Bullets Forever

What do we trade the 18th pick for?

NY1 — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:34:13 -0000

So Ernie Grunfeld has given clues that we'll be packaging away the 18th pick for a valuable player who can help this team improve. Who do you guys think, if there is a trade, we'll trade for?

There is obviousely a need for a SF backup for Caron and a big time rebounding big man. We've gone over potential free agent pickups but what players can we potentially trade for?

I expect us to make the deal with a rebuilding team seeking draft picks. Teams like the Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Sonics, Heat, and Pacers will probably jump at this offer. All these teams have studs who could become Washington Wizards.

A guy who the Wizards should take a look at is Jermaine O'Neal. A few yeras back this would sound completely ridiculous but his stock has flown down. Indiana looks like they've decided to head in another direction and build around guys like Dunleavy, Tinsley, and Granger. O'Neal is not the leader of that team anymore. I understand that it will cost alot for a guy who's injury prone but he's not going to play superstar minutes like he's used to so he should be able to stay on the court for more games.

Maybe I sound completely crazy, I think I'm onto something here. This could be the Wizards oppurtunity to grab a valuable big.

Another Reason to Dislike LeBron

cuppettcj — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:44:15 -0000

[Ed. note: From the FanPosts. I'll have something up later today, until then, enjoy cuppetcj delivering big time with the goods on this one. If you want to leave him a tip for this effort, that's fine by me, but if you're going to go cheap on him, don't bother. -Jake]

As if we needed another reason to dislike LeBron, it turns out that DeShawn is not the only guy who gets shat on by "the King."

It went down like this: LeBron pulls up in his Mercedes outside XO. People stop and try not to stare, but c'mon, it's LeBron James. He enters the restaurant with a group of friends. On this special occasion, the King decides to dine late. He keeps his group there until around 3:45 a.m. During this time the waiter obsequiously pours drinks and fetches anything else His Greatness needs.

The final bill comes to $800. By the feudal laws of decorum, which stipulate that the affluent should administer a 20 percent gratuity, staffers figured they'd be pocketing an extra $160. But when they fetched the autographed bill after His Heinousness bolted back to Akron, their expectation turned to disbelief, then anger.

LeBron stiffed them with a meager $10 tip. This is what French nobles like to call your requisite Bourgeois Bitch-Slap. The waiter wouldn't even take it, tired of being shat on by guys like LeBron.

Does anybody else here feel a bit of schadenfreude at LeBron's poor performance against Boston right now? He's shooting a combined 8-42 from the field this series (16%). It looks like Boston's defense is treating LeBron like he treats other people. What a jerk that guy is.

The WENDYs (Wizards END of Year awards)

jvflail — Sat, 03 May 2008 09:18:53 -0000

Just thought I'd throw these out there. I'm still too emotional after yesterday's loss to post something intelligent.

Most Valuable Player: This is tough. I go w/ Caron, because his best was better than Antawn's best. When Caron rolled this year, we won. When Jamison rolled, we won sometimes. As the Cleveland series indicated, we were at our most dangerous when Caron was at his.

Least Valuable Player: Gilbert Arenas. Has there ever been such a soap opera-ish knee injury? It's pretty clear now that "the face of the franchise" hurt much more than he helped this year. Hopefully, he can get healthy and come back for a strong 08/09, but his 07/08 campaign was all anticipation and no impact.

Most Improved: I'm giving this one to Haywood over Blatche and Stevenson. Brendan really impressed me several times this year, including during the Cleveland series. His free throws, his back-to-the-basket game, and his pass-receiving were all much improved over last year. Blatche improved too, but he was much more of a roller-coaster ride. Stevenson had some great moments and he hit more 3s this year than all his other years combined, but his maturity and shot selection still need serious work.

The OOBA (Out-Of-the Blue Award): Roger Mason started this year as the 12th guy on a 12-man team. He ended the year being our 1st guard off the bench. He was downright deadly on some nights and he caught the attention of the league (Lebron James in particular). Wiz fans should have really enjoyed Roger this year, 'cause he'll be wearing a new uniform, and sporting a $20-$30 million contract, somewhere else next year.

The Rookie of the Year: Since we only had 3, there is little suspense in this one, but its winner, Nick Young, is now put on notice. He had some nice rookie moments, but he needs to improve his defense so he can challenge Stevenson for the starting 2-guard spot. If he does (and I'm not sure how, by the way), our team will become instantly more explosive, athletic, and aggressive. Right now, however, his defensive liability outweighs his offensive potential.

The Welcome Back Award: Etan Thomas. At the beginning of the year, I said I could not endure another season with the Wiz's two-headed debacle of a center combo. Now, I don't see how we can succeed without it. The Cleveland series made it painfully obvious how much we need size and strength on the floor at all times. It's too much to ask of Haywood to be physical all 48 minutes and to stay out of foul trouble. Hopefully, this year has made them both realize their role (Haywood the starter and Thomas the back-up), and they can work together next year to give us good stability at the 5-spot.

The Funny but Useless Award: Pecherov. I know it was just his first year and that the team loves him, but Olesky needs to figure out what he's doing. Has any 7-footer ever spent more time behind the 3-point line? He may be able to make some outside shots, but he too often looked too soft and too afraid of contact. If he doesn't improve, he may go down the Jiri Welsch highway to ignominy.

Songaila Suspended

joshp — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:40:30 -0000

Editor's Note: eva.future was first to this story , but people had already been commenting here, and this had a link, so I bumped it to the front page.

I'm with everyone in saying the suspension is pretty silly. From what Ivan said, though, it sounds like Songaila just took the fall for DeShawn's so-called dirty flagrant in Game 1. Any little thing would have been a suspension.

It's a ridiculous decision, but instead of crying sour grapes, I'm curious to see what happens now to our frontcourt depth. Behind Haywood, all we have now is Andray Blatche, who has struggled in this series. We need Haywood to come up big tonight, otherwise, we're in big trouble.

http://www.nba.com/news/songaila_suspended_080502.html

for game 6.

this is going a little bit overboard. the flagrant was a so-so call, but this is too extreme, i think. i still cant determine whether or not the contact was intntional.

what should merit a suspension is lebron's reaction. that was a really bad acting job.

this series is just spiralling out of control, but thats what i love about it. hope it goes seven

Are You Kidding? Songaila Suspended

eva.future — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:35:32 -0000

From Wizards Blog:

UPDATE: Well fans your not going to like to hear this but the NBA has decided to suspend Darius Songaila for game 6 due to the technical foul he received in game 5.

what does the league have against us? seriously.. lebron intentionally bows andray in the face and gets a silent flagrant 5 days later... gets nothing else..

lebron swings darius' arm into his own face, darius gets suspended.. i really dont get it.

MAKE HIM GO LEFT

JasonGaines — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:02:31 -0000

Look I know he's the next coming of St. Buddah Christ, but I'll bet even LeBaby is going to find it tough to go left and make the game winner. Deshawn lucked out, and for the first 47 minutes did a great job of forcing him left, but my god, this isn't rocket science. Anyone think LeBooBoo is going to burn out sometime soon?? He's been carrying Wally World and Wallace's corpses around for 5 games.

Great Article From Wilbon

cuppettcj — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:02:30 -0000

My favorite part of the article was the quotes he got from Antawn:

"All the talk, all the silliness had gotten so much attention, it was time to just play ball," Jamison said. "We were down 3-1, on the brink of elimination, I just told them that all this talking was not making them look bad, it was making us look bad. We're a veteran team and it was time for us to start acting like it."

Asked if he and Butler were annoyed with DeShawn Stevenson and Gilbert Arenas doing so much talking in the time leading up to the series and early in the series, Jamison said it was a fair way to depict how the two felt. "We've got a lot of personalities on our team," he said. "Sometimes you can tame them, sometimes you can't. But this was out of hand. I told them: 'You can't get your point across through the media. You have to get your point across on the court.' That's what they were doing. They've been just staying quiet and playing. For Caron and myself, it was just difficult.

"Don't get me wrong, I love D-Steve and I love Gil, and I'll strap it up with them anytime. You have to have your teammates' backs, but what was going on was just nonsense. It had nothing to do with getting respect, because you can only do that by playing well and demonstrating professionalism. You make your noise that way."

If the Wizards can respond to Antawn and Caron's leadership, this might just be a series again.

Fire Eddie, Bring in Avery Johnson

mamemimo — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:28:47 -0000

Take that KDP!

Lets face it, before losing his team this year Avery was a great coach for the Mavs (he has an insane winning percentage). I'm actually not entirely sure either Avery or D'Antoni would be an ideal fit for the Wizards, but then again, who is?

Avery:

Pros: Inherited a good team and made them better, culminating in a trip to the NBA finals where he got killed by terrible officiating. Could do the same thing for us - we are an established team, while not as good as the Mavs under Nellie. Took an all-offense team and managed to make them play defense. Tough coach who wouldn't let Arenas run the show - a good thing, as I'm still not convinced EJ has any control over Agent Zero.

Cons: Completely lost his team this year, and that has to make you wonder. Two straight first round exits, we know what that feels like. Could completely clash with Arenas and ruin what is one of the better locker rooms in the league. Played with his lineups sometimes - would probably still play Songaila at center sometimes.

D'Antoni:

Pros: Nothing would make us more "Suns of the East" then getting the coach of the Suns. While EJ has the Princeton Offense, D'Antoni would make sure we played at an even faster pace and not get bogged down in the half court - which plays to our strengths. I think Blatche would really step up as an offensive force in his system.

Cons: More of the same - all offense, no defense. Doesn't play his bench at all, and we have some promising young players that need to be developed. Could be a lateral or even a backwards move - how would he fare without a PG like Nash? Would his system work with Arenas, who's more scorer than facilitator? Two words: Small Ball.

I'm not sure what the answer is here. If we do fire Eddie, we HAVE to look at these guys. (Assuming D'Antoni's gone.)

FIRE EDDIE, BRING IN D'ANTONI

KDP — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:23:09 -0000

Just wanted to be the first to say it. :)

I'm not a big fan of Eddie, never have never will be. I am impressed by what he was able to pull together with all the injuries, however I have never liked his rotations. I also am upset that he's let the defensive mindset slip since Gil's return. (I want it on the record that the slip in regular season defense coincided with Gil's return to practice, about 10 games before he touched the court in a game.

Feel free to discuss the merit or the foolishness of this idea. I'll be back with my complete thoughts later-

David Stern's double standard

Vanilla Gorilla — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:31:34 -0000

I wasn't too surprised to learn that DeShawn Stevenson made the dreaded throat-slashing gesture during a Wiz-Cavs game (he's gotten carried away with the trash talk a little bit, IMO, and this falls in line with that), and it was no surprise at all that the NBA fined him (it seems a pretty standard practice). But I was VERY surprised to see the NBA repeatedly using the the throat-slashing gesture in its promos for tonight's game. There it was on NBA TV, a brief spot hyping Game 5 and showing DeShawn making a different gesture, then following up with the throat-slash.

I understand the point of discouraging the NBA's athletes from making such gestures. Kids watch these games and emulate their heroes on the court (I think there's also some gang connection to the gesture, but I'm so old and out of touch I'm not sure what it is). I wouldn't want either of my kids making that gesture on the court. But if the league banned the gesture because it wants to limit images of thuggishness and make the game more family-friendly, why in the world would they show it over and over in their promos? And if they are going to show it so much in an ad designed to attract viewers, how can they justify fining a player for it?

Doesn't make any sense to me, but neither does moving a team out of a cool city like Seattle for a dump like Oklahoma City, so what do I know?

WIZARDS Interactive LOCKER ROOM

FantasticWiz — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:43:37 -0000

Hey Guys,

The Washington Wizards have launched their interactive Locker Room just in time for playoffs. Be a part of the action and take a behind the scenes tour of the Locker Room. For the first time the Wizards have impressed me enough to sign up when the doors open. I don't know but I think they will fully launch come tomorrow...go along with the Playoffs spirit. Anyway if you will be at the game tomorrow; GREAT because from what I hear Game 3 and 4 are SOLD OUT! I got my ticket through a friend. Visit washingtonwizards.com for more details.....

BE LOUD, BE EARLY, WEAR WHITE

FantasticWiz — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:29:47 -0000

The Wizards want to be ready and they want to make sure that their fans are ready too. Get it together and get out to the game.

GAME 3, Thurs. April 24th and GAME 4, Sun. April 27th on sale NOW! Don't miss the BEST PLAYOFF SERIES THIS SEASON! WHEN THE PLAYOFFS COME 2 VERIZON CENTER, IT’LL B WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS 4 LEBRON & THE CAVS

$10, $30, $40 EVEN $75 Club level tickets are available.... visit washingtonwizards.com.

A Sports Chronicle: From MLB to the Wizards and the NBA

Wizards — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:20:27 -0000

[Promoted from the diaries. Check out this awesome FanPost from Wizards (yes, that's his username) on how he became a Wizards fan. -Jake]

This is mainly for my own record, but please feel free to take a gander. It chronicles a boy who didn't have a hometown team growing up and realized it was time to make a commitment.

As a child, my family moved around a lot from job to job. My father wasn't in the military so it was always odd answering the "why?" question because my father was a minister. That brought many blank stares as they try to reconcile the two in their brains before they spoke. Our family moved from Missouri (my birthplace) to Oklahoma to Ohio to Montana to Ohio to Delaware and finally to Maryland where I reside. I eventually got used to all the moving and the questions, but that's a different story entirely.

We're a very athletic family and everyone played their own sport and to be honest, we were all pretty good. My father (before seminary) played baseball and soccer and could've gone to college with a full ride in either sport. My mother was a fitness-phile and excelled in anything from aerobics (oh yeah!), spinning, running in races, to just about everything else. My father brought up my brother and I in each of his sports so it was fitting when we both chose one of his two sports. My brother took soccer (went on to play in college) and I took baseball (had a good career in high school and decided to stop there). How does this fit in with basketball? Just wait, I'm getting there.

Throughout my baseball career I learned through imitation. I was an avid Cardinals fan since my father was from the area. Looking at all the places we moved to, it was a bit hard to choose a favorite team from any of the other leagues. We spent the most time in Montana and really, there is nothing there for miles all around. We could've been big supporters of the Northwest teams, the Colorado teams, the Minnesota teams... but nothing seemed to stick. Ohio teams were one hundred percent out of the question. That is/was the worst state to live in for me. Getting back on track, I learned by watching the pros. I imitated their swings, their defensive positioning, how to read pitches, etc. It brought me a well-rounded knowledge of the game.

Then we ended up moving to the east coast. I loved baseball and that's really all I watched until I realized that the teams where I lived were not very good. It first started out with the Orioles. There could be essays written and published about how bad they are/were and can't get out of the bottom of the American League East and that created a bit of resentment in me because the Cardinals (still my team) wouldn't allow that kind of thing to happen to their city. So after about ten years or so of local baseball mediocrity, I started looking for other sports to satisfy my local craving.

I naturally was drawn to basketball because when I was younger in Montana, John Stockton came to a town near me and had a basketball camp. That's where I learned to shoot a basketball. Fast forward some fifteen years and here I am watching Michael Jordan come back to the NBA with the Wizards. I wasn't too involved in watching many games or keeping track of where MJ lead the team, but the Wizards were entertaining and unfortunately not too good. My interest kept growing because I went to the University of Maryland and when the Wizards drafted Juan Dixon, I knew I'd be watching more games because I was invested in Juan (and Steve Blake). However, it was the 2005-2006 season where the Wizards became a staple in my sports landscape.

Following the team that year was exciting. Everything from meeting the TV announcers (Steve and Phil) to watching young players develop, it was new and fresh to me. The Wizards have again opened the doors of learning a sport for me as I started learning the angles, situational entry passes, floor spacing and even the very hard to understand illegal defense calls. Well, I'm still working on that one. Not only that, but the Wizards are a fun team to watch. They play a precise Princeton style that can bog down occasionally, but when executed perfectly, it's a thing of beauty.

A couple years later, I got married and I started the long road of getting my wife to enjoy the game as much as I do. We're not quite there, but we're close. It also helps when the star on your team is good looking. As the playoffs loom large, it will be great to stick it to a state I'm not very fond of and I'm proud to say I'm a Washington Wizards fan and will be no matter where I live. Baseball will always hold a special place in my history, but I've moved on. Basketball is where I'll be.

Thank you Washington for a great team!

-Formerly known as Craig, now Wizards.

Are we really that bad?

blatcheallstar09 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:23:32 -0000

I've been checking around all the sports sites, and I am very shocked to see that many, many people believe that the wizards still are the same team they were two years ago and that the cavaliers have a huge edge in this series. I must ask: why is everyone so blind? Is the league's lebron james propaganda so effective that everyone thinks a team that barely beat miami can take down a team that went 3-1 against the celtics? What is going on here?

Question Ideas

JakeTheSnake — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:16:02 -0000

Alright boys and girls, I just got contacted about an opportunity to do a little Q&A with an ESPN Radio personality. I'm keeping this on the FanPosts because while I'm excited, I don't want to jinx this rare opportunity. I have the choice of interviewing either Colin Cowherd, Mike Tirico, Steve Mason, or Dave Dameshek.

What I want to know from you is which person do you think I should interview, and what questions would you like to have asked. Obviously we want to keep the questions sports related and hopefully have some of them be Wizards related, but other than that, it's pretty wide open.

Your input (just like any other time) is extremely valuable here.

Welcome to the new Bullets Forever and SB Nation

clockwerks — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:42:58 -0000

Howdy, folks. Pradamaster here, and excited.

The day that I have referred to ad nausem on the old site has finally arrived! Take the time to read this post by clockwerks (real name Trei), who has laid out everything you need to know about the new format.

This is a fluid process, so we expect a lot of questions/concerns initially regarding the new format. Please let us know if there's anything we can clarify, and if you don't agree with anything about this new format, also let us know. Of course, if you think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread (which I think it is, for the record), let us know that as well.

I'll be around practically all day tomorrow to get this thing going, except for when I fly to New Jersey at around 5:30. I leave for Israel Thursday morning, but until then, I'll be like you, trying to figure out the new format in time for the inevitable spanking of the hapless Cavaliers.

Hey Bullets Forever,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

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Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
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Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

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FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Bullets Forever and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

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What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

Bullets Forever now has all the basic information about the Washington Wizards and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

LeBron Logic

cuppettcj — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:17:31 -0000

Here is what LeBaby had to say about a first round matchup against the Wizards:

Cavaliers star LeBron James, who was called "overrated" by Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson following the March 13 meeting, was asked about the matchup Sunday afternoon.

"Yeah, that is so fun, I'm excited," James said sarcastically. "I wanted to play someone else, but if we have to play somebody, I'm glad it's Washington."

Not only does his comments make him out to be an even bigger jerk, but that last sentence has got to be one of the dumbest quotes I've read in a long time. LeBron could have really used a year of college. Especially if that year contained at least one English class.

Playoffs Baby!

FantasticWiz — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:26:25 -0000

Seed #5...Cleveland first round; How awesome is that! We put a stop to Philly's lil run the other night. First and Second games are on sale for playoff home games... check out washingtonwizards.com. I got my tickets; how bout you! :)
I have a great new promo I found out about. Kids 16 and under are free when adults buys a $48 or $40 ticket on "The hill". There is a limit of 6 kids per adult. This offer is only available on the day of the game at Verizon Center box office. Let's round up some kids from the neighborhood and get out of the house!

Deshawn, I apologize

hotplate — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:10:59 -0000

Its not quite year end report card time for our roster but I want to clear my conscience as soon as possible. I was against resigning Deshawn Stephenson. While I wasn't a Juan Carlos Navarro backer, I felt that we could replace Deshawn with a better shooting journeyman for cheaper. I was disappointed in the cost and length of Deshawn's new contract.

I WAS WRONG.

Deshawn is a good player who fits in well with this team. His 3 point shooting has been a revelation to me. And his play has been the key factor in turning a possible loss into a win in at least 5 or 6 games this year, with his 3 point shooting and/or defense.
Most importantly, the guy is a Professional. Like AD, Antawn, and Caron, he appears to take the game and his craft seriously. I love the toughness that he and AD bring to the court. Spraining his ankle yet not missing a game is macho. I love that he's challenging Lebron and Ray Allen. Its the kind of toughness that we've lacked in previous years. And his beard is twice as good as Drew Gooden's.
Deshawn, you're earning your money. Your contract is completely appropriate. Your contributions to this year's team have been huge.
I apologize and promise to sing your praises loudly in all future Wizards discussions.

Somebody Please Tell Me Why Boston is So Good

cuppettcj — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:43:58 -0000

Last year Boston was 24-58, good enough for the second worst record in the NBA. Even when Paul Pierce played, the Celtics weren't that good. This offseason Boston traded their whole team (except for Rondo and Pierce) for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and now they have the best record in the NBA by far.

But the big trades can't be the only reason Boston is so good this season. Everyone assumed that with the trade Boston would go only as far as their Big 3 would take them, since they had to sacrifice their whole bench to get them. But last night their bench beat Milwaukee in overtime to secure their seventh win in a row. The Wizards' starters couldn't beat Milwaukee the last time we played them. Boston has been heavily resting their Big 3 for the past couple of games, but the wins just keep coming for them. Before last night's game, the Celtics crushed the Bobcats in Charlotte and none of their Big 3 logged any minutes. Remember what happened the last time the Wizards played Charlotte and most of our starters played?

Somebody please tell me how Boston can trade their whole team to get 2 great players and they still end up with a bench that can outplay the Wizards starters on most nights. I see the game results with my own eyes, but I just don't get it. And with tonight's game against them looming, I can't help but think that their bench alone is capable of avenging their team's loss against the Wizards the last time they played.