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Magical Pixels, Wizards vs. Nets: D.C. not allowed to watch D.C. basketball team

Thank you, NBA.

By Jeff Newman

Magical Pixels is the name of our new, extended recap roundup. Enjoy.

If you're like me, you were watching NBATV around 6:55 p.m. yesterday evening, eagerly awaiting the preseason debut of your 2013-14 Washington Wizards. As the seconds ticked away, your anticipation kept building. If you aren't like me, then you don't understand why someone would be excited to watch an NBA team that went 29-53 last season play in the preseason, and you probably happened upon this post by mistake.

Anyway, we were so stoked, right? Then 7 p.m. struck, and NBATV broke to Wiz-Nets, and we local D.C. fans were so happy to have NBA basketball back, because...

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Oh NBA, you slay me. Seriously, it's hard to get people all worked up over a preseason game, but if there's one way to do it, it's to make sure the local fans of one of the teams playing are the only people that can't actually watch the game. Yeah, sure, some of us are fancy and can find an illicit stream on the interwebs, but the vast majority of Wizards fans were blacked out from watching the game. Not cool.

Yeesh, they weren't even kind enough to give the Wizards a heads up. As you can probably imagine, Twitter was angry/amused.

At Verizon Center, fans were (presumably) blissfully unaware of the rejection felt by those of us stuck on our couches looking at the NBA's big, static middle finger. I say 'presumably' because they were distracted by the return of their favorite son.

But then Al Harrington made everyone happy again.

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Bahahahaha. Meanwhile...

Oh no, he doesn't know yet.

Sad face. And it stayed that way for much of the second half, hitting rock bottom when Garrett Temple had a layup at the rim swatted away with eight seconds to play. Miles Plumlee made a free throw to put the Nets up 97-95. Oh well, nice effort against a very talented Nets team, time to pack it in...

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The refs tried to ruin everything by calling basket interference, but then they looked at it and remembered THIS IS PRESEASON: WHERE AWESOME HAPPENS.

#shutdownZING

Despite Rice's heroics, the Wiz still fell in overtime, but whatever, it's preseason. Positives: John Wall looked good, Nene looked healthy, and the Wizards stuck with a superior team. Negatives: The backups stunk, and Jan Vesely balanced out his 12 rebounds with ZERO shot attempts (from the field or foul line) six fouls and three points on 1-for-4 shooting (1-for-2 from the charity stripe).

Meanwhile...

Sigh. Make sure to check out our Storystream for the game, as well as postgame interviews with Randy Wittman, Wall, Bradley Beal, Rice and Vesely (courtesy of Monumental Network).

Here's some more recaps and reaction to the Wizards' preseason opener: [WaPo | CSN Washington (recap, Vesely sidebar, Wittman sidebar) | District Sports Page | Wiz of Awes | DC Sports Bog | WashingtonWizards.com | Ted's Take | NY Times | NY Daily News | ESPN NY | Wall Street Journal | From Russia With Dunk]

Here's a link to some game highlights, including Rice's buzzer-beating slam.

More from Bullets Forever:

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Washington Wizards fall to Brooklyn Nets, 111-106, in preseason opener

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