wade settled for jumpers too much?

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 5, 2009 1:34 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

again

I think you’re getting confused as to my point. I don’t think Gilbert should stop shooting jumpers. That’s his game, and he’s one of the best in the league at it. But there was a point in the game ( I don’t remember when exactly) when he missed 3 or 4 in a row. It was the same time the entire team was struggling. What I’m saying is, at that point, when the team NEEDS a bucket, and your shot isn’t falling, you go to the rim. I understand the “shooters mentality” of forgetting your last shot, and all that. But you still need to be cognizant of the how the game is playing out. The team was struggling to score, and the teams best player was struggling to score on jumpers. So take it to the rim. I hate to pick on Arenas for this, because I think he drives more than anyone else on the team. And I also don’t put the loss on him. If not for him, we wouldn’t have been in that game. Arenas, Miller, and Haywood are the ones who kept us in that game. So, once again, I’m not saying Arenas should shoot less jumpers. What I’m saying is that when they’re not dropping, and your team is falling further and further behind on the scoreboard, you have to find another way to score.

Would you say Dwayne Wade settled for jumpers too much?

No, but I WOULD say that Wade’s game is predicated on him driving to the basket with reckless abandon aggressively. You know he’s gonna get the call, and will probably finish with authority. Which means teams are going to give him the jumper, which he has to take sometimes. Obviously you can’t drive to the basket everytime. It takes it’s toll. But Wade and Arenas are 2 different players. Arenas is a MUCH better shooter, while Wade may be the best in the league at getting to the rim. His jumper is catching up to the rest of his game, but he makes his living going to the basket and the free throw line.

by CJHutch on Nov 5, 2009 3:37 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

uh

wade is one hell of a shooter himself. maybe not from downtown but midrange he is amazing

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 5, 2009 6:24 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Sure he is

but not as good as Gilbert. That’s all I’m saying. That, and he’s better at driving then shooting. Splittin hairs though. He’s a great player regardless of how he scores.

by CJHutch on Nov 5, 2009 8:54 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

as bad as

we played int he beginning, we still had a chance if Stevenson could contribute offensively. This game was the opposite of last night. Except last night Cleveland was able to pull out the win. Like I said, we’re not at that level yet. Hopefully we’ll get there. This game sucks because one man beat us. Truthfully, I think we have a worse problem guarding Wade than we do guarding Lebron. Wade just scored at will. Nothing to be done there, which means we have to make our own shots.

by CJHutch on Nov 4, 2009 9:57 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Yup

Gil is just trying not to be selfish. Isn’t this what we wanted? Or do we want a team that can’t pull it off when there star is gone. We are improving drastically. It takes time. Coach and Cassell will tell him what he needs to do.

Mike Miller you are a true Wizard!

by Unxpekted on Nov 4, 2009 9:58 PM EST via mobile reply actions   0 recs

Wtf

When that last timeout was called…we were down by 3…and Miller WASNT on the floor… EVERYBODY in our section was angry as hell… Then Gil rolls in and does who knows what!!!

by DynaMix on Nov 4, 2009 9:59 PM EST via mobile reply actions   0 recs

i would think that

being at the game would be useful in realizing how much PAIN miller was in. this isn’t game 7 of the finals. its game 5 of the REGULAR SEASON!!!! you quite simply cannot take that risk

by fadizmo2435 on Nov 4, 2009 10:03 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

yeah, learned after the game

by listening to the radio…couldn’t tell out there…

by DynaMix on Nov 5, 2009 9:53 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Butler just didn't do it tonight

I only watched the second half, but I think what really killed us was Butler being way out of sync. When you have Jamison out and Miller playing with one arm, and you only get 13 points and 5 turnovers from Caron, you are just not going to beat a team with the experience and talent of the Miami Heat.

by goober nackulum on Nov 4, 2009 10:02 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Pecherov

is having a good night against the Celtics

by Kevvvvv on Nov 4, 2009 10:06 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Holy cow

24 points, 7 rebounds, only 4 3-point attempts.

And an assist!

by Aldo on Nov 4, 2009 10:27 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

damn he ruined his breakout night.

he got an assist.

"a crab dribble is when you travel" - caron butler

by little stevie colter on Nov 4, 2009 11:06 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Nick Young

The real killer her is that NY cant play defense. If he could, he would be in instead of Stevenson….who is a huge liability late in the game offensively.

by arijordan on Nov 4, 2009 10:09 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

With them fused together, we could have a competent role player.

by Fundefined on Nov 4, 2009 10:11 PM EST up reply actions   1 recs

Stevenson sucks -

Plain and simple – everyone in my section was yelling for him to get off the floor. My friend was asking why we can’t get rid of him. Hello – who the hell would want him?. Very lackluster start to the game. It was a very odd tempo game at the beginning. Wade is a sick mofo. I miss Antawn

by ooba on Nov 4, 2009 10:12 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Stevenson played great defense on Wade. I was glad to have him out there. Wish he’d pulled up instead of taking that steal to the basket. Wish he’d his his free throws. But he played a great game in the role he was assigned.

by MR on Nov 5, 2009 12:26 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I went to the game with my girlfriend...

When DeShawn missed those two free throws she said “wow, that guy really cracked under the pressure.” Then I had to explain all his new tattoos…

http://www.truthaboutit.net/2009/09/deshawn-stevensons-new-tattoos-and-abe-lincoln.html

by RamV on Nov 4, 2009 10:12 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Haha

Your girlfriend make a funny joke.

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Nov 4, 2009 11:27 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I've seen enough Stevenson

He’s an awful offensive player, mediocre at best defensively, and a terrible decision-maker everywhere. He somehow finds a way to get worse in pressure situations. We HAVE to be better off with Young. Or Crittendon when he returns. Probably McGuire too. I really don’t understand how he’s conned the coaching staff into playing him.

Please WATCH Stevenon on defense before you call him a good defender. He gets low, but he still gets blown by constantly, and his weight is too far back to get to shooters when they pull up (he makes a good show of waving his hand in their faces after they release the ball, but he’s not usually bothering their shot at all). He has a defensive rep that is completely undeserved. I about fell out of my seat when the announcer said Stevenson was doing a great job on Wade. What game were they watching??? 40 points on 54% shooting in spite of Haywood forcing him to miss a few after he punked Stevenson. That is NOT doing a great job.

by steadyhand on Nov 4, 2009 10:12 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

He did a really nice job in the 4th

It helped that the help was there, but I thought he had Wade out of sync.

by RamV on Nov 4, 2009 10:13 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I respectfully disagree.

Wade looked pretty comfortable to me — beat the Wiz pretty much single-handed.

by steadyhand on Nov 4, 2009 10:17 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

The Wiz had several stops in the last 4-5 minutes

And they were all keyed off DS pressuring the ball and forcing his man into the help.

by RamV on Nov 4, 2009 10:37 PM EST up reply actions   1 recs

Yup

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Nov 4, 2009 11:29 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Great D by DS.

by MR on Nov 5, 2009 12:27 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I thought he did a pretty good job on Wade down the stretch. I know Wade hit that last jumper over him, but he’ll hit that over anyone.

If Nick wasn’t such a defensive liability, he’d be in the game. Pains me to see Deshawn take open shots, and not even get close to making them.

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Nov 4, 2009 11:28 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Baffled

I don’t know how we could be watching the same guy. I haven’t seen enough yet to be sure, but so far I think Foye is a better defender.

by steadyhand on Nov 5, 2009 10:44 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

contrast wade versus james

cant stand lebron – cries on every play.

dwayne wade also gets call – but at least he doesnt cry on every play

by arijordan on Nov 4, 2009 10:16 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

I was saying the same thing when I was at the game. I had pretty close seats – I watched and listened to Wade over the course of the game. He is a likable guy. Lebron sucks *.

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Nov 4, 2009 11:31 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Butler

Defers WAAAAY too much when Gil is on the floor…

by DynaMix on Nov 4, 2009 10:18 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

He doesn’t get the ball enough either though.

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Nov 4, 2009 11:31 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Watching NO now

Songaila just hit one of his patented step-inside-the-line shots.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 4, 2009 10:22 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

what happened to Deshawn??? Coming into the game hes shooting under 40% and around 20 from three, I mean this guy use to be a pretty good shooter, is he in some kind of slump? did he prepare this off season??

First of all no one in the league can guard d whistle (though I will say that tonight I felt like the game wasn’t called as one sided as the crabboliers, though I do believe that the refs didn’t allow Washington to be blown out int he first quarter especially not on espn), and to Deshawns credit he did hassle wade a few times and made it a bit harder for him but you could almost tell watching this game that wade was just waiting for his time to strike. He took a dump on the wizards d.

Haywood NEEDS to stop shooting jumpers period!

Nick Young will never play, don’t want to say it but he looks lost out there and his confidence has been torched.

Deshawn needs to hit the gym and get his 3ball back! otherwise he will be a non factor.

And is it me or can blatche barely dunk half the time?? hes like 10 feet tall he should throw down everything he gets within 3 feet..

Mike miller will be injured for a bit so Caron needs to step it up, but STILL i feel that miller is grossly underused, FOYE needs to find his boy, cause I can’t count the number of times miller was callin for the ball, I mean miller needs only a little bit of space and its miller time.

by o dat boy good on Nov 4, 2009 10:37 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

He only shot one by my count

And the shot clock was running down.

Can’t believe people are dogging Haywood now. He was unbelievable tonight.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 4, 2009 10:48 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Mike just the jumper

and he has shot at least one each game with no effect. All I see when I see that shot is him yelling " contract yea "r ala Mr Zero and Hibachi.

by ccrun1800 on Nov 4, 2009 10:56 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Agree

Haywood did exactly what he’s supposed to do, and very well. Every once in a while he looks really uncoordinated on offense, but it only happened once or twice tonight. He was excellent tonight, and was the only one that impacted Wade in the slightest.

by steadyhand on Nov 4, 2009 10:57 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Haywood dominated inside on the glass, was always in the perfect place on help defense

And even scored a bunch in the paint.

I need to flush this out more in the longer recap though. As great as Gil was on the move, there was wayyyy too much one-on-one play that he caused.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 5, 2009 12:54 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

27 shots is too much GA

adding miller and foye apparently doesn’t help us defend wade. he beat us 1 on 5. a loss at home to miami isn’t good, even early.

haywood was great tonight. almost makes up for last night.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 5, 2009 12:57 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Plusses and minuses

I liked the energy that Blatche and McGee bought to the game. Keeping McGee out the whole second half for a judgment mistake is a bit much.

Players who do little things like DS and Oberto should play spot minutes.

With Miller going out, maybe AJ healed quicker than expected. The offense needs more balance, and AJ is an obvious answer.

by Izman on Nov 4, 2009 10:43 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Did not get to see the game

but one thing that is giving me some hope is the defense. Miami shot a pretty good percent – 48% – but that’s not terrible – and that’s by far the best any team has shot against us.
It seems like the offense goes through some really bad stretches. But with this team, I’m pretty optimistic that the offense will get fixed.
Not saying the defense is lock-down, lights out, but damn is it better than it has been, and people are putting in the effort.
So, as long as they can tread water and keep the same defensive performance, I’m happy and optimistic.
Just no more f%&*ing injuries.

"a crab dribble is when you travel" - caron butler

by little stevie colter on Nov 4, 2009 11:05 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

I only saw part of the game

because Cox is retarded, but from what I saw from the middle of the third through the end of the game was Arenas hogging the ball and having zero court vision. All the times he drove or shot low percentage jumpers, he had Butler, Blatche, Miller all waiting on the wings or elbows. It was as if he didn’t even see them and knew that he was going to shoot no matter what happened before he even initiated the play.

If Mike Miller can dribble penetrate and find Butler in the corner for a 3, I don’t see why Gil can’t get Butler into the game. I didn’t see Butler as out of synch, I saw it as Gil making the team out of synch. He’s def. not making players around him better, that’s for sure.

by Unseld'ed on Nov 4, 2009 11:39 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

DWade will get his

But Quentin Richardson goes 5 for 7 on threes and pulls down 9 rebounds?!? Caron, get up in your man’s face and contest the shot!

by yop32 on Nov 5, 2009 6:37 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Richardson

does this to us everytime we play him, no matter what team he’s on.

by CJHutch on Nov 5, 2009 1:06 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

You're right

I thought about that too.

by MR on Nov 5, 2009 1:07 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

What's up with Caron not passing the ball?

He used to get 3 or 4 assists per game. He only has 3 total for the season so far. Tayshaun was able to put up assists in Saunders’ system.

by yop32 on Nov 5, 2009 7:08 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

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