I didn't watch the whole thing and I'd rather turn the floor over to people that did, so stats-only on this long recap.
My only quick thought is this: we need role players. Badly. Right now, eight of the Wizards' 15 players on the roster have career usage rates (meaning the percentage of possessions they end with a turnover, shot or drawn foul) over 20% (Arenas, Butler, Jamison, Blatche, Young, Boykins, Foye, Mike James). Seven of those guys are playing the majority of the minutes right now. That's just not a winning formula. You need some stars to take the shots and role players to fill in. We're missing the role players right now. Better yet, we're trying to channel our stars into those roles when it doesn't suit them. That's not Flip Saunders' fault, someone has to play those roles for teams to win. it's the fault of how this roster was constructed.
That's all I've got.
Four Factors (Bold=very good | Italics=very bad)
| Team | Pace | Off Eff | eFG% | FT/FG | OREB% | TOr |
| Washington | 91 |
103.3 |
47.4 | 25.6 |
31.6 |
18.7 |
| Detroit |
107.7 |
45.1 |
29.3 |
34.1 |
12.1 |
Snap Reaction: Just when I thought our ability to limit turnovers was improving, we do an absolutely terrible job holding onto the ball tonight. The turnovers probably cost the Wizards the game.
Lineup Details, via Popcorn Machine
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Highest individual plus/minus: Nick Young and Gilbert Arenas (+4 in 17:48 and 31:42, respectively)
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Lowest individual plus/minus: DeShawn Stevenson and Antawn Jamison (-9 in 8:06 and 36:54, respectively)
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Best five-man unit: Gilbert Arenas/Randy Foye/Caron Butler/Antawn Jamison/Brendan Haywood (+6 to end the second quarter)
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Worst five-man unit: Gilbert Arenas/Randy Foye/Dominic McGuire/Antawn Jamison/JaVale McGee (-6 in one tiny stretch right before that)
Snap Reaction: Randy Foye had a nice game and in theory fits in very well next to Arenas when teams go small because he can handle the ball well enough to let Gilbert play off the ball, but also is a very good spot-up shooter when he uses that skill. I really don't understand why Flip went away from that tonight (and frankly, all season).