Q3
JaVale McGee with a nice hook with his left should heading baseline, he floated the ball with his right hand. 40-36 Wiz.
McGee drives baseline and gives a no look pass to Andray Blatche when the help comes.....dunk. 42-37 Wiz.
Not much else of note going on......the reserves come in an play with desperation. Vladimir Veremeenko looks like he has potential, but is visibly in the process of adjustment. Some miscues and some sparks on both ends. In the least, he's showing some hope for increased development when he goes back overseas.
Q4
Snapper talks to Eddie Jordan.....Health is the key word of the convo.
9:00 - Dominic McGuire with a great block....leads to a JaVale McGee long baseline jumper on the other end. Very nice to have a legit seven footer with that skill....makes me think Žydrūnas Ilgauskas with agility.
Eddie says that the final stage of Gil's development is leadership and that Arenas says that even he doesn't believe some of the things that come out of his mouth at times.
7:44 - Andray Blatche hitting baseline trey balls now. 62-53 Wizards.
Jordan also jokingly admits that in this, the first summer league game, many of the players think they are Gilbert Arenas' in their attempts to score......the players need to recognize their role a little more when it comes to the real season.
Koponen is a nice player....hits a trey to give him 13 points for the game. 64-61 Wiz with 5 minutes left. Another player who may continue his development overseas.
Kamla is an opponent of tracking turnovers in fantasy leagues....I'm not sure how I feel about this. In leagues I've managed in the past, I've tended to count them. But Kamla makes a good point in that most of the turnovers are committed by the best players and that reality in this case, need not be translated to fantasy.
3:05 - Koponen representing Finland with another trey...tied at 64.
2:07 - Koponen with yet another trey, 67-66 Portland. Dee Brown is having trouble keeping up....taking a shot to the face from Koponen before the Fin got free for that last three doesn't help.
1:33 - Nick Young has trouble keeping up with Bayless....who only makes one of two FTs. 68-66 Blazers.
1:12 - Great work by the future big three... Young doesn't have it on the baseline...lotta defensive help coming his way..pulls out...to Blatche on perimeter with a fake and dribble drive.... AB finds Dominic McGuire cutting on the baseline....I know we've see that play before, more to come..... Game tied at 68.
On the other end, JaVale McGee does a terrible job in getting caught in the air on a pump fake...not surprised, he's been contesting without consequence all night, a FT gives the Blazers a one point lead.
0:25 - Blatche can't control the board, Bayless gets the loose ball and hits a basket (Blatche found a way to pick up his 7th foul and hurt his shoulder in the process). Bayless misses the And1, McGee can't secure the ball, he may have gotten fouled, but it goes out of bound to the Blazers with 23.5 left and the Wiz down 71-68.
The Wiz foul the big man, Josh Davis, but he makes both and puts the Blazers up 5.
McGee aims to amend all those previous transgressions with a trey...and nails it. 73-71 Portland.
As you would expect in a summer league game, Nick Young is fouled (leg kick) attempting a three with 7.6 left. He misses the shot and makes 2 of 3 free throws. 75-73 Blazers.
And the Wiz just kinda blow it. Bayless misses a second FT, Wiz down three, but Portland gets the board.....McGee blocks a shot by this Aleks Maric cat with 2.5 left, not sure why that attempt happened...but Portland gets it again and that's it.
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Overall, the team played with more energy than one might have expected after their travel situation. But Eddie Jordan, or Unseld Jr., must have convinced them to release what was bottled up by planes and buses as they displayed decent effort in that category.
I suppose the pent up jitters led to 22 turnovers and only 11 assists. But aside from the numbers, I would have liked to see the first unit play like they had somewhat of a plan. That crew hasn't had much late game experience with each other, so I'm glad the game was close. But in the end, someone has to take charge and Andray, Nick, Dominic and Dee weren't sure exactly who would fill that role. Portland had someone ready to step up, Jarryd Bayless dropped a game high 28 points.
Wizards Outlet - Mike Jones - Washington Times Recap
Thoughts from Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress via True Hoop:
TrueHoop: Washington's Javale McGee didn't look good at all out there. What did you notice?
DraftExpress: No surprise here whatsoever. This is how he looked in college often. The Wizards would be the first ones to tell you that he is two or three years away. Still, you can't ignore his physical tools. The guy is a freak, look at his arms and athleticism. He just needs to learn how to play.
Ernie Grunfeld stars as The Closer
As a result, the blogosphere is alive with talk that Milwaukee is the worst NBA city.