Pat’s NBA Playoff Preview

Eastern Conference

#1 Chicago Bulls vs. #8 Philadelphia 76ers

John Wall’s Season

 

The centerpiece of the Wizards team is without question John Wall.  So when I decided to make a Wiz post after a number of Terps posts, I decided to post a quick update on the best hope for the future.  Coming into the year, he was coming off a fairly successful rookie season, finishing after only fellow #1 pick Blake Griffin.  In addition, he impressed in a number of summer league games and needless to say the expectations were high.  The early going was rough for John and the team as they lost their first eight and Wall struggled with a jumper he had spent his whole summer working on.  Since then, the team has undergone a coaching change, accrued a few wins, and a lot of losses.  But has Wall managed to overcome a poor start to the season?

Wiz Hang Tough, Clippers Pull Away Late

In a game that can only be described as physical (actually it can be described as a lot of things, thats just the adjective i picked), the Clippers out bullied the Wizards to a resounding 102-84 victory. This was actually a really fun game to watch as the Wizards put a lot of effort into this one and the Clips were kind of sloppy. The score is not indicative of the game as the Wiz lead changed hands multiple times till about midway through the 4th when the Clippers pulled away. Caron Butler shot well for the Clips to the tune of 21 points, while Blake Griffin bullied the Wizards for 23 even with Booker playing good defense on him. Really with NBA rules its impossible to stop Griffin with his strength and quickness because he can basically run you over as an offender but if you have the slightest contact on him its a foul. I am not complaining, but this does just make it nearly impossible to guard a guy that big and quick. For the Wiz, Nick Young and Crawford predictably cooled off from the night before but that didn’t stop them from taking a combined 33 shots (making 10). Booker and Wall both played well as Booker seems to be establishing himself as the 2nd best player on the team. This was a good effort by the Wiz though even in a loss, it’s good to see them give a solid effort and put up a good performance on the road.

Wizards at Clippers: Wiz Kids Head to Lob City, Hoping to Win 3rd Straight

Who: Washington Wizards at Los Angeles Clippers

When: 10 P.M. ET

Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California

Spread: Clippers -13

Our Wizards are riding high after winning 2 straight after their beatdown of the Portland Trailblazers last night (my bad forgot to do the post game). It was actually the best game of the season, the Wizards shot nearly 60 percent from the field and even Jordan Crawford was hitting shots. Tonight should be another exciting game as they go up against the high-flying Clippers. As always when we play the Clippers I look forward to seeing Javale McGee jump with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan (somebody is going to get dunked on badly in one of these matchups). The Wizards have actually been playing fairly well the last few games so hopefully they wont get run out of the building like the last time they matched up against this Clippers team.

NBA News and Notes: Billups Out for The Year With Torn Achilles

I know this isn’t a local team but it was national news worth talking about and we cover everything here at the Beltway Sports Blog! But anyways Chauncey Billups the shooting guard for the L.A. Clippers got hurt last night and while everybody hoped for the best, we found out the worst today as he was diagnosed with a torn achilles and will be out for the remainder of the season. Now this is a pretty big blow to the Clippers as he was probably the 3rd best player behind Paul and Griffin. Not only that but he is also a great veteran leader and of course is known for his big shot heroics late in games.

Same Effort, One Night Later

Well just as I predicted the Wizards played up to their opponent last night and stayed close with the Clippers throughout the whole game only to lose on a last second Billups 3! So basically I could just copy and paste yesterdays recap into todays, the only difference is they played a tougher opponent last night and got blown out by even more, but the basic effort and product was the same for the Wizards. The Wizards lost 107-81 to the Clippers in a laugher that was not even that close as the Clips were up by 25 at half. It’s tough to take much from this game on an individual player basis because this was almost just an exhibition, but really as a team it’s just getting embarrassing. Being 4-20 is bad enough, but not even competing in more than half the games is pretty inexcusable for NBA players. But I don’t really want to talk about this game anymore because it will only make me angrier and it’s already taken me longer to write this post than it did for the Wizards to get down by double digits last night. Hopefully we get em next time!