Wizards vs. Celtics Final Score: Wizards Fail to Show Up in 88-76 Loss

I have to travel a lot for my job so to cover the many of the games I have to use my Slingbox connection. A few times this season the connection has cut out and I have been left to furiously hit refresh and attempt to catch up on the action I have missed. For the most part, the only thing I end up missing is the trivia or on the rare occurrence a John Wall coast to coast lay in.

Tonight, when my feed went out during the second quarter, I seriously thought about claiming "technical difficulties" and moving on with my life. I hope everyone else made the smart decision and spent time with a loved one, walked the dog, or prepared a really nice supper. Any of those actions would have been more productive then what we saw this evening.

Steve and Phil will tell you that the Wizards cut it to eight at one point, but the Wizards never felt in this game. This is a loss that I firmly chock up to roster construction as the lack of any type of shooter on the Wizards roster left the spacing clogged and confused for most of the evening. To an extent, the presence of Nene would have fixed the ball movement issue that was prevalent on the evening, but the the failure of anyone to shoot the ball with any accuracy would have rendered any impact he may have had moot.

Are there any lessons to take from this game? The only possible conclusion I can draw it that John Wall needs to be much more aggressive in attacking the basket to free up the outside shooting for his below average supporting cast. The other lesson is that the Wizards cannot afford to be intimidated and pushed around by a team like the Celtics, particularly since Boston is so weak in the frontcourt and can be exploited in forced to play at an agressive pace. Instead, the Wizards got bogged down in playing their frankly terrible halfcourt offense, which led to the Celtics coasting for almost the entirety of the evening

Frankly, we are past the age of the "athlete" and the player with "upside" potential being useful on an NBA squad unless you have a group of players surrounding that individual that allow him to freelance. NBA defenses are simply too complex for raw athleticism and hustle to overcome. Instead, tonight the Wizards started three four people who can't shoot the ball and a fifth who is seemingly only accurate from 30 feet out. The issues with the team are fairly obvious for all to see, it is up to the frontoffice to address the same issues this offseason in the draft and free agency.