Bullets Forever, a Washington Wizards community

I was able to catch up with JaVale McGee after Team USA practice at the New York Knicks practice facility in Tarrytown, N.Y., on Friday afternoon and he confirmed that he discovered late last season that he has asthma.

McGee said that it was comforting to discover that asthma had been holding him back for so long. Since he began treating the condition, McGee said he has more energy and can be more effective for longer stretches. He mentioned a home game against Charlotte last March, when he had 14 points and 12 rebounds in a career-high 46 minutes "and I didn't go to my knees once and it amazed myself."

A 6″11 Forward, from Long Island City…Jared Jeffries!

LIC is supposed to be a city, hence the name, but it isn’t; it’s just an increasingly expensive neighborhood that looks across at "the city." To that end, while Jeffries is supposed to be a defensive stopper that can guard 4 out of the 5 positions on the floor, he hasn’t lived up to his billing and often resorts watching other taller-building ballers (David Lee, Renaldo Balkman) play actual defense.

This all about context: To the non-thinker (Thomas), it stood to reason that Jeffries was a defensive standout because he was arguably the best defender on the 05-06 Washington Wizards. The truth is those Wizards were a weak defensive team that relied on offensive prowess. In fact, Jeffries’s defense was kind of like the needle in a haystack of crap: shitty.

If we’re going to pull out this series, we’re going to need a miracle. We’re going to have to dig. We’re going to have to play big. Everyone is going to have to bring their A games. We can’t have no let downs now.

It’s one of those things where we’re going into the lion’s den. That arena is going to be ready for us. They’re going to bring out the boo birds and call us every name you can possibly think of. They’re going to boo us from tip-off until the end of the game.

For us to silence that crowd, we’re going to have to get out to a quick start and try to get up big to get the fans out of it a little.