Box Score
Game Flow
Post Recap
Times Recap
Sactown Royalty
TAI Live Blog
DeShawn's face is "beyond numb"
AD is feeling better
Can someone get kingme18 season tickets?
The only thing that salvages Nick Young's new nickname is this awesome photoshop
Highest Plus/Minus: Brendan Haywood (+19)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Darius Songaila & Andray Blatche (-2)
(Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)
So let's get one thing straight before we start, I didn't get to see a lick of the game last night. I could go into a long, unnecessary, off-topic side note on why that happened, but I'd rather not and I get the feeling you wouldn't want to read that anyway. Now that we've gotten past that, here's what I took from the game:
- The Wiz overcame the loss of the AD Effect thanks to Stevenson and Butler, without a true PG the Wizards had to find other ways to facilitate the offense and they stepped it up.
- I know it's been talked about some recently, but shooting coach Dave Hopla deserves a lot of credit for the offense being able to survive despite all the injuries. It's not a coincidence that Butler, Stevenson, Mason, and Haywood are all having great years shooting the ball and that the Wizards are 4th in the NBA in free throw percentage. I can't really tell you what it is that he's doing to make things better but whatever it is, it's working.
- Speaking of assistant coaches, how about some props for Randy Ayers? The Wizards defense still isn't what you'd call great or even average, but it is better and holding the Kings to 28 points in the second half is further evidence to that.
- I'm writing this as I watch the Ravens-Dolphins game in the vein hope that I'll hear Kevin Harlan go "CLEO LEMON IS A FLAMETHROWER!!!"
- Hopefully Dahntay Jones' posterization of Andray gets AB out of whatever slump he went into after the game against Phoenix.
- Speaking of which, I'd see your Dahntay on Andray and raise you a Caron on Dahntay (from last year):
- Now let's talk about the PG situation. As was mentioned earlier, it looks likely that Ernie Grunfeld will sign a PG in the coming days. Here's what the situation looks like:
Options include Brian Chase, who played on the Wiz summer league team in Vegas in July and went to camp with Miami before getting waived in October (he's in the D-League), Mike Wilks, who was released by Denver on Nov. 28, former Wiz Billy Thomas, who is also in the D-League, and Donell Taylor, who is under contract with a team in Greece but I hear that he has an opt-out.Don't count on Earl Boykins unless Boykins has backed off his demand for getting a full mid-level exception.
Now, the team is right up against the luxury tax threshold but can sign a player and still avoid paying the tax because contracts don't become guaranteed for the remainder of the season until Jan. 10. Also, teams can sign players to 10-day contracts starting Jan 5.
Here's the player cards for Chase, Thomas, Wilks, and Taylor. Now that you're informed, it's time for the best part of blogging: unfounded speculation! To figure out who is going to end up signing, let's use the process of elimination. At most, it looks like Daniels will only be out for a month in which case I'd think that EG will want to go for someone that knows the system and can come in and run it immediately so that likely eliminates Wilks and probably Chase. That leaves us with Taylor and Thomas. If Taylor is willing to opt out of his contract for what likely amounts to a one month NBA joy ride then he'll probably end up the choice, if not then I think Billy Thomas will end up being Ernie's choice. Of course, I've been wrong many times before so take that with about 3 tons of salt.
We'll see how events unfold in the coming days as Washington looks to complete the Jersey sweep.