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Highest Plus/Minus: Darius Songaila (-3)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Andray Blatche (-18)
Best Five Man Unit: Mike James, Nick Young, Caron Butler, Dominic McGuire, Andray Blatche (+4 in the 2nd quarter)
Worst Five Man Unit: Mike James, Caron Butler, Dominic McGuire, Antawn Jamison, Andray Blatche (-6 to start the game)
Four Factors
Photo of the game
(Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)
Game Thread comment of the game: "The only thing this team is showcasing is a heaping pile of suck." by little stevie colter in response to Alpha_Snail's question of whether or not the team was showcasing Andray Blatche for a trade.
- Well, this one was over before the National Anthem. No really:
The Wizards got off to a disoriented start: They couldn't figure out which way to line up for the playing of the national anthem. The majority of the team faced midcourt, but there was no flag there. In doing so, they had their backs to the flag, which hung from the rafters.
Meanwhile, Oleksiy Pecherov, Darius Songaila, Juan Dixon and Mike James stood facing the flag. Caron Butler lined up with his back to the flag, turned around, then seeing the rest of his teammates turned the other way returned to his original position. Pecherov and Songaila also fell in line and turned their backs to the flag. James and Dixon continued to face the flag.
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Okay, blaming all of the Wizards woes on an awkward National Anthem is probably a stretch, but it's a lot more fun that way. No word on if Pech tried to pad his stats by throwing up some treys during the anthem.
- I'm not sure there's a word that can adequately describe how abysmal the Wizards' pick and roll defense was. Way too many wide open lanes to the basket, not enough fighting over screens to contest threes. Sure, that's been a problem for years, but it was even more painfully evident than normal yesterday.
- After watching the two of them play on the court at the same time, I get the feeling that Nick Young will pan out as Jamal Crawford, but with enough size to keep coaches from trying to turn him into a point guard.
- Speaking of Crawford, JaVaris Crittenton did a much better job of slowing him down tonight than Mike James did. Neither one was able to shut him down, but Crittenton's length did more to make it difficult for Crawford than James did. The thing is, even when Crawford would be forced to pass it, someone else would just torch whoever was guarding them.
- Phil Chenier was spot on in his assessment that Andray needs to work on a power move. He's got a nice finesse touch around the rim that allows him to score in ways that other big men can't, but there are way too many opportunities that he can't convert around the rim because he lacks the strength of most others that play his position. That clunky six-foot fadeaway is never going to be a go-to move in this league.
- Caron's stats don't jump out at you, but I thought he had the right idea in terms of attacking the rim. His execution wasn't great, but I'd much rather see him going down shooting rather than deferring and turning into a non-factor. Also, I'm not sure if you noticed it, but Caron threw down an interesting looking dunk where he jumped and grabbed the net with his off hand, used it to pull himself up and dunked with the other hand. Maybe he was trying to give Nick Young some ideas for next year.
(Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)