"Dray is wolfing the whole time at Kevin Garnett. You can't do those kinds of things. When you're coming up and establishing yourself, you don't take a guy that's been defensive player of the year and is probably the best power forward and get that guy juiced up to play against you. You got no chance."
Blatche was noticeably upset and appeared to hold back tears as he explained his encounter with Garnett, which nearly got heated when Garnett approached Blatche and tried to wrestle the ball away from him. Blatche appeared to throw an elbow as Garnett continued to taunt him. Blatche later flung Garnett into a cameraman and sent him to the foul line for two free throws. Garnett smiled as he was helped off the ground. Reserve forward James Singleton said Garnett used his "veteran senses" to needle Blatche and get under his skin.
"I see myself as defending myself as a player. I'm a man, just like they a man. If a man is talking to me this close to my face," Blatche said, moving his hand toward his cheek. "I'm going to say something back. He has to respect me just like I respect him. I just, 'Get up out of my face.' He was this close in my face - I can feel his lips touching my cheek - I wasn't bragging saying 'Ah we winning.' It was 'Back up.' "
almost 2 years ago
Mike Prada
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The "flip" side of what Lee is reporting is that
Dray had a great game and KG did not. In fact, Garnett had a noticeably tough time against Andray (and Javale’s) defense. Also, I wonder and tend to think that the report of Dray’s “taunting” is a little overdrawn — I mean, I wasn’t there, but it looked like KG was doing all the taunting to me. And it worked, Blatche looked much more hesitant at the end of the game. And one more thing: Blatche did not “fling” Garnett into a cameraman: in fact, he and JaVale went for the ball on KG’s dunk attempt, KG failed, and more or less fell to the ground as a result of one of their fouls. The announcers on ESPN made it sound like it was some kind of vicious hit on Garnett, but the replay showed it was just a run-of-the-mill attempt to stop the dunk.
Yeah, I'm not sure what Blatche did wrong
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
Notta
Except take a couple of really bad shots at the end of the game while I think he was trying to prove himself and shut KG up.
I don't know if those only happened at the end
He definitely took some bad shots, but in the confrontation itself, Dray didn’t do anything.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
Two things:
One: Garnett knew he was playing like crap last night, and gambled (successfully) that he could get Blatche off his game with some Jedi Mind Tricks.
Two: This is something we don’t need; yet another Wizard who takes some kind of beef with a Celtic so personally it changes the the team’s overall performance.
Garnett
got under his skin and broke his concentration and confidence. Masterful, even a die-hard Wiz fan has to appreciate that lesson, particularly given KG was outplayed all game and the Celtics came back and won.
Good lesson for AB.
And hey
It resulted in just about a perfect result for us. Blatche played great for, what 3.5 quarters? Solid defense, impressive offense against one of the better defensive squads in the league. Nice contributions from other players as well. And then, thankfully, a loss at the end.
Most of the lottery-bound teams are clustered pretty tightly together at this point. 1 or 2 losses could be the difference between the 4th pick and the 8th pick (disregarding ping pong ball reshuffling).
I would love to see this every night from here on out. Strong, promising play from our young guys. Lessons about keeping their cool and how to play mind games with their opponents, and then late collapses so we get a better pick. Assuming we don’t win the lottery, I’d much rather be picking 4-6 than 7-9…
You bugging
You take wins when you can get them. There is a mental aspect to this game you know. Losing is not easy to recover from… We should have all learned that lesson already this year… Play to win the game, not ping pong balls. That’s whats wrong with the league.
There are 6-7 teams every year who play for nothing more than a shot at the latest top college phenom. Problem is, they’ll be doing the same thing in five years, just like they were five years ago.
The players should play to win
And they did. But that doesn’t mean the fans can’t be happy that we have a better chance in the lottery now. That’s what fans do. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
Yeah well
I’m not sold on anyone in any draft until they put numbers up. I’ll tell you what I am sold on: a competitive team that pulls out wins against the better teams in the league when no one else gives them a fighting chance and plays .500 ball with the ’league’s worst roster’.
Am I the only one who thinks that last season’s results had an impact on this season’s (pre-trade) team mentally? If not, then why on earth would “fans” wish for a repeat?
If anything, knowing that Blatche is probably gonna be a big part of this franchise’s next decade, why wouldn’t you want him to have the confidence of wins behind him going forward from here? Same goes for McGee and any other young player who is getting significant minutes now and who figures into next year’s plans roster-wise.
It's a balancing act
Because yes, confidence matters. However, talent matters more, and this team just doesn’t have the talent to be a difference-maker going forward, even if everyone plays better. They need more talent, and the best way to get that is to get a high pick.
Anyway, the bottom line is that there’s no reason fans can’t enjoy a better chance at getting a great draft pick. They aren’t the ones playing the game.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
Most of the best players have done their share of losing
Yes, a win is always nice, but as long as players are learning during a loss it can be a positive. Most of the great players have had to endure some losing before they learned what it takes to win. And yes, draft position is nice too.
I guess it's just my pet peeve.
Yes the players should play to win the game. But so should the coaches and the front office.
The other thing is that by contributing to winning, some of the players on the roster could become more valuable commodities, thereby increasing the level of talent that they could potentially bring back in trades…
As for the draft, we’ve already beaten that horse… I’ll just leave it at the fact that I view it as a crapshoot. Everybody just takes educated guesses…
Honestly, I don't think KG geting into Dray's head had all that much to do with the loss
Mike Miller not being able to keep up with Ray Allen, us not having a real, legit PG and an overall inexperienced team not knowing how to handle Boston dialing up the defense on them are what really lost the game. I hope AB does use this as a lesson though and listens to Singleton.
Right on the button....
We got a huge game from the front line and bupkes from our backcourt…
AB is in a whole new world right now and so is JVM, I am excited by the rapid growth we are seeing .
I am waiting for Flip to give Livingston a chance to show if he can really do the job at PG.
I totally agree
Personnally, I was glad that AB stood up to KG. We want our players to be tough and not back down. I don’t think the Wizards lost because of KG or any coaching decisions. I think they lost because the Celtics are more experienced then the Wizards. And when I saw the Celtics bumping chest I thought they should be ashame of themselves because they should have been beating us from the beginning to the end of the game. Our guys did a great job. We weren’t even suppose to be competitive. Think about it!
Long-Time Wizard Fan
also agreed
if mike miller could just hang on to loose balls rather than turning it over – whether by diving when he doesn’t need to or by tripping over himself… very tired of that.
by DarrellWalkerFan on Mar 8, 2010 11:59 AM EST up reply actions
Yeah so mad he didn't secure that loose ball
He had it and lost it so so easily.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
He did the same thing
Against Milwaukee, not that it mattered much in that game. He was standing right next ot McGee and dove for the ball and ended up on his back out of bounds.
Yeah I was yelling at my computer screen about that one
My gf was doing law school homework at the time and she got angry at me for yelling.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
I'd never thought I'd see these words together in this order
Mike Miller not being able to keep up with Ray Allen
(shudder)
Does MM have some defensive pedigree that I'm unaware of?
Maybe it’s just my innate dislike of Floida players…
it's more about age than pedigree
or maybe conditioning (what do we know about Miller’s workout habits?)
Not a thing
But I do know that Ray is supposedly a gym rat
Defensive Pedigree....probaly not
But really Ray Allens ankle’s have to be bone on bone by now. How quick could he be.
I think what really got Dray off his game
Is the fact that Garnett was able to handcheck and hold as much as he wanted in the second half. I didn’t realize it was legal to hold someone’s arms to deny a post pass. And it’s a little much to say Garnett got “juiced up”, I mean he didn’t make a shot!
by ronoD nagrO on Mar 8, 2010 10:58 AM EST via mobile reply actions
KG is washed up old bully
I can’t wait for him and the celtics to get bounced.
Dray did fine. It’s called Mike Miller got raped on screens and we have no efficient playmaking point guard.
done and done.
Also, the celtics can knife someone in the chest and not get those calls at home.
yeah…they are pesky vets with their hand checking and grabbing but still….aint fair.
Dray is the man, did alot of things right.
I have been impressed with McGee and thoroughly enjoy watching this club.
PS. Al Thornton busted out some Gilbert Arenas moves last night and I literally dropped by jaw. WTF where did that come from, Buck was like OHMYGOD, the footwork was literally in comparison of a Lebron or Arenas but for HIS SIZE? He want side step, left hand, behind the back, right hand, cross over, under the basket in the air, reverse lay up. LIke seriously??? For his size, ridiculous.
He was on the all rookie team 2 years back
He’s got the raw talent. Just needs to improve is court IQ and drive to the rack.
He impressed me with a nice dish inside when he was driving. He never did that with the clips.
The funny thing is
I actually played the game on NBA Live yesterday afternoon and flat out abused Pierce with Thornton the entire time. Soz I watched the first half saying things like “Run around him, even EA knows he’s too slow!” Yeah, I have an exciting life… :)
Trading picks for veterans never works
I agree with imperialme and sierradave. The perfect result is the young guys learning and playing hard, but we lose so we can hope for a good lottery pick. Foye is terrible and Miller seems to be rapidly aging and becoming ineffective before our eyes as the team’s reliance on him increased once Howard went down. Can we for once and all not trade picks for veterans or trade young for old? That has been the Wizard way for the past 20 years with obvious, horrible results. How nice would it have been to have had the 5 pick , perhaps getting Rubio instead of Miller and the awful Foye?
But we wouldn't have Rubio either
because he signed a three year deal with Barca and it has a crazy high get out of spain to come to the NBA clause.
Curry or Jennings....
These guys have 10 – 12 years of fine play in front of them.
Hindsight is 20/20....
That was not a bad trade by any means, we got exactly what we thought we needed which was a shooter and a backup PG option if Gil couldn’t go at full pace every night. MM and Foye are being thrust into positions now that no one would have forseen in the week leading up to the draft. Foye is by no means “terrible”, does he have to learn how to run the point better? Yes. Terrible? No. He is a pretty good combo guard. Mike Miller is a great complimentary player to a team who was expected to be pretty good coming in to last year. No one on here believed that we needed that 5 pick. It was either Blake Griffin or trade. At the time, the worst part about that trade was that we were losing Songaila and needed more bigs. It would be hard pressed to find a person who didn’t think the Wiz would be contending for the top 4-5 in the East this year not name Charles Barkley lol
by SkinsWizStangs on Mar 8, 2010 11:31 AM EST up reply actions
That all makes sense
But I didn’t even like it at the time.
Really??
You didn’t atleast think we’d be in the playoff picture?
by SkinsWizStangs on Mar 8, 2010 11:34 AM EST up reply actions
Honestly?
Playoff picture? Sure. But it’s the east, techinically we could still be in the playoff picture. But that’s not the same as contending.
Well I said contending for top 4-5
And seeing as though right now the difference between #5 and #8 in the East is two games. I guess playoff picture equals top 5 lol
by SkinsWizStangs on Mar 8, 2010 11:40 AM EST up reply actions
Everyone hated the bench last year
No one blamed Jamison and Butler as much as it was a lack of depth that he thought was killing us. Oh well. Curry, Jennings, Blair, all of those guys are good and getting better, but the trade made sense at the time. The real problem with the trade is guys who are supposed to be playing spot duty are forced into starting, playmaking roles and that is too much for their talent,
I'm actually proud of Blatche...
He didn’t back down to a yelling, screaming, aging Kevin Garnett. KG was obviously not the best PF on the floor last night, so he resorted to his “good ole veteran tactics” by trying to get in Blatche’s head. If somebody gets in your face, you get right back in theirs no matter how much of an age difference it is. Yes, you respect veterans but there is a respect that needs to be shown on the basketball court at all times to EVERY NBA player, and KG doesn’t exhibit that respect. He’s always yelling and screaming in your face everytime he makes a big play (or even if he doesn’t), and he did it when he was the “young buck”. This matchup was not the reason we lost last night, not by a mile. Ray Allen was the reason we lost last night. Not being able to execute down the stretch was the reason we lost last night. Not because KG tried to play mind games with a guy who’s in his 5th year in the league.
5th year in the league... but first weeks in the...
full glare of the spotlight…. AB played great and next time he will know to just smile at KG, turn his back and walk away.
PS did you see Matt Barnes get in Kobe's face yesterday?
This worked out OK in Orlando in a regular season. Maybe it will be different come June.
The problem was not that KG got inside his head
It’s that he got on his arm (hack) and his back with both hands (push). That last Blatche miss was about 3 fouls by KG. Also on the offensive rebound of the free throw that led to the Allen 3 KG literally tackled Thornton and threw him to the ground.
Flip is backing the wrong horse
Yes, Blatche should’ve bitten his tongue – but that’s easy to say from the sideline. What’s funny to me is that I recall watching PLENTY of games between the Wolves and Spurs where KG was “wolfing the whole time” at Tim Duncan, his face an inch from Duncan’s. Yet I don’t recall Flip calling his own guy out then.
You wanna correct Blatche? Fine – do it in private. But in public you need to back your guy.
Flip is full of it
It is obivous the comments came about from Flip’s prior relationship with KG. KG and Flip are both self-serving punks – If Flip keeps this mouth up he should lose his job over it – imagine a player criticzing a coach in that way – he would be gone for the season. Maybe Flip wants to get fired.
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