No heart.

[Chachie]

I'm sorry to say it, but game 2 was over at half-time. The Chicago Bulls play almost PERFECT basketball against us and will continue to get every bounce of the ball through this series. The Wizards have no idea how to keep up with a team that is so elementary and robotic in their CONSTANT diligence to controlled offense and control-ING defense.
The Bulls had time to decide what they wanted to and execute it on almost every posession because as soon as one of them set a pick, the Wizards' defense went into "observation mode." They didn't learn ONE lesson from game 1 and their quotes from between games should have warned us of it.

Now give me a minute. I'm not in doom-mode YET, but i do have a couple more points.

I think we DEFINITELY are paying the price for allowing "freestyle talent" to lull us all into a false sense of security. Chicago clearly knows what they want to accomplish when they bring the ball up court and Washington clearly does not and it gets worse when they get behind.

I also have to speak up and say who I "blame" (I use the term lightly) for being down 0-2. Gilbert Arenas and ... (gulp) Eddie Jordan.
Gilbert Arenas REFUSES to play defense. He truly doesn't believe he needs to.'Nuff said.
Eddie Jordan is being outcoached oncourt, but more importantly-- in practice/meetings. Skiles has prepared a team to go the distance. Jordan is sucking his thumb.
Also- Juan Dixon is trying hard and having flashes, but they need to get him off the floor. He's out of his league right now. It hurts me to watch him get lit up like this.
The mental weakness is showing on every Wizard but Juan, who keeps going at least. The foul-cries, the frustration-fouls, the pouting and for GOD'S SAKE the BANDAGES (pathetic excuses) are piling up and demonstrating total bewilderment.

Our 3 big men are losing the battle to ONE Bull. Antonio Davis, playoff veteran and experienced hustler. He's taking them to school. I don't know what's up with Ruffin, maybe the plantar fascitis is bad, but I'd REALLY like to see him break a sweat. I can't remember seeing him after the first qtr.

I am a devout Bullets/Wizards fan and have loved them longer than most of you have breathed, but I gotta stay realistic about this team and their progress. They need to take a LONG look inside and decide if they have "it", because Chicago does. We are the weakest, most lost-looking team in the playoffs right now.

[Newera]

The Wiz need to play Blake in this series. He is the only pass first mentality person the team has -- and he makes an effort to get everyone involved.

Gil and Larry feel they have to do everything and that just want work against the Bulls. Quite frankly it's playing right into their hands. Basically we are playing two on five.

Larry never passes the ball on the break. He's always looking to get fouled when a simple dump off pass would result in an assist and an easy layup. Both he and Gil are taking forced shots because of th Bulls defense. When they drive they looking to get fouled or score. Whereas Blake penetrates to dish. Thus, get the bigs more involved.

I think a three guard rotation of Hughes, Blake and Areanas could have some success in this series. Right now Eddie Jordan is clueless as to what to do. I never has been a Jordan basher, but he's making me one now. We are simply getting outcoached.

The fact we play piss poor defense is a just reflection of him and no one else. How many times are we not going to try and step thru the screen and not give Henrich and Gordan easy jumpers. That is shameful.

How many times do we look clueless on the pick and roll. How many open jumpers did we give up. If we make no adjustments, this series is over.

Skiles is just a better coach then Jordan . . . period. Because Blake is the teams best passer, he needs to play. We need ball distribution against this team. . . and not one on one play.

What did our bigs do in game two?

The problem is we can't change who we are. We have not played defense all season, whereas the Bulls have. They step through screens or run you over.

Since the Bulls have such great perimeter shooters we have to step thru. Geez, how many open looks did we give Henirch.

Just sad. Perhaps it will make us realize we still have a way's to go. I really do wonder what Grunfield's assessment is of this team.

[hands11]

ok. so maybe me and some others werent so crazy for pointing out much of these short commings a long time ago.

Even when we were winning.

I hope now everyone is seeing what we were talking about.
Its not that we dont love the Wiz, we were just being honest about what we saw as mistakes.

Let me just put this out there. Anything is possible, but after watching 1 1/2 games, I already concluded, Chicago is a better
TEAM. And they also have some nice solid talent.

They have a sound coach.
They have a fundimentally sound PG who can pass, shot, defend, and runs a sound offense. One that is based on high screen that punish the other teams guards and free up thier guard to run the offense. They have a coach who has instilled over the course of a season, a great defensive, team oriented scheme. If your fundimentally sound, you have a better chance to over performing during the playoffs. If your not, you probably will underperform.

These guys are the patriots. Well, at least compared to us they are.

Realistically, its to late for us to change. This is what Ive been posting for a while now. EJ just didnt learn quick enough and we were getting by on raw talent, no smart coaching.

Gil and Hughes never worked out one of them always being the PG. We never got a defense that worked. Gil never worked on his defense. AJ feet are to slow to get good a D. Our offensive scheme is totally useless given our talent. We dont have a PG as good as thiers nor do we have JK.

Chicago is very balanced and sound. They just keep coming.

We arent. We frelance and go on spurts.

That's why we cant blow somone off the court. Yeah we came back but, again, like I said before the playoffs started, you dont come back in teh playoffs like you can in the req season. At least not quickly. We went from 12-13 up to 20 down over 2 quarters.

Honestly. Im not that upset. It was kind of funny to realize that. I got to thinking about why Im not and I guess its because, I saw all these problems a long time ago so I guess Im not really shocked. Thats why I was saying, we have a very thin margin of error to get it together in time. We have the talent to have turned to curner very quickly, but the fact that we didnt, doesnt suprise me.

Now, seeing Chicago play a few times. Well, they have it down already. Its doing to be hard for us to get that fundimentally sound, in the next few days, they have been working this out all season.

It isnt looking good people.

And yes. I have been, along with others, blame EJ for most of this.

He is the head Tuna. Skiles has his boys in line. He instilled and coached this team to play this way. EJ hasnt gotten the job done.

[TODD]

Gilbert and Juan KILLED us on defense last night. They showed no defensive intensity. No sense of urgency at any point of the game. Our offense became irrelevant by halfway through the third quarter because we weren't making any stops. Any. Most of that can be attributed to that dumbass double team defense.

Third quarter, for whatever reason, we were completely off balance on defense.

And props to hands, who said we needed to run those high screen and rolls. We ran them very well with Haywood in the first quarter and we had a 29 point output because of it. It also helped on defense because we slowed the tempo a little bit when the Bulls would get the ball back.

The Wizards major flaw is that we can't put together an entire... anything. Game. Half. Even an entire quarter. We're too uneven. I'm not mad, just disappointed.

[Chachie]

It's funny, because I'm not mad either. After last night, what's to get mad about? The flaws on our team are so glaring that it would do no good to get angry. It would be like expecting to much from a troubled child. The Bulls are SUPPOSED to be where they are. The Wizards don't even belong in the postseason and don't look capable of regaining composure or GAINING a defense.

If we win the first home game, everyone will say "we can do it" but don't do that to yourselves. The Wiz aren't ready to win a series. Neither is Eddie Jordan.

(edit)- Oh, and BTW.. Etan Thomas should NEVER be allowed to handle the ball until it comes off the rim. Never.

[Skins11]

If Scott Skiles had Gilbert and Larry on his team, the score wouldn't have been close.

God, we need to run plays, we need players to move without the ball, not just set picks 4 feet behind the 3 point line or pass it back and fourth back there. This is our typical possession:

1. Pass it to someone behind the 3 pt line, or have them set a pick behind
2. Hughes/Arenas gets the ball back. If there was a pick, it was ineffective
3. Hughes/Arenas tries to break down their defender one on one


And of course, we have no defense. Like the Redskins defense two years ago. This season, our opponents outscored us overall, even though we had a winning record! That should not happen...

And please, please cover the guy who is hot, like Hinrich :doh:

[ezdude1970]

all good points, i was hoping due to curry and deng injury we might have a slim chance, but we are getting outplayed, outcoached, outperformed.

couple things we might consider for next year, let hughes and k. brown go maybe package them nicely to get a true point guard and power forward, move arenas to 2 guard and move jamison to small forward, let haywood to play more minutes.

oh and the most important thing let e. jordan go!!!

[tundey]

Lots of funny posts. Amazing how many posters know exactly that one thing that'll fix what ails the wizards.

[VMAN911]

One Problem we have is the signing of Etan Thomas to that huge Contract.... The Guy has been a liability this year and especially THIS Playoff series:doh: He should never and I mean never be allowed the ball on offense unless hes putting back a rebound!! guy has no Offensive move and Cant Shoot Free Throws. His only contribution to this team is an occational blocked shot or dunk. I truly believe that Michael Ruffin should come off the bench before E. Thomas. Ruffin works harder, plays better defense, and hussles more than Thomas and Q.Brown combined!

[Chachie]

Originally posted by tundey
Lots of funny posts. Amazing how many posters know exactly that one thing that'll fix what ails the wizards.

That's it? THAT's your contribution to the conversation?

11 posts and he's already a wiseguy.