Wiz vs. Raps, Mar. 30: Ouch

miestersean — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 04:33:52 -0000

I was in Section 426 (upper deck, the view is right behind one of the baskets--not the best spot) for this one, man was it exciting. Here are some thoughts that I posted elsewhere on the web:

* Game started slow, then the Raps were draining shots, and then they weren't. The Wiz didn't look to be in much of a flow with the Big 3 on-and-off all night. The TOs from the Raps were a godsend, though--we had great open-court play.
* A friend of mine was yelling at Ruffin/EJ the entire game...can't blame him after what happened. The arena was in complete shock for about 30 seconds...and I knew it was going in once the shot went up. Wow. That sucked. I could only hold my head in my hands...
* Bosh getting hot in the OT doomed us...why was Ruffin playing star minutes? Brendan, Etan, and Calvin got the shaft in terms of PT tonight. And I didn't see a single good play from Ruffin all night. Ouch...
* TJ Ford, Anthony Parker, and Joey Graham all gave us huge problems. Those guys can shoot, especially wide-open jumpers, man. TJ broke us down with penetration, as any guard does due to Gilbert getting beat by dribble penetration continually.
* We missed Blatche for guarding Bosh...he was raising up effortlessly over Etan, AJ, and Ruffin of course--over Booth and Brendan, I can't make a judgment, since they didn't get more than 10 minutes each.
* There were some absolutely electrifying moments--Arenas's later-discounted 3 at the end of the 3rd was probably the best one. We were screaming our heads off for at least thirty seconds...

(Less serious stuff from the game follows...)

* The jumbotron was pretty annoying--they refused to show replays of any key plays and instead rolled contrived highlight reel tape from random games in the season. Bleh.
* People in the 400's were NOT standing up during that nail-biting sequence in the end of the fourth, while the entire lower bowl was on their feet. People still don't seem to be that enthusiastic about games at the Verizon Center.
* G-Man is awesome (he can throw wadded-up T-shirts really far), G-Wiz is all right. They had this b-boy/girl crew come out that was pretty cool.
* They put a lot of ice in their sodas at the VC.
* There was a funny clip on the jumbotron about which Wiz looked at himself in the mirror the most. Unanimous decision: DeShawn Stevenson.
* Does anyone else think TJ Ford sorta looks like Tiger Woods? Very few of my friends did: here's my evidence.
* A really fun game to be at (I got really caught up in the moments, though now obviously I've leveled out emotionally by now)...I hope the Wiz can regroup after this...that OT was just a formality, we lost after that ball swished past that glaring red square...

Wiz @ Toronto, Jan. 31, 2007 -- Game Recap

miestersean — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 23:44:40 -0000

[Editor's Note: From the diaries. Thanks to mistersean for (pardon the cliche) stepping up and posting this. -Pradamaster

In the beginning of the game, all of Toronto's shooters started getting hot. Anthony Parker, Joey Graham, Chris Bosh, José Calderón (with his only move, a cross-over and a lay-up) were all feasting on our inexistent covering of perimeter shooters. We were slow on defense, and that led to innumerable open jumpers for Toronto's mass of shooters. On offense, we had a hard time getting into a rhythm, as happens frequently whenever the other team hits shots and doesn't turn it over. I'm of the opinion that we need a couple steals or long rebounds to get our attacking offense in gear. Without it, we often settle for jump shots and the offense gets stagnant, which is what happened in the first quarter yesterday.

For the rest of the game, Toronto continued to hold us off at around a 10-point deficit. We were pushing and trying to gain momentum, but whenever we got it to 8 or 6, someone from the Raps, often Bosh or Calderón, who were both superb, would drain an energy-sapping jumper and soon enough we would be back down 14 again, trying to claw back into it. It was much like the first game at Toronto--the game was always in our reach, but we could never get enough stops to sustain a real run.

(Details after the jump.)

As for individual performances, Jarvis shot well from the field, settling into a pull-up jump shooter role, shooting on-balance J's after being fed by one of his teammates. Jarvis didn't force much off the dribble on his own, and instead helped move the ball around, which I liked. Cal Booth was fairly effective as a starting PF, playing decent defense, rebounding well, and even hitting jumpers at the start, though he started missing open shots after that. Gil got to the line very well, but had another sub-par shooting night. Caron had an good shooting night, but often had irritating fumble turnovers.

Brendan had a good game offensively and on the boards, but as a whole the Wiz bigs had no luck guarding Chris Bosh, who hit his last 15 FGs to end the game, mostly swished turn-around jump shots, eerily reminiscent of Sheed the night before. A highlight reel play capped off his spectacular night--he spun and faked the [stuff] out of Andray during our garbage time and slammed it down, with an emphatic "Wooo!" ensuing in the aftermath. That discouraging play sums up the night well--we were tired from the game and traveling the night before, and just couldn't overcome the surging Raps, who have now won 8 of their last 11.

SB Nation User Blog: miestersean

Wiz vs. Raps, Mar. 30: Ouch

Wiz @ Toronto, Jan. 31, 2007 -- Game Recap