1) The Wizards enter tonight's game on the heels of a brutal six game losing streak during which their average margin of loss has been just 2.3 points. The Wiz are a dysfunctional team that doesn't really do anything well, but does many things middlingly or poorly, including defending and shooting threes. Want a cheap and lazy indication of how cosmically bad things are in Washington? It's been almost two years since the Wizards have been able to master the Magic.
2) Washington does, however, have size, and they know how to use it. They're paying Fabricio Oberto two million dollars just to hulk and glower from the bench in between hard fouls. Each Wizard starter has at least an inch on his corresponding Warrior.
3) Gilbert Arenas and Monta Ellis are curious casts of each other: generally inefficient but sublimely entertaining combo guards plucked from the second round by the Warriors. Arenas is a better passer, but Ellis offers better, though still not great, shot selection. I'm pegging the turnover/under for this game at 12.5. Get ready to get haggard.
4) Où êtes-vous allé, Morro? Every once in a while, when the sky gets dark and the birds fall silent, Morrow appears to me in a vision as a 38% three-point shooter; a fringe NBA player; a poor man's Eddie House (Eddy Flophouse?). I dismiss these thoughts after a nice tall glass of cucumber water and a hard look at the numbers, but there's no denying that this last week has been a rough one for The Other Anthony, and that tonight is a rich opportunity for him to get back in rhythm.
5) In spite of the Wizards' recent spate of close games, I don't see this one coming down to the wire. There's just too much volatility in each team, too much coequally awry, for any stable parity. Each team should make large runs on the strength of their complementary size advantages, but eventually things will precess out of control, probably precipitated by some combination of Warrior three-pointers and Washington foul trouble. This is a very big game for both teams on...national television? What?
Warriors Player to Watch: Anthony Randolph, who probably occupies this spot by default for the rest of the season, and who simply must be on the floor for over thirty minutes tonight, for his rebounding and his surprisingly excellent free throw shooting.
Wizards Player to Watch: Andray Blatche (yuck) has given us fits before, but Brendan Haywood is blocking shots and hitting the glass hard in a contract year, so he's got to be excited for tonight.
Posts
2 comments:
Good stuff. Co-sign on all the Morrow thoughts, in particular; there is a scared, scarred part of me that still expects him to turn back into a pumpkin.
Hilarious that these two turkeys got the ESPN nod. It actually won't be the worst thing to have some national sunlight shine on our current insanities. If Nellie again gives Vlad as many center minutes as Randolph, millions of people will essentially catch him masturbating.
Hollinger on the woes of these two teams:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-091218
(I don't think you need to be an Insider to read it? Hard to tell, as I am one. Sorry to pull rank, everyone.)
Post a Comment