Top Stories of the Week: John Wall’s injury, .500 ball, and the Capital City Go-Go

Happy December everyone!

John Wall’s injured, and the Wizards are still not getting a big win streak together

Yeah, things aren’t going so well since the Thanksgiving holiday. The biggest piece of news was that John Wall will be out for about two weeks. His left knee needs some rest, and the team is trying to protect him from himself. Wall acknowledged that he wanted to continue playing until he could “barely walk,” according to Candace Buckner of The Washington Post.

On to the results from the last week.

• Last Saturday, the Wizards lost to the Trail Blazers at home, 108-105 after leading by 17 points in the fourth quarter. It’s one thing to give up a lead, but it’s another when a team give up a lead of this magnitude.
• Washington did scrap out a 92-89 win last Tuesday on the road against the Timberwolves after falling behind early. Otto Porter scored 22 points and put up a clutch performance when it mattered most. Here are his highlights from FreeDawkins.

• Then on the following day, the Wizards traveled to Philly to play the 76ers. Like the Wolves game, Washington was behind early by double digits. But they somehow got run going after being left for dead after fouling Ben Simmons left and right. But they lost, 118-113.
• And on Friday, they played the Pistons who came into Verizon Center with a 14-6 record. Washington crushed them for an easy 109-91 victory.

The Wizards are now 12-10, which is only good for 7th in the Eastern Conference. Maybe things will even out, but times starting run out for that.

The G-League team is the Capital City Go-Go

On Friday, the Wizards announced that the G-League team will be known as the Go-Go, a nod to the music genre that originates from D.C. We didn’t expect it at the time of publication, but we also wrote about how the team now known as the Go-Go could build a strong homecourt advantage next year when they play at St. Elizabeth’s.

Going back to the topic of go-go music, there aren’t too many pop songs that feature go-go rhythms, but the most notable song featuring go-go elements is by Amerie, a D.C. area based R&B singer.

Remember “1 Thing” from back in 2005? It’s probably the only go-go inspired song to hit it big here in D.C and Western Europe in this millenium. The song peaked at #8 in the Billboard pop charts here at home, but it hit the Top 5 in Finland and in Francophone Belgium:

Let’s stick on the topic of go-go for a sec. That’s because there was a concert featuring go-go musicians after the Pistons game.

The biggest artist at the concert was DJ Kool, who’s best known for “Let Me Clear My Throat” back in 1996. This is his biggest hit, but “Let Me Clear My Throat” was more popular in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom than here in the USA based on the chart rankings:

In addition, Experience Unlimited.

and Junkyard Band were there too.

All our chronicles on the Wizards’ trials and tribulations

We wrote a number of pieces on the Wizards’ rotation and team issues with their record being lower than we anticipated through this point in the season:

• Ben Mehic wrote that Scott Brooks’ honeymoon period is over. He has done a good job developing players here, but he hasn’t done as great o f a job balancing the playing time of veterans vs. young players on this team.
• Kelly Cohen wrote about Wall’s absence further magnifying the Wizards’ weaknesses.
• Jake wrote a more positive take on one specific problem Washington has shown this season: losing leads in the fourth quarter.
• Alan Jenkins ranked the players who need to step up over the next two weeks while Wall recovers from injury.

Learning how the international women’s basketball game operates

We had a chance to talk to FIBA writer Paul Nilsen, who covers the international women’s basketball game, primarily within Europe last week and released a three part Q&A on how to follow the teams and players who are in them. As you may be aware, most WNBA players, including some of the Mystics are on European clubs as we speak. However, fans on this side of the pond often forget about what goes on there.

• In Part 1 of the Q&A, we talked about the future outlooks of the American and Belgian national teams as they head toward next year’s FIBA Women’s World Cup since Elena Delle Donne and Emma Meesseman are expected to play in it.
• In Part 2, Paul gave us a detailed breakdown on how EuroLeague Women and EuroCup Women work, and how European teams balance continental play vs. domestic league play. It’s not unlike the balancing act soccer teams make in Europe.
• And in Part 3, we talked about how the WNBA can be a better partner with FIBA and overseas teams. On the surface, the WNBA says that they don’t consider them adversaries. But their actions suggest otherwise.

It’s a great read and we learned a lot about the international game from Paul’s insights.

And more links

• Last Sunday, Seerat Sohi of SBNation.com wrote that the Wizards are the Eastern Conference’s “most confounding team.” I don’t disagree with that assessment considering that Washington’s is playing .500 basketball but also have a very strong starting lineup.
• Neil Greenberg of The Washington Post writes that the “Hack-A-Simmons” strategy isn’t a sound one, even though the Wizards almost got away with it.
• Adam Rubin of Truth About It writes that it’s time to see Tomas Satoransky get more playing time. He’s started getting that this week.

That’s all I have for the week. If you have another link you’d like to share, feel free to do so in the comments or as a FanPost!