The Essentials:
Wizards (8-31) at Warriors (12-29)
4 p.m. (Nothing like a little Wizards basketball to go along with your dinner!)
Oracle ArenaCSN Correction: The Wizards game will be on DC50 today at 4p.m. It will also be re-aired on CSN+ at 7p.m.
This year:
November 25: Wizards 124, Warriors 100
Notable Warriors numbers this season:
25th in expected winning percentage (.329)
1st in pace factor (97.6 possessions per game)
13th in offensive efficiency/offensive rating (107.7)
30th in defensive efficiency/defensive rating (113.4)
Key Links: (drop any others in the comments)
Golden State of Mind
Gameday Golden State
The Other Side: Golden State Warriors
Starting Lineups:
Wizards
PG: Mike James
SG: Caron Butler
SF: Dominic McGuire
PF: Antawn Jamison
C: Andray Blatche
Warriors
PG: Jamal Crawford
SG: Kelenna Azubuike
SF: Corey Maggette
PF: Anthony Randolph
C: Andris Biedrins
Tonight's Lines
Warriors at Wizards: Warriors by 5
Over/Under on Total Scoring: 217
Road trip! Tonight starts the Wizards first Western coast trip of the season. In case you haven't been keeping up, here's who the Wizards will be facing this week:
As you can see, there's two very winnable games but they both come at the start of the trip, while the team will probably still be trying to get their legs under them after making the cross-country trip. And once the Wizards get their legs under them, they get to face two of the top 10 teams in the NBA. Oh joy!
Looking back: The first time these two tangled, the Wizards were playing their first game after the firing of Eddie Jordan and they came out with one of their best performances of the year. JaVale McGee had two dunks early to set the tone and Andray Blatche came through with the best game of his career, putting up 25 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 blocks in under 30 minutes.
Match-up of the night - Antawn Jamison vs. Corey Maggette: One went to North Carolina, the other went to Duke. Both signed $50 million contracts in the off-season, thinking that they'd be key parts of teams making playoff runs this year. Both of them thought that they'd have the help of dynamic guards that also signed big deals in the off-season. Neither one thought they'd be more than 10 games under .500 halfway through January.
Sure, they're not going to find themselves matched up against one another a lot, but both will be playing with an understandable amount of frustration after a season that's gone nothing like what they expected. The one that's able to channel it better tonight will likely lead his team to a win tonight.
This is an open thread, so reminisce about Mr. Cooper's days as a Golden State Warrior here.
GO WIZARDS!