Wizards lose to Pistons: Final wrap, stats only

by Mike Prada on Dec 7, 2009 1:03 PM EST in Recaps

I didn't watch the whole thing and I'd rather turn the floor over to people that did, so stats-only on this long recap.

My only quick thought is this: we need role players. Badly. Right now, eight of the Wizards' 15 players on the roster have career usage rates (meaning the percentage of possessions they end with a turnover, shot or drawn foul) over 20% (Arenas, Butler, Jamison, Blatche, Young, Boykins, Foye, Mike James). Seven of those guys are playing the majority of the minutes right now. That's just not a winning formula. You need some stars to take the shots and role players to fill in. We're missing the role players right now. Better yet, we're trying to channel our stars into those roles when it doesn't suit them. That's not Flip Saunders' fault, someone has to play those roles for teams to win. it's the fault of how this roster was constructed.

That's all I've got.

Four Factors (Bold=very good | Italics=very bad)

Team	Pace	Off Eff	eFG%	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Washington	91	103.3	47.4	25.6	31.6	18.7
Detroit		107.7	45.1	29.3	34.1	12.1

Snap Reaction: Just when I thought our ability to limit turnovers was improving, we do an absolutely terrible job holding onto the ball tonight. The turnovers probably cost the Wizards the game.

Lineup Details, via Popcorn Machine

Highest individual plus/minus: Nick Young and Gilbert Arenas (+4 in 17:48 and 31:42, respectively)
Lowest individual plus/minus: DeShawn Stevenson and Antawn Jamison (-9 in 8:06 and 36:54, respectively)
Best five-man unit: Gilbert Arenas/Randy Foye/Caron Butler/Antawn Jamison/Brendan Haywood (+6 to end the second quarter)
Worst five-man unit: Gilbert Arenas/Randy Foye/Dominic McGuire/Antawn Jamison/JaVale McGee (-6 in one tiny stretch right before that)

Snap Reaction: Randy Foye had a nice game and in theory fits in very well next to Arenas when teams go small because he can handle the ball well enough to let Gilbert play off the ball, but also is a very good spot-up shooter when he uses that skill. I really don't understand why Flip went away from that tonight (and frankly, all season).

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Assists

The thing from the stat sheet that jumped out at me was assists: Arenas (9), Boykins (4), Foye and Blatche (1 each), and no one else. Other than Blatche, only point guards had assists.

That could suggest a few things:
- The team is playing selfishly.
- The offense consists of a point guard passing to someone who promptly shoots.
- Point guards are dominating the ball.
- Players don’t understand the offense, so instead of running it and passing, they just shoot.
- Everybody’s trying to do it himself.
- The ball is shot early in the shot-clock.
- Chemistry problems — guys don’t like each other.

by disgrunted on Dec 7, 2009 1:12 PM EST reply actions

From what I saw last night

yes to number 2. Emphatically.

Its always Roger Mason (Jr.) time!

by Sean Fagan on Dec 7, 2009 1:32 PM EST up reply actions

I don't think that its selfish play

I think that we are just clueless on offense now so that, as you say, the offense is mostly a PG passing to a guy who jacks it and players just not understanding the offense. The ball is also being shot early in the clock once players are trying to be heroes and score on their own after the offense is failing we are fall way behind.

by Manimal Smith on Dec 7, 2009 1:42 PM EST up reply actions

Working off disgunted's last point

I think there might be something to this. The Wizard’s were giving up plays that “quitting” teams do. Twice, the Pistons managed to tip in their own missed FT’s. Rebounds were even although the Pistons have one of the smallest front lines in the league and they grabbed 3 more offensive rebounds.

This wasn’t a back to back and this team continues to play up or down to the level of the competition. I don’t want to blame this on Flip’s motivational skills, because I think that’s a cheap cop out. But games like this, and games like Indiana point to something being seriously wrong with the team internally.

Its always Roger Mason (Jr.) time!

by Sean Fagan on Dec 7, 2009 2:05 PM EST up reply actions

i second that emotion

i understand the team still searching for chemistry, familiarity in the new offense, successful line-up combos, all that is somewhat to be expected.
what is not ok is last night, the charlotte game, and the pacers game. just not ok, and it points to something weird that i can’t put my finger on, but is very troubling.
any time they hot adversity, or a team playing tough, they fold.

"how ironic - you came here with a mouse in a bottle, now YOU are the mouse in the bottle" - B.M. Smith

by little stevie colter on Dec 7, 2009 3:59 PM EST up reply actions

No post scoring

My biggest gripe about the game was that we didn’t make Detroit pay for their lack of size. They’re small across the baord. We had the ability to post them up at every position. Haywood is way bigger than Wallace. Blatche can post up at will on Villaneuva/Maxiell. Jamison can post Jerebko. CB can post Rodney Stuckey. Young can post Ben Gordon. Arenas can post Atkins.

One of the biggest advantages of having big men like Jamison and Blatche who can shoot the ball is that it opens up the middle for our guards and forwards to penetrate or post up. But we never capitalize on this. Arenas can’t finish when he penetrates, and Flip won’t post up Young, CB and Jamison (when he plays SF).

by nate33 on Dec 7, 2009 4:53 PM EST reply actions

Solid point

It seems like we are content to play at 20 feet instead of mixing it up down low.

I don’t feel like we play matchups at all, it seems like we mostly do the same thing every play. I know Rook has pointed out a few instances where we run back screens to get isos for particular players in certain spots, but all of those Isos are face ups and so we end up having players that have size mismatches trying to out quick the smaller guys guarding them. Makes little sense.

by Manimal Smith on Dec 7, 2009 5:05 PM EST up reply actions

That's too hard, Nate

Why work hard to post-up or drive to the basket when you can fire up a 20 footer without breaking a sweat?

That’s been this team’s mindset for as long as I can remember.

by disgrunted on Dec 7, 2009 5:18 PM EST up reply actions

Flip can't be absolved completely

I agree that the roster was constructed in a way that isn’t conducive to Flip’s system and it will be interesting to see how EG handles the trade deadline. But Flip isn’t totally blameless here either. His substitution patterns and end game strategy are getting harder to understand with each passing game since the “hot hand” strategy seems to have been abandoned.

by Mike Uhrich on Dec 7, 2009 5:08 PM EST reply actions

Foye

Seems to me, at least since he’s returned from his ankle injury, that he’s only effective if he’s hitting his jump shots. He shoots a lot of jumpers when he touches the ball. I guess you can say the same about Nick, though. I haven’t watched Foye on defense as much, but Nick Young is getting better on D and is doing a little bit more driving too…

Come to think of it, Butler does the same thing, only he seems bad on D…

Come to think of it.. everyone shoots too many jumpers, and we’re only good if we’re hitting those jumpers.

Except I LOVED Blatche’s post moves. He needs to continue to develop those, not his jumpers. And Gil does get aggressive in going to the rim… it just hasn’t worked as well as it has in his past.

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Dec 7, 2009 5:36 PM EST reply actions