Enduring the rebuilding Wizards night after night may be painful, but the trade-off is no lack of excitement or talking points. And I’m not even going to get into the fact that in their 118-116 overtime loss to New York tonight, they didn’t score a single point in overtime until 4 minutes, 46.3 seconds of the 5-minute period had been played.
But let’s just go here: has there ever been a game that hinged so much on the spectacular and the spectacularly frustrating from JaVale McGee?
Wizards head coach Flip Saunders didn’t think so: “He was involved in the last two minutes in numerous plays. He’s probably been in more plays where it counted, whether we won or not, in this game than maybe in his whole career in the NBA so far.”
Forced to come off the bench after showing up late for shootaround earlier in the day, McGee finished with a season-high 18 points, 10 rebounds – to complete his second double-double since the All-Star break – and 5 blocked shots. But for every time that he sent a shot into the second row or dunked home on one of the Wizards season-high 34 team assists, he also got embarrassed defensively by David Lee or Al Harrington or Tracy McGrady, or for that matter, any player willing to employ a pump fake.
McGee suffers from no shortage of heart or determination or willingness. But until he adds defensive discipline and toughness to his resume, there’s no reason for the opposition to run anything fancy offensively. The play, “Run at McGee and if you get blocked once, you probably won’t the second time,” is perfectly sufficient all by itself to snap New York’s eight-game losing streak.
“[McGee] has a tendency when a guy’s head up with him, and he’s facing the guy, he doesn’t want to contest those shots,” said Saunders. “He wants to try and contest from the side because there’s no contact from the side. You’re going to get hit. He’s got to learn to get more where he can take a guy head on and contest from that area.”
At the end of regulation, McGee stuffed Wilson Chandler to preserve a 112-112 tie. But the Knicks had taken a 112-110 ten lead on Harrington’s layup and foul by .McGee
Late in overtime, McGee swatted Lee’s drive to prevent New York from going ahead by two possessions, and he had a chance to tie the game at the free throw line. But then he missed the second of two free throws and got beaten to the bucket by Lee for the game-winner.
“It was like being in regular plays when it’s not that important, but I was just trying to be a good defensive stopper for my team, and I feel like I did it for the most part,” said McGee. “Lee’s a great player. He knew exactly where to put the ball because I’m going to try to block his shot. Nine times out of ten, I’m going to get it so he just put it right in the right spot, and I missed it and it went in.”
“That’s part of the learning process,” said Saunders. “A lot of times, you look at how the team does. He did some spectacular things – we were minus-8 when he was on the floor. It’s the consistency standpoint. That’s why that becomes frustrating at times, but I think the longer he plays, hopefully what’s going to happen the inconsistent play hopefully will become fewer and far between.”
Some other talking points:
Andray Blatche had 26 points to lead the Wizards in scoring for the fifth time in the last six games and finished with a career-high 18 rebounds and 6 assists. But also came very close to completing an ugly triple-double with 8 turnovers.
“This is all new to me,” said Blatche. “I’ve never been the go-to guy. I’ve never been the guy they come to trap. I’m adjusting. I’m learning. I’m getting better. It’s going to be some games like this, but I’m going to go home, watch film and learn how to get better from it.”
“He got frustrated at times,” said Saunders. “I jumped him on the bench. I think he still has a tendency, when things don’t go right, he gets down on himself. If you’re going to be a main guy and the coach is going to throw you the ball, you can’t do that. You’ve got to dig down, be more level-headed in those situations.”
Randy Foye (22 points, 10 assists) was a perfect 8 for 8 from the field in regulation – and 0 for 3 in overtime.
James Singleton left the game in the second quarter with a left ankle sprain, and left the locker room afterward in a walking boot.
Nick Young overcame a triple-team to tie the game, 116-116, with a 3-pointer with 6.4 seconds left in overtime. But the only reason he was on the court was because Al Thornton, Mike Miller and Quinton Ross had all fouled out by then.
“What happens, we brought guys in that play with a great amount of energy,” said Saunders. “So what happens is, when you don’t play with energy, it becomes magnified because you’re out there seeing guys flying all over the place, and if you’re not flying all over the place, it looks like basically you’re lost.”
Where does all that leave us? I have no idea. 20-36, I guess.
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