How quickly things can change. Just five days ago I was relearning the lyrics to "Crank That Soulja’ Boy", talking about character wins, and what was wrong with the Cavaliers. Now, I’m just trying to get the license plate of the truck that hit us. Through the last two games, the Wizards have played with an energy that is simply… disappointing. Momentum built from last week could have separated us from the rest of the slow starting eastern conference, instead we have put ourselves back into the dregs of the race to catch Toronto. There are many things to blame here.
Most of the credit goes to the Cavs playing very tight defense, I noticed aggressive double teams and on the ball pressure throughout. They also found our achilles heel much like the Hawks did by not allowing any fast break points until the game was almost over. All night, it seemed no one could get the ball moving because the Cavaliers seemed to fill every lane with a body. If we had a strong, consistent, post presence we might have been able to remedy this. Unfortunately no one was able to step up in that regard. This suddenly stingy Cleveland defense seemed to affect Wall the most.
John Wall committed 5 turnovers and had a really tough time attacking the basket to create for teammates. In fact, his only points scored tonight came off of 3 pointers. When John is off, the Wizards will almost always struggle. His 7 assists seemed invisible. The only two players to go off offensively was Paul Pierce and Rasual Butler and they both mostly created their own shots. Wall is entitled to a couple off nights from time to time, but it worries me that he was shut down so well by a team that really doesn’t have anyone to guard him.
Paul Pierce showed some fight in him in the 3rd quarter. He scored 10 of his 15 points in a matter of about 4 minutes by getting to the line over and over, but on defense he was unable to do much with Lebron this time around. In fact, Lebron almost messed around and got himself a triple double tonight with 29 points, 10 boards, and 8 assists.
The rest of the starters didn’t fare much better. Marcin Gortat’s box score looks nice, but he struggled tonight. His defense was downright bad at times and he should have been able to do more with matching up against the likes of Cleveland’s low post presence. Gortat’s play has largely been disappointing thus far this year. Bradley Beal played a pretty mediocre game for his first time starting this season. Not terrible, but you hope to see him have a larger role in matches where John isn’t playing well. Kris Humphries had the same energy and hustle he brings to every game, but could not get anything going offensively. Overall, the starters just did not hold their end of the bargain tonight. It’s pretty bad when this is your +/- at any point in a contest.
This was taken in the second quarter, but that just shouldn’t ever happen
The Miller Time crew actually wasn’t too bad offensively, especially in the first half. Seraphin’s first stretch off the bench he scored a couple of those easy hook shots he’s become so adept with. You still always want him to become a better rebounder and defender, but we all know what we’re getting with Seraphin at this point. Miller actually had a better handle on the offense tonight than Wall did for most of the game until things got out of hand late. Dre’ got 6 assists to go along with 7 points on those goofy post moves he somehow wills into the basket every night. Otto Porter is an enigma. One night he seems to be everywhere and the next he can completely disappear. This was a Otto’s night to disappear with only scoring 2 points on 4 shots. Drew Gooden had limited minutes and apparently Garrett Temple has resumed his duties as 30 second perimeter defense guy at the end of halves.
It saddens me to say, but Dejuan Blair was a total flop in his first game with extended minutes. He was caught in the wrong position multiple times on D and was just a general liability on the court. We all know Blair can play better than this, and you could do a hell of a lot worse than him as your last big off the bench. However, if anything this just makes me more comfortable storing him on the bench in case of emergencies.
Now I’ll get to the one bright spot tonight, Rasual freakin’ Butler. He seemed to be one of the few Wizards who was able to take advantage of the Cavaliers typically porous defense. Butler went 3-5 from deep, every time seeming to signal a momentum swing the Wizards direction only to have it struck down. Our 15th man was also able to attack the basket with an aggression and finesse that I wasn’t aware he was capable of. It’s very encouraging to see him have such a great night when no one else is doing their part. His surprise production could be a great asset moving forward.
Randy Wittman also needs to take a ride on the blame train. He hangs his hat on defense. So when the Wizards let a team shoot above 50% from the field and shoot 38 free throws, I look at him. Gortat should never be caught out defending a guard by the three point line and have no one help him when said guard cuts to the basket. This happened a few times tonight and happened many times against the Hawks. We also need to address the problem of opposing guards having their way with us offensively, although this wasn’t as big of an issue tonight.
It’s even scarier that in our last two games, taking away our transition game and putting pressure on ball handlers has seemed to be such an effective strategy against the Wizards. I imagine opposing coaches will catch on to this and begin to gameplan for it. It’s up to Wittman to figure a way around this. While I can’t say we will win, my guess is that the Wizards will have a much stronger game against the Pelicans on Saturday, especially our guards. Hopefully, Nene will be back because our bigs will get all they can handle against Anthony Davis. We could very easily be looking at an 0-3 week.
It’s tough to come down from the high that last week brought us, these kinds of games will happen in a long series of basketball. The Wizards are still in a good position in the East, so it’s not quite time to hit the panic button yet. A 9-5 record at this point is about as good as most reasonable fans could have hoped for before the season started. It will be interesting to see how we rebound against our first piece of adversity this season, and will be very indicative of what kind of mental toughness we have going forward.
GO WIZ!
Some Tweets
One of the things in this photo gorgeous, one of them is butt ugly. Can you spot them? #WizardsTalk #WizCavs pic.twitter.com/dHDJ7ZqQMn
— Wizards of the Couch (@thecouchwizards) November 27, 2014
#WizardsTalk #WizCavs I didn't recognize Dejuan Blair at first without his butt attached to a folding chair. pic.twitter.com/c590QgXGNu
— Wizards of the Couch (@thecouchwizards) November 27, 2014
#WizardsTalk #WizCavs This turkey the only reason to look at the scoreboard. pic.twitter.com/lgJgoSOWRy
— Wizards of the Couch (@thecouchwizards) November 27, 2014