Okay, let’s just get right to it. JaVale McGee’s mother, Pamela McGee, was brought into the discussion of her son’s development and his misguided attempts “at breaking the monotony” in this Washington Post column today.
Was this a good idea?
“Let’s see,” Denver Nuggets coach George Karl told reporters before his team’s game against the Wizards tonight. “Do I trust [Wizards coach] Flip Saunders, or do I trust a player’s minutes to his mother’s comments?”
The thing is, one, McGee sorta put the dunk controversy behind him with a decent performance in Wednesday’s win over Oklahoma City. Two, he’s got plenty on his plate with the Nuggets, who present both an opportunity and a challenge for him with Nene out (resting a heel injury) for a team that likes to run, go small, and play the pick and roll, which McGee has struggled against defensively. It already seems like so long ago, but that was the reason he sat the final nine minutes against Houston on Monday, not the dunk.
“What they’ll do is they’ll go really small where they might play like a [Al] Harrington at a four and play a power forward as a center and really spread the floor,” Saunders said. “The biggest thing with our bigs, in order for them to stay on the floor tonight, they have to guard pick and rolls for us and get back in transition.”
In Denver’s 120-109 win last year at Verizon Center, Harrington hit six of eight 3-pointers.
The Wizards could respond with more of the three-guard lineup that Saunders said has been the most effective he’s played in the last two games.
“I think it really helped [vs. Oklahoma City] because you’ve got three guys that can attack and create their own shot at the same time,” Wizards guard John Wall said. “It’s tough to help off each other… Nick [Young] can make shots and Jordan [Crawford] can make shots, if you help off those guys, they can also make threes or penetrate themselves.”
Also, here’s what I wrote earlier today about Ty Lawson’s return to Washington with the Nuggets, who believe they’re not just a playoff team but a contender in the Western Conference. The Wizards are still trying to figure out who they are, but Andray Blatche, who is playing the right way in spite of the boos, believes the Thunder victory could be the start of something, not just a lone upset.
“Coming in and beating like the best team in the league is something that we can actually use and have a swagger or confidence wise and carryover into playing Denver tomorrow,” Blatche said yesterday. “If we go out and get Denver tomorrow, this whole season got a possibility and chance of turning around for us. This is all about us having confidence in one another and just having that type of swagger.”
