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We had a warm week in our first full week of March 2016! Forget about this being the beginning of spring. It feels like early May!
With more degrees come more stories. Let's go through them here.
Three Wizards Games, Three Wizards Losses
On Friday, the Wizards lost badly to the Cleveland Cavaliers, 108-83. Kevin Love decided to take a siesta so LeBron James could do LeBron James things. He scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the first three quarters. James didn't play in the last 12 minutes given how the game was.
On the following day, they lost 100-99 to the Indiana Pacers on Polish Heritage Night. Washington had a chance to help close the game out with 10 seconds left. But Nene was at the free throw line. He's not a great free throw shooter so ... he missed one of two at the line. After, Paul George got fouled on the next possession. He made both of his free throws. Mike Sykes has more on how the Wizards mismanaged the last minute of the game here.
Finally, the Wizards lost another heartbreaker on Tuesday to the Portland Trail Blazers in their first overtime game of the year, 116-109. Damian Lillard scored 40 points, and the Wizards continued to be horrible at free throws. They didn't even make half of them.
Life sucks right now as a Wizards fan. This team fought really hard to get to .500 with a 30-30 record. Now, they are wasting it away -- and perhaps this season too.
Wizards Playoff Odds: Not good, no matter how you look at it
As of March 9, the Wizards have a 22 percent chance of making the playoffs according to the Carm-ELO model. Other models didn't even give Washington a 10 percent chance.
As L.W. noted in the piece, the silver lining to the Wizards' remaining schedule is that there are many lower-tier opponents left on the docket. However, setbacks like a three-game losing streak after getting back to the .500 mark aren't acceptable.
Emma Meesseman will be with the Mystics until 2019, if not longer
The Mystics announced that their star power forward will be with the team through 2019 on Tuesday. The move itself is not a surprise. The timing, however, is. It is because WNBA teams typically wait until they actually have to.
For example, Minnesota Lynx forward Maya Moore was the first overall pick of the 2011 WNBA Draft. She was a restricted free agent in 2015, but she was re-signed to a new deal by Minnesota. And no team signed her to an offer sheet either as far as I'm aware.
And if that wasn't enough for Emma-news, she did pretty well in her EuroLeague debut for UMMC.
Finally, she has a message for all the fans:
.@EmmaMeesseman had a short message for #Mystics fans after agreeing to her extension! pic.twitter.com/BuZJ7nXKxW
— Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) March 9, 2016
Bradley, not again!
Saturday was not a good day for Bradley Beal as he sprained his pelvis in the third quarter during the Pacers game. He did miss Tuesday's game against the Trail Blazers, but hopefully, he'll be ready to go tonight against Utah.
Goodbye Gary Neal and hello Marcus Thornton
Neal was hurt and missed over a month. Now, Thornton takes his place. Though his time in Washington was short, Neal did his role quite well.
Tomas Satoransky will be with F.C. Barcelona for at least one, if not more seasons
Welp. But on the other hand, you have to understand why. He's just not going to have a major role on a Wizards team with John Wall and Bradley Beal unless he wants to take a step back into a sixth man role, or unless his rights are traded somewhere else.
Monumental Sports will have an Arena Football League team in 2017
Scott Allen of The Washington Post reported the news on Thursday. As we mentioned previously, the team will be the ninth in the 2017 season. The league also was interested in having a major ownership group like Monumental Sports involved.
The AFL season runs during the spring and ends in the summer, where they will definitely be playing during the same time as the Mystics. The beginning of their season will also overlap the Wizards and Capitals' season when they are in the playoffs as well.
Best BF Features and FanPosts
Even though the Wizards lost Saturday's game, Polish Heritage Night was still a success. Roughly 1,000 fans stayed after the game to listen to Marcin Gortat speak to them.
Speaking about Gortat, Alan Jenkins wrote an excellent analysis on how he has had the most successful season of his career.
The Wizards didn't have a fun time in Portland and Gerald Henderson spent a good deal of time -- over six seconds -- before calling a timeout. Jake Whitacre found a lot of interesting information on what six seconds can do for you.
Even though Satoransky isn't a Wizard for another year, perhaps Aaron White should now that he's showing his clutchness in the Basketball Bundesliga. Rook6980 has more.
Finally, ElleLovesTennis wrote about why Stefanie Dolson is also poised for a big 2016 season here.
These aren't all the links in and around D.C. basketball. If you have one, feel free to share it in the comments or do so in a FanPost.