clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

If I was on a team that could beat the Pistons by double digits, I'd want to play too

By Jake Whitacre

Box Score
Game Flow
Post Recap
Times Recap
Live Blog
Need4Sheed Recap
Pistons Nation Blog Recap, blames loss on Brendan's nose
Wizards Insider's Monday Update

Highest Plus/Minus: Antawn Jamison & Antonio Daniels (+12)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Dominic McGuire & Oleksiy Pecherov (+1)

Kelly Dwyer nails it again with his analysis of the game on Behind the Boxscore:

Detroit never really put the hammer down in Washington on Sunday night, the Wizards didn't really ease into the 12-point win, but it's safe to say the Pistons lost this one just as much as the Wizards (who, again, played hard and played well) won it.

Washington shot ridiculously well from the floor (52.8 percent), and Detroit was telling reporters after the game that they were trying out new and different offensive schemes. Great.

That's going to be my lasting impression from last night.  Sure, the Wizards played excellent all around, but I don't think you can use it in and of itself to say that the Wizards are a legit Eastern conference contender.

There was still a lot of things that were very good about last night, including:

  • The Frontline!:  Aside from McDyess' owning the boards for the first six minutes, the Wizards really owned the inside.  Haywood had a great scoring game, Jamison had another 20-10 game, and perhaps most impressively, they kept Jason Maxiell from dominating the bench.  I'd talk more about their dominance last night, but I'd rather not get on Sheed's bad side.
  • Darius the Great: Okay, that's a stretch but the dude is playing his best ball as a Wizard right now.  I'd rather not see it at the expense of Andray Blatche, but he looks like he might be coming back around as well.  Blatche's 4 points and 4 rebounds weren't anything astounding, but it wasn't abysmal either, which is step in the right direction.
  • Stewie's sunburn: jvflail brought it to everyone's attention during the Heat game, but it bears repeating.  That boy is COOKED.  The only downside is that I can't find a picture of it.
  • 6 out of 7 ain't bad: With the western swing looming, they had to take advantage of this easy stretch and save for a stinker against Atlanta, they succeeded in doing that.  They still can't sleep easy, but there's some more breathing room than there was before.