- Reality stinks, especially without John Wall. As good as the Wizards looked on Tuesday when Gilbert Arenas’s shot was falling and the opponent had an underwhelming inside presence, there was just no flow in Tuesday’s defeat against a team that was superior at every position. Arenas may have been able to trade shots with Ray Allen once, but not all night, not anymore. Andray Blatche was snuffed out of the game like a wet match while Al Thornton and Kirk Hinrich had to work so hard for buckets that it was hugely demoralizing every time the Wizards immediately gave up a bucket to an extremely hot-shooting Boston team at the other end.
- The effort was there, particularly during the deciding Celtics run in the second quarter, and particularly from JaVale McGee, who was hunting offensive rebounds like his was playing a first-person shooter and was also trying as hard as he could defensively. But the rotations and the luck were not on the Wizards’ side, and once Boston got the homecourt breaks it needed, Washington was done. The Wizards closed the deficit to 41-38, but look at the next string of possessions:
Boston – Long two-pointer from Kevin Garnett (43-38)
Washington – Poor miss from Blatche
Boston – Marquis Daniels with a garbage bucket after McGee blocked Rajon Rondo from behind (45-38)
Washington – Nick Young miss
Boston – Garnett slams home a deflected pass that falls right into his path to the bucket (47-38)
A couple more poor decisions at the offensive end for Blatche – who lashed out when asked about his shot selection after the Raptors game – and the margin was well into double-digits and out of reach.
3. Guess the numbers are going to be skewed again. Wizards head coach Flip Saunders talked after the Toronto victory about how his team had steadily brought down its defensive field goal percentage over the course of the Houston, Charlotte and Chicago games, even though Washington had lost two out of those three. Well, it’s going back up, by a lot.
But the numbers aren’t where the Wizards need to focus, especially not the numbers from the games this season against the teams that are going to be the last ones standing in the playoffs next spring. Nearly everything didn’t work against the Celtics. The lesson is simply that the Celtics are not only vastly better than the Wizards, they’re playing vastly better, too. Just as there should’ve been no overreaction after the win over the Raptors, too much shouldn’t be made of this loss even though man, it was ugly.
