Wizards 125, Hornets 103

by Mike Prada on Mar 18, 2007 4:34 AM EDT in Recaps

"Triple A" would be proud, no doubt about it. Daddy and his team probably played their most complete game in the 2007 calendar year yesterday.

Gilbert plays keep away with adults too (via Washington Post)

There was one stretch that was really telling. At the end of the third quarter, due to some strange call, the Hornets pulled to within 10. Normally, the Wizards would milk this lead and end up with either a close victory or a heartbreaking defeat. But tonight, with a lineup featuring Calvin Booth, Jarvis Hayes, Darius Songaila, and Antonio Daniels, the Wizards actually extended the lead, stomping on the Hornets' feet and putting the game away. It's the type of thing we really haven't seen enough against inferior teams.

We rip Eddie a lot on this site, but I have to give him major props for starting Blatche tonight over Hayes. Blatche was a handful for the Hornets frontcourt, and gave 10 points and 7 boards in a solid 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Hayes had one of his better games off the bench, scoring six points and getting a plus/minus of +12. It's the type of thing we really should see more, because the presence of Blatche's athleticism made it even more difficult to guard Arenas and Jamison.

Also, I need to give major props to Darius Songaila, who's looked like everything Ernie Grunfeld was expecting in the last two games. He was 6-6 from the floor, including a couple nice layups inside. He's out there to pull opposing big men away from the basket, opening up even more lanes for Arenas and Jamison to drive. His rebounding struggles suddenly don't mean as much, because Jamison is grabbing all the long rebounds the Wizards force. His presence off the bench has been big recently.

Seriously, if the bench can provide this much production, there's no reason to worry about losing Butler. Moving Blatche to the starting lineup has a lot to do with that, but Songaila's health, AD's resurgence, and Hayes' recent decent stretch aren't just happening because of a lineup switch. All those random minutes in crunch time earlier in the year may actually be paying off for some of these guys.

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hell yeah

Quality win. It's really becoming more and more clear how much Gilbert's game is interlaced with Jamison's. Teams can't double Gilbert the way they were in February because he'll just flip it to AJ for one of those weird floaters (which are so, so pretty when they're going in...)

I totally agree with the props on starting Blatche. I'd also give a shout out to Deshawn, who is picking up a lot of the slack for Caron's offense by looking to attack the basket more often and create for himself when left isolated.

Oh, and this makes Songalia 11-for-11 over the past two games. NBA.com shows him still being well under .500 (weird...), but if this keeps up, he's gotta get a much better nickname than "Mr. 50."

by sierradave on Mar 18, 2007 9:08 AM EDT reply actions

What's Eddie doing with Blatche?

I don't understand why Eddie decided to deactivate Blatche (reportedly for the rest of the season), then -- after pulling him off the inactive list -- started him and played him for 30 minutes. Either the guy's good enough to play for you, or he's not.

Why would guys like Ruffin and Hayes be a bigger part of the plan with Caron around but suddenly be less important than Blatche when Caron goes down? If Blatche is so sorry that he should remain inactive and never play (which obviously is not the case), then he shouldn't be getting a bigger role than the guys who remained active in front of him.

I suppose Eddie feels like Blatche is much better as a starter than he is coming off the bench, but when a guy brings the kind of length and athleticism he does to the game, I think he ought to get a shot ahead of the utterly unproductive Arvis and Ruff.

by Vanilla Gorilla on Mar 19, 2007 11:57 AM EDT reply actions

It is really confusing

Eddie's tactics with Blatche make no sense, I agree. There must be something going on in practice. Maybe Andray's a bad practice player, and Eddie is trying to say that if you don't practice well, you don't play.

That's my only explanation. If that's the case, then I support Eddie. If not, then I have no idea what he's doing.

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

by Mike Prada on Mar 19, 2007 1:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Songaila

This is the Songaila I was hoping for when we signed him. He's still shooting under .500 because he posted so man 1-for-4 nights when he came back. He'll get up around 50 percent soon if he keeps playing like this. He seems perfectly suited for Eddie's offense.

by Vanilla Gorilla on Mar 19, 2007 12:01 PM EDT reply actions