Four thoughts after the Wizards’ fiery – and I mean, they had a flame-infused opening montage and a hanging Wizards sign that spewed fire during pregame introductions – home-opening win over not-very-good New Jersey, 123-104.
Before the game, Washington head coach Flip Saunders talked about Gilbert Arenas still trying to find a balance between making plays himself and for others: “When he gets into trouble is when he predetermines what he’s going to do. I think he can’t predetermine, ‘Well, I’m going look for an assist on this play.’ Those are things that just kind of happen. But the more he plays with our guys, the more it’s going to happen.”
Afterward Saunders was shocked that he fielded a half-dozen questions before anyone asked about his best player: “I think it’s a very unique situation that I’ve been here about eight minutes and no one’s mentioned anything about Gil. he did have 32 points and 7 assists.” Fair point.
How about Andray Blatche? He had a late-night workout with assistant coach Sam Cassell on Wednesday, and the savvy showed itself against New Jersey. He’s averaging 21.0 points after three games. Saunders was asked, had you seen those moves before?
“He hadn’t seen them either, and if he didn’t make the shots, he wasn’t going to have the chance to do them again. [Smile.] For the most part, he played really well. He played within himself. I think it was one of those nights where he really felt it. He got the ball in the post, and what I really liked is, I’ve always said when you become very good offensively, and you look at Gil at times, it almost looks like you’re doing your moves in slow motion around the basket. His moves down there were very methodical, where you had the defense as far as he ends up being wide open at the rim on some of his moves.”
Okay, so the hustle Mike Miller is what the Wizards need and thankfully, are going to get. He still did hit two of three 3-point attempts.
“People don’t know,” said Randy Foye. “People look at Mike as a shooter. Mike can rebound, and Mike can really pass the ball. It shocks people most of the time because he’s been in the league for ten years now. You would think that people would say, this guy, he’s not only a shooter, he’s a playmaker. But they still let him make plays, and he does his thing.”
My favorite bucket of the night was Fabricio Oberto putting the ball behind him between his legs to set up Arenas for a three-pointer.
“Don’t put it out there,” said Oberto. “I use it a lot. In all my years, you learn tricks, different things, and I like to pass the ball, and sometimes you get lucky.”
