Ivan Carter nailed it in his blog post today on the subject of JaVale McGee's recent DNP-CDs. 

Interim coach Ed Tapscott explained his decision not to play McGee last night by saying he would've been a bad matchup against a Raptors team that has big men who play a lot on the outside (Andrea Bargnani and Chris Bosh).

"It's all based on matchups, flow of the game and strategy," Tapscott. "Nothing he's done wrong, he's working hard."

But that doesn't explain why McGee didn't see the floor against Dwight Howard in Orlando or against Cleveland on Sunday.

Tapscott's explanation is, as Ivan pointed out, a load of something-that-rhymes-with-fit.  It's true that McGee would have struggled mightly against a guy like Andrea Bargnani or Chris Bosh.  With McGee's length and lack of lateral quickness, you do want him close to the basket, which isn't going to happen much against Toronto.  But don't come here and tell me that the reason he isn't playing is because of some lame "matchups" excuse.  Etan Thomas can't match up with those guys either, and it's not like Jake Voskhul (who did play 16 minutes) is shooting three-pointers himself.

We've heard this silliness before, remember?

I know folks are wondering why JaVale McGee, who opened the game by swatting away two Derrick Rose shots on the first possession, only clocked 11 minutes. I was wondering the samee thing and asked Coach Ed Tapscott that very question afterward:

Tapscott: "The flow of the game and again (Bulls center Aaron) Gray is not a good matchup for him. They didn't play (Joakim) Noah. That would've been a good matchup. You know, similar style of game, speed guys. Gray is a guy who can get into your body and JaVale is better against those speed guys. Big, wide-body guys give him trouble simply because he's not real big physically and he's still learning the tricks of the trade, how to use his body and hold guys off.

To recap: according to Tapscott, Aaron Gray is a bad matchup for McGee, Cleveland's surplus of non-scoring bigs (including J.J. Hickson) are bad matchups for McGee, back-to-the-basket center Dwight Howard is a bad matchup for McGee AND face-up guys like Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani are bad matchups for McGee.  This begs the question: who exactly is a GOOD matchup for McGee?  Because from the sounds of it, Tapscott has basically said that every single type of player McGee could face is a bad matchup for him.  And that's just lovely.  You couldn't script a better way to break a 19-year old's confidence than to say in the press that every type of matchup is a bad matchup for him.

Look, I understand that McGee's not playing like he did at the beginning of the year.  All the problems identified from the Summer League are coming back.  He's undisciplined, slow laterally, gets pushed around on the boards and fumbles a ton of passes.  But for all those seemingly obvious problems, McGee still grabs a higher percentage of rebounds than Etan Thomas, whose supposed strength is his rebounding.  JaVale's criticized for his lack of hands, yet his turnover rate is half of what Etan's is right now.  And for all of Etan's supposed grit on the defensive glass, the Wizards are grabbing a higher percentage of defensive rebounds with JaVale in than with Etan in.  In short, JaVale's way better than Etan for the role this team needs him to fill and he's only 21 years old. 

Yes, Etan is more "consistent," if you will, and yes, coaches tend to reward reliablity over inconsistency.  But when we talk about Etan's consistency, it really just means the following

• He'll get one slam dunk on an offensive rebound, prompting us to overvalue his toughness
• He'll fumble two passes that should be dunks and instead will be turnovers
• He'll bring the ball down on two offensive rebounds (a cardinal sin), which will ultimately lead to turnovers    
  
• He'll attempt two ugly jump hooks that won't come close to going in
• He'll screw up pick and roll coverage, failing to hedge far enough and ushering guys down the lane
• He'll keep swinging his elbows on rebounds, making it seem like he's bringing the toughness needed to defensive rebound.  In reality, he's just slowing down our transition game.

Without fail, these things happen with Etan.  So yes, he's consistent, but consistently bad.  Heart problems or no heart problems, this is what you'll always get with Etan.  The only difference is that he maybe grabbed a couple more rebounds and had a couple more dunks in the past.  Maybe. 

We have to face facts.  We're now 7-27 after the loss to Toronto.  McGee may make us cringe sometimes, but at least he won't be consistently bad like Etan with no room to grow.  And if he does have bad games, who cares?  We aren't making the playoffs anyway and you'll allow him to grow into the role he can fill. 

Development.  Ain't it grand?

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Post Recap
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Live Blog (scroll down)
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Raptors Republic
Raptors HQ
Hoops Addict's game notes
Toronto Star
Doug Smith

Highest Plus/Minus: Javaris Crittenton (+3 in just under 27 minutes)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Dominic McGuire (-10 in just under 24 minutes)
Best Five Man Unit: Javaris Crittenton, Nick Young, Dominic McGuire, Antawn Jamison, Darius Songaila (+6 in first 2:42 of the fourth quarter)
Worst Five Man Unit: Mike James, Caron Butler, Dominic McGuire, Antawn Jamison, Andray Blatche (-9 in first 9:06 of the game)

Four Factors:

Photo of the game:

(AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

Game Thread comment of the game: "'It looked like Etan failed to come out on the shooter.  Send him to the doghouse!" by Bucky Katt.

I'd probably be more enraged by this loss if we weren't 7-26 already.  Too many bad things have happened this year that have sapped a lot of my ranting energy. 

Toronto was missing Jose Calderon, Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon.  Their starting point guard was playing in Europe last year.  Their starting small forward played less than nine minutes per game last year.  Jake Voskhul, of all people, played 16 minutes in this game.  And we still lost, falling way behind early and never catching up.

The way a team starts a game is extremely important in setting the tone for the rest of the contest.  Yes, every point is worth the same, but you establish trends early that often last throughout the game.  In about nine minutes, the starting lineup fell behind by nine points and established the trend of lethargy that became impossible to overcome.  The unit of Mike James, Dominic McGuire, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison and Andray Blatche was on the court for 15 offensive possessions in the first quarter.  Only three of those ended with a shot inside of 18 feet.  Toronto is not a big team, particularly with Andrea Bargnani in the middle, yet everyone was content to run the offense half-heartedly and force long jumpers.  Meanwhile, Toronto, a team who consistently has strong shooting percentages with poor free throw rates (aka, they're a jump-shooting team), was allowed open look after open look from the perimeter.  They drive to kick out to open shooters, yet we kept overhelping.  It's no wonder we fell behind by nine and never recovered.

Look at the Four Factors sheet.  The two areas where Toronto held a huge advantage was with their shooting percentage (a direct result of a ton of open shots) and on the free throw line.  The Wizards' free-throw rate for this game was pathetic and a direct result of the lack of offensive aggression early.  The two trends established by the lethargic play of the first unit could never be overcome.  

The one bright spot was Javaris Crittenton's minutes.  He played quite well down the stretch, particularly on defense.  He has no shot and struggles to finish, but he's a far better passer and defender than he's looked.  Let's hope that keeps up.

Otherwise, this game sucked royally.  The lethargy of the starting unit set a bad tone for the rest of the game.

Yay fourth quarter!  Yay Javaris Crittenton!  Yay to us actually playing our best at the end!

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Boo everything else.  Toronto stinks and they were missing three starters.  We should have won this one.

According to Ivan, Andray Blatche is back in the starting lineup and everyone is all square.  Well, I guess that makes the diatribe below seem pretty pointless. 

Game's now.  The ultimate sign of disrespect: we've been banished to CSN+ so they can show Maryland-Morgan State on CSN.  Ouch.

GO WIZARDS!

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Highest Plus/Minus: Dominic McGuire (+8)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Andray Blatche (-12)
Best Five Man Unit: Mike James, Caron Butler, Dominic McGuire, Antawn Jamison, Darius Songaila (+6 to start the 3rd Quarter)
Worst Five Man Unit: Juan Dixon, Mike James, Antawn Jamison, Andray Blatche, Darius Songaila (-5 to end the 2nd Quarter)

Four Factors:

Photo of the game:

(AP Photo/John Raoux)

Game Thread comment of the game: "'Crazy Elbows' is Etan's Indian Name" by Aldo.

I don't have much to say about this game.  We couldn't score in the second quarter because our idiot guards (including Butler) kept dribbling right into the Magic's trap and we couldn't find a way to move the ball.  In addition, nobody cleared the zone for isolation attempts, which led to a lot of Andray Blatche channeling his inner point guard (poorly).  We then ralled because Caron Butler had an uncharacteristically ridiculous shooting night.  Love Tuff Juice, but that's the only reason we stayed in it.  That and Orlando's odd insistence of going away from Dwight Howard.  Make no mistake about it, we didn't stop Dwight.  Orlando stopped him. 

The bigger issue is the Blatche situation, which bothers me to no end and caused me to go into this game with a lack of enthusiasm.  More on this below the jump.

Continue reading this post »

I was all ready to unleash an epic rant about this team, but then we actually kept things somewhat close.  So that rant will come tomorrow. 

I don't know what's more impressive.  Six points in a quarter, or only losing by nine despite that. 

Post-game comments go here for now.  I'll write something up tomorrow.

The Essentials:
Wizards (7-25) at Magic (26-8)
7 p.m.
Amway Arena
CSN+

This year:
November 9: Magic 106, Wizards 81

November 27: Magic 105, Wizards 90

Notable Magic numbers this season:
1st in expected winning percentage (.866)
10th in pace factor (92.6 possessions per game)
10th in offensive efficiency/offensive rating (108.2)
3rd in defensive efficiency/defensive rating (100.2)

Key Links: (drop any others in the comments)
Third Quarter Collapse
3QC Game Thread
Wizards Insider: The Other Side: Magic

Starting Lineups:
Wizards
PG: Mike James
SG: Caron Butler
SF: Dominic McGuire
PF: Antawn Jamison
C: Darius Songaila (more on this in a second)

Magic
PG: Jameer Nelson
SG: Courtney Lee
SF: Hedo Turkoglu
PF: Rashard Lewis
C: Dwight Howard

Here's to the Boston-Cleveland-Orlando three-game stretch!  Before we go further though, apparently Darius Songaila is starting tonight.  The reason?  Andray Blatche is healthy, but isn't starting because of "a team matter."  

Songaila replaces Andray Blatche at center in the starting lineup tonight after Blatche had started the last 10 games. Blatche is healthy but when asked the reason for the move, interim coach Ed Tapscott called it a "team matter." I did a little asking around after Tapscott let us know about an hour before tip but wasn't able to find out what exactly "team matter" means. 

Something tells me the "team matter" refers to Blatche asking Tapscott "Hey, I was healthy enough to play most of the Cleveland game, and we were blowing out lead, so why didn't I play down the stretch?"  And it's hard to punish the guy in that case because he's right, right?

Regardless, this better be for an important reason.  If it's not, it's yet another example of this organization placing more emphasis on appeasing its veterans over developing its youngsters.  And seeing as how well Blatche has been playing this season, I don't know how you can justify saying that Songaila actually gives you a better chance to win. 

Ugh, I'm annoyed.

Either way, GO WIZARDS!

One of the advantages of sitting in the 400s at the Verizon Center is that you're able to see the way every play develops from a bird's-eye view.  Sure, you can't appreciate the raw athleticism of the players as much, but it's a great place to sit when you want to look at how an individual player fits into the team scheme. 

It is with that knowledge that I tried to focus on Dominic McGuire on the defensive end during last Sunday's epic win over the Cavs.  Since he was inserted into the starting lineup, it seems we've played better defense, the Boston game and the fourth quarter of the New Orleans game excepted.  Surely, McGuire himself is playing some sort of role, but how much and how well?  

I don't have too many specifics here, but here are some observations from watching McGuire all game:

He closes out on shooters very well

Might as well start with a positive. 

Excluding the Boston game, the Wizards are holding their opponents to just 34 percent from three with McGuire starting.  McGuire's length and quickness allows him to contest threes extremely well, and that's a huge plus.  We complain all the time about our defensive "philosophy" to give up the three, but there's nothing terribly wrong about it.  The failure is in our ability to get people off the three-point line, or at the very least contest their threes and prevent them from getting those shots in rhythm.  McGuire's presence goes a long way to making threes difficult for the opposition.

For most of the game, McGuire was guarding Delonte West, ace three-point extraordinare.  West has always killed us since coming to Cleveland, most notably with his shot to end Game 4 of the playoff series last year.  Last Sunday, however, West was a non-factor.  He hit only one of his five threes and never was able to develop a rhythm of a shot.  Indeed, when he missed that wide-open look that would have given the Cavs the lead, he likely did so because he hadn't gotten going earlier.  McGuire is a big reason for that.

He has trouble fighting through screens

I found it a bit discouraging that McGuire was trailing a lot of off-ball screens, even against guys who don't screen well.  For someone as athletic as McGuire, he didn't do a great job of preventing West or even LeBron James from catching the ball. 

This leads into the next problem, which is...

He's athletic as hell, but not good at playing man-to-man defense in a team setting

Now, I admit that playing LeBron James is a near-impossible task.  In a lot of ways, it shouldn't be a problem that McGuire was torched by the best player on the planet.  But the way in which McGuire was torched was problematic and explains why Caron Butler, who is slow laterally and dumb off the ball, was guarding LeBron most of the game.

We've already talked about just how athletic McGuire is as a defender.  You can see it when he leaps wayyyyy up in the air to grab rebounds.  You can see it when anyone isolates against him and finds that he's right there in your face.  But his brain still has some work to do, as his time against LeBron James showed.

Time after time, LeBron was able to get into the lane easily while McGuire was guarding him.  Now, LeBron can get into the lane against anyone, but what killed me was the ease at which he was able to do it.  At least Caron made him work a little harder. 

Two problems jumped out at me.  The first is that McGuire was really bad at fighting through screens.  He was consistently flattened when Anderson Varejao came to set a high ball screen, making life difficult for the trapping defender.  The Wizards' general philosophy has always been to trap the ball-handler, but that requires the initial defender to at least quickly get through the screen so the big man isn't on LeBron for too long.  McGuire rarely was able to get through the pick quickly enough, which put the big man on LeBron for too long, which led to a blow-by that totally messed up our defense. 

The other problem is McGuire's inability to force LeBron into the help.  Coaches will tell you that the best defensive players are the ones that force an option onto the offensive guy, whether that's shading them into the help, playing back on them to concede the jumper or forcing them to their off hand.  McGuire struggled at times with this, and the one play after Mike Brown's two technicals really exhibited this problem to me.  Cleveland spread the floor with shooters, but only one of them (Delonte West) was on the right side.  Antawn Jamison was playing down at the foul line, while Andray Blatche was shaded to the left side of the lane.  The natural thing to do would be to force LeBron toward Jamison and Blatche.  Instead, McGuire failed to overplay LeBron's right hand, LeBron drove right around McGuire and slammed it home emphatically, since all the help was on the other side. 

In a lot of ways, that made Caron the better defender against LeBron.  The Wizards essentially zone LeBron anyway, so while Butler isn't quick laterally, he is better at forcing LeBron into the help.  McGuire desperately needs to do a better job of that going forward.

McGuire rebounds

We knew this already, but it's worth mentioning again.  Having a guy like McGuire, who has an uncanny ability to grab long rebounds, helps tremendously since teams launch so many threes against us.  One of the bigger problems with the philosophy was that Gilbert Arenas, DeShawn Stevenson and Antonio Daniels were all poor rebounders for their position (well, Arenas is okay).  Caron Butler is decent for a small forward, but he's playing up front more often.  McGuire's defensive rebounding is unbelievable for a small forward/shooting guard.  He grabbed nine defensive rebounds against Cleveland and is hauling in over 20 percent of opponent misses this season. 

Bottom line

Forcing misses and grabbing the rebound are the two ways a good defense is built.  Since he has been inserted into the starting lineup, McGuire's length has caused more missed jumpers and his rebounding has caused more ended possessions when there would have been long offensive rebounds.  That's the good.  The bad is that it seems he's a long way from being the type of lockdown individual defender that we hope.  He needs more practice and more time to undo the bad habits he likely developed in college, when he was so athletic that his ability to fight through screens didn't matter as much. 

He's getting there, no doubt.  And he's so athletic and lengthy that he's able to make a major difference simply by rebounding and closing out on shooters.  But he's not close yet to being Bruce Bowen or Shane Battier. It takes smarts as well as athleticism to be a great lockdown defender.  McGuire has the athleticism, now he needs to develop the smarts.

At least that's what the Cleveland game told me.

My first reaction to the referee's travel call on LeBron James was to turn to my brother and my cousin, give awkward high-fives and annoying repeat the phrase "They called a travel!"  Partially because I couldn't believe it, partially because I wanted to rile up the Cleveland fans in front of me (okay, mostly the first one).  

I won't lie, I didn't exactly come down from that high for a good 15-20 minutes.  The game was so confounding, so nerve-racking, and in the end, the most unexpected call allowed the Wizards to hang on.  It was definitely a little overwhelming being in attendance. 

But once I did calm down, I couldn't help but come back to the reverse-credo that every point at any juncture in the game is worth the same.  For 42 minutes, the Wizards dominated the Cavaliers.  They were crisper, sharper offensively, more fundamentally-sound on the glass, whatever you want to call it.  Six minutes, no matter how bad, rarely erase that.  And even when it does, when you do everything possible to throw away the game, funny things happen that decide the outcome.  For example, Delonte West missing that wide-open three from about the same spot he hit the dagger in Game 4 last year.

Most importantly, I have to go back to that travel.  It was a travel, make no mistake.  LeBron wants to justify it as a crow hop, which conveniently ignores that he took a full step before making his hop, then took at least one and a half more after making the hop.  But was that travel so much more egregious that the ones that supposedly were uncalled in the playoffs?  Was it much more egregious that this one?  Yet this time, the travel was called and a comeback attempt was thwarted.  That's all it took.  That's all it often takes sometimes to win a close game.  You can play so badly down the stretch and still come away with a win thanks to one somewhat-flukeish call.

The important thing for the Wizards to keep in mind is not necessarily improving their ability to play games in the final six minutes, but rather, it is making sure that whatever attention they delegate to improving their play down the stretch doesn't take away from maintaining their play in the first 42 minutes.  Without those first 42 minutes, we aren't even in position to let a referee's traveling call decide the game. 

Same story.  Different result.  Same lesson.  Don't make too much of your struggles down the stretch.  They matter, but not in spite of the other seven-eighths of the game.