In a parallel universe somewhere, the Washington Wizards picked up their third (and most thrilling) win of the year at home against the Boston Celtics. In our universe, this game never happened because of the NBA lockout. The parallel universe sounds more fun, so let's discuss five topics from this game based on that.
(Sorry for no in-game fake thread - had a late call at work and forgot about it).
- That was awesome: And I mean the whole experience of it all. There probably won't be a ton of highlights this season, but shutting up those invading Celtics fans at the Verizon Center was so sweet. Someday, those fans won't be there. Until then, we'll have to settle for making them leave unhappy.
- Andray Blatche got up for Kevin Garnett: Twenty-five points, 12 rebounds ... not bad, Andray. He always tends to play up to KG's level anyway, and that rang true again in this one. Kudos to Flip Saunders too. For once, he didn't talk about how great KG was before or after the game. Could that have had an effect on Blatche's play? I know I'd be pretty frustrated if my coach was talking about how great one of my opponents was whenever we played them. I'm glad Flip had a change of heart.
- John Wall vs. Rajon Rondo: Pretty emphatic win for Wall, I'd say. Rondo's a tough guy to classify of course, and I have little interest in making this a discussion about whether Rondo is overrated (he's not). But Wall definitely did a lot to bite into Rondo's strong defensive reputation.
- Nice lift from Jordan Crawford: It's been a rough year for him so far, since he's still shot-jacking even while his teammates have improved. In this game, though, the Wizards needed his competitive fire, especially with Nick Young having all kinds of issues chasing Ray Allen. Still didn't like a lot of his shots, but they went down, and I was impressed with the way he fought through screens on defense.
- Why do the Celtics still have Von Wafer? I know they have injuries, but why him? That sequence where he threw it right to Blatche was hilarious, though not as bad as this. Note: I really just wanted an excuse to post this GIF.
