Published: January 17, 2009
-Coach Tapscott mentioned before the game that if the Wizards were completely healthy they would play a style similar to the Knicks, because that’s how the team was built. The lineup would be Gilbert Arenas at the point guard position who would do the heavy lifting in the scoring department; DeShawn Stevenson at the shooting guard, who would guard the opposing team’s best guard/small forward; Caron Butler would provide scoring from the small forward position; Antawn Jamison would grab rebounds and score from the power forward spot; and Brendan Haywood would rebound, score occasionally and play solid interior defense. Tapscott remarked that if the Wizards were at full strength, he would be more inclined to try and beat the Knicks at their own game. Tapscott also likened his injury-riddled team to a 50-year-old man. You’re not quite what you used to be, but you learn go through an alteration of style, and figure out how to maximize what you do have.
-The three things Coach Tapscott talked to his team about after the loss to the Knicks on Wednesday night were: 1) A change in pick and roll defense, 2)Improving on rebounding so the Knicks didn’t get even more shots than they usually do and 3) Control the tempo, so the Knicks didn’t run the Wizards off the court with their run and gun style. Tonight, the Wizards did a much better job of making the pick-and-roll plays more difficult to convert, by guarding their men much more tightly than they did during Wednesday night’s loss. They were still outrebounded by seven, but instead of allowing the Knicks to shoot 60% like they had on Wednesday, they only allowed them to shoot 37%. This defense helped the Wizards to control the tempo, and only allow 89 points, instead of the 115 points a game they had been giving up against the Knicks.
-Prior to the game I saw Washington Wizards announcer Phil Chenier and New York Knicks announcer Walt “Clyde” Frazier talking at the dinner table right next to me. In the 1970’s, Chenier and Frazier, who were both guards, had many legendary battles against one another. 30 years later, these guys can sit across from one another as friends, and just talk about their respective teams, their battles and life in general.
-Wizards center Andray Blatche had a strong first half with 10 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals, and he seemed to be on his way to a monster game; however, in the second half, he only played a total of six minutes, and he grabbed one rebound and scored three more points. Coach Tapcott said that Darius Songalia was doing a better job at defending the pick and roll, and even though he wasn’t scoring as much as Blatche, defense is what was really needed in the second half.
-I know I cover and see Antawn Jamison often, but it is still amazing to watch him maneuver in the low post. Despite being relatively undersized at the power forward position, Jamison numbers constantly hovers around a double-double, and he is able to get his shot off whenever he wants. When Jamison gets the ball in the post, he backs his man down slowly, then he turns to make his move, and shoots the ball on his way up, before the defender can jump up and block the shot. If his post game is not working for him, Jamison is just as comfortable shooting from beyond the arc, which gives him an advantage at the power forward slot. He truly deserves to be an All-Star. Tonight he led the team with 28 points and 8 rebounds, despite playing with a bruised hand.
-In the the third quarter, the New York Knicks outscored the Washington Wizards 35-21 and they shot 63% from the field, after shooting 28% in the first half. They were led by Wilson Chandler with 11 points and David Lee who had seven points and five rebounds. The pattern for the Washington Wizards in so many of their 31 losses had been to get a lead, lose the lead, then to fall just short of winning. Tonight, the Wizards withstood the Knicks’ charge in the third quarter, then turned around and outscored the Knicks 26-17 in the fourth quarter. When asked how it felt to finally overcome that hurdle, Tapscott said, “It feels terrific, but most of all I’m happy for our players. We’ve got some good players, and some young guys who are learning and developing. And any time you have some adversity, and you get your rhythm back and finish games it builds confidence.”
-David Lee was an absolute beast tonight with 15 points and 21 rebounds. He was perfect from the field, and he seemed to grab every rebound in sight. The amazing thing about Lee is that the Knicks did not run a single low post play for him, yet he still managed to score and stay active. Lee was able to grab so many rebounds, because the Wizards centers (Blatche, McGee and Songalia) thrive outside the paint, while Lee rarely leaves it. If Brendan Haywood and Etan Thomas were healthy, they would provide Lee with more of a challenge.
-During many of my game notes about the Washington Wizards, I have been highly critical of the point guard play, and I often point to that as the reason the Wizards lose and get severely outplayed. Tonight, the reason the Wizards came from behind and won was because of point guard Mike James. He hit two big three-pointers in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter. The first one brought the Wizards within one point, and the second one extended their lead to four points
-Caron Butler (11 points) and Nick Young (13 points) shot a combined 9-for-25 from the field, but they still did the little things to help the Wizards win this evening. Butler dished out seven assists, and he also scored the last five points of the night for the Wizards, all of which came off of isolation plays that Coach Tapscott called for him, despite his recent slump. Nick Young who was coming off of back-to-back career 30 point nights, and he had an impressive sequence where he blocked Chris Duhon’s layup on one end of the floor, then ran back down the court, and hit a shot that gave that the Wizards the lead for good. After the game, Coach Tapscott joked, “I think Nick surprised himself with that one.”
-I got a chance to interview current New York Knicks, and former Washington Wizards forward Jared Jeffries after the game as he walked towards the team bus. I’ll be sure to have that up on the site before the weekend is over.
-Coach Eddie Tapscott was asked how he felt about missing the inauguration of Barack Obama due to the Wizards’ upcoming West Coast trip and his feelings were mixed. “From a historic sense, there is the sense that it would be really nice to be here to participate and see this personally, ” Tapscott said. “At the same time this is the NBA, and you always have a job to do, and when you aren’t winning, the nice thing about the NBA is you always have redemption..and I can tell you in that locker room when we won at Houston, a good team on the road, a big win, that was a great feeling and I want to replicate that as soon as I can, so I have mixed feelings.”
-When the Wizards were losing in the third quarter, and seemingly headed towards their 32nd loss, Washington Post writer Ivan Carter had already basically written his story. Once the Wizards starting coming back, he had to change it. Carter joked to Nick Young, “The more you all came back, the more I kept hitting delete, delete, delete.” I laughed when I heard Carter say this, because my game notes reflected that same type of despair, until the Wizards started to get hot in the fourth quarter.
-Coach Tapscott has a saying that he’s told the media many time both before and after games. It goes, “When you lose, teach, and when you win, reward.” Before he ended his post game press conference, Tapscott joked, “I am so happy not to be teaching tomorrow.” He also gave his team the day off on Saturday.
Final score - Wizards 96, Knicks 89
Photo Credit: Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos
