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NBA Playoffs - Game 1: Washington Wizards 93 - Toronto Raptors 86 (OT) (Was 1-0)

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  • ouch, that hurt. after miami and charlotte i was hoping to get another monkey off our backs with a game one win. starting hansbrough was a mistake, that`s on casey. could of looked good if we won or tyler had 1 rebound at least. guessing amir or patman starts next game.

    ross, lowry, demar all with horrid shooting nights. demars especially hurts with how well he has been playing.

    beal played 48 minutes i saw, that is pretty crazy. wall 44 minutes.

    hopefully the guys pick it up next game and get this back. still think we win the series, especially if pierce, wall and beal keep playing so many minutes. 7-10 for pierce was a good game. i really don`t want him to beat us though

    Comment


    • DanH wrote: View Post
      Absolutely. But their shot selection is a product of the culture Casey has instilled all year. And players can't really be blamed for missing open shots - that's just going to happen sometimes. But Casey's mistakes in this game were entirely controllable. So in a game where a single point one way or the other would have meant a win instead of a loss, yeah, I'm going to blame Casey for the loss. Even with the struggles by everyone to hit shots.
      At this point, this team is what it is. Casey is to blame for that, but this team can still make shots. Lowry fouled out for fck sakes, he was useless when his team needed him most. That is not on Casey, that is on Lowry. And the only person that can fix that is Lowry. Same can be said for DeMar and TRoss.
      Sunny ways my friends, sunny ways
      Because its 2015

      Comment


      • Miekenstien wrote: View Post
        ouch, that hurt. after miami and charlotte i was hoping to get another monkey off our backs with a game one win. starting hansbrough was a mistake, that`s on casey. could of looked good if we won or tyler had 1 rebound at least. guessing amir or patman starts next game.

        ross, lowry, demar all with horrid shooting nights. demars especially hurts with how well he has been playing.

        beal played 48 minutes i saw, that is pretty crazy. wall 44 minutes.

        hopefully the guys pick it up next game and get this back. still think we win the series, especially if pierce, wall and beal keep playing so many minutes. 7-10 for pierce was a good game. i really don`t want him to beat us though
        Demar actually played well. He had 15 (on terrible shooting) 11 and 6 (with his teammates missing ALOT of open looks)

        He coulda easily had a triple double. Nice seeing him facilatate and rebound when his shot isn't falling. Out of the starters I think he deserves the least amount of blame. But he still deserves some.

        Demar was also one of the only guys out there that actually grabbing rebounds. Lowry had 8. The guards are actually rebounding the ball. It's up to the bigs now to do the same.

        Rebounding lost this game. And it will be the killer if our guys don't stop being dumbasses and just box out and grab the board.
        Last edited by yabadabayolo; Sun Apr 19, 2015, 12:53 AM.
        I'm back. I no longer worship joe johnson

        Comment


        • I had to work and so only saw the first 16 minutes or so. Does anyone have a rational explanation why Hansbrough was guarding Gortat instead of Nene? Or why the coach switched him to guard Paul Pierce? I got the impression that the defensive assignments were switched around so much, no one on the team knew what they were doing.

          Even so, if the team had shot even 31% from three, this would have been a different game.

          I'll have to watch the tape tomorrow.

          Comment


          • caccia wrote: View Post
            I had to work and so only saw the first 16 minutes or so. Does anyone have a rational explanation why Hansbrough was guarding Gortat instead of Nene? Or why the coach switched him to guard Paul Pierce? I got the impression that the defensive assignments were switched around so much, no one on the team knew what they were doing.

            Even so, if the team had shot even 31% from three, this would have been a different game.

            I'll have to watch the tape tomorrow.
            Don't. Trust me. Save yourself. It's one of the uglies playoff game i've ever seen.
            Mamba Mentality

            Comment


            • TRex wrote: View Post
              Don't. Trust me. Save yourself. It's one of the ugliest playoff games I've ever seen.
              OK. I just thought that since it went to overtime, it would at least be exciting to watch. The loss is really disappointing because the team started out well, apart from missing three-pointers, even though Washington has the reputation of starting fast and finishing slow.

              Then again, my biggest fear was that with the 12:30 start time, the Raptors would be sleepwalking: you know, doing things like tossing up alley oops that never stand a chance, or forgetting to box out.

              Comment


              • TRex wrote: View Post
                Letting Hansbrough guard Pierce in the 2nd was completely INEXCUSABLE. That was the quarter were Pierce scored 8-10 straight points.

                Raps also got outscored 27 to 19 in that qrtr.
                That stretch was the turning point in the game, when the momentum completely swung to Washington. I was yelling at my screen. DC was using Hansbrough & Amir to guard Gortat & Pierce, and they were getting totally killed at both ends and on the glass. I wanted DC to bring in Valanciunas and JJ, to more effectively matchup, as I watched the game get out of hand.

                DC did a great job of losing this game, and our scoring guard showed exactly how hero-ball can be disastrous come playoff time.

                Comment


                • People are freaking out too much. good things happened yesterday. We lost and that sucked but we played really good D overall, and D was our weak point coming in. Need to clean up the boards and we'll be fine. The offence wasn't that bad either. The team missed alot of shots, and not terrible shots either. Good to see Patterson and Vasquez knock down some shots. Lowry, Demar, Lou and Ross need to shoot better for sure, but I thought we moved the ball well and generally got decent looks. After the game, I was surprised to see how many shots Demar missed. It was a quiet off shooting night for Demar I felt. Similar to how I felt about Beal, only 6/23 with 16 points. I didn't realize he shot so poorly, it was that type of game. Wall too, 5/18 with 10 points. If we continue to do as good a job on those guys as we did yesterday, we will win this series. The Wiz were lucky we shot so poorly, and that we couldn't rebound. The only beef I got was not playing JJ in the small ball lineups. If Pierce is at the 4, then JJ should be too. Not the reason we lost, but may have helped us pull it out.

                  I am more encouraged by our great defence that I am discouraged by the poor shooting. We will shoot better this series, but will we continue to play great D and find a way to get some boards?

                  Comment


                  • CalgaryRapsFan wrote: View Post
                    That stretch was the turning point in the game, when the momentum completely swung to Washington. I was yelling at my screen. DC was using Hansbrough & Amir to guard Gortat & Pierce, and they were getting totally killed at both ends and on the glass. I wanted DC to bring in Valanciunas and JJ, to more effectively matchup, as I watched the game get out of hand.

                    DC did a great job of losing this game, and our scoring guard showed exactly how hero-ball can be disastrous come playoff time.
                    It is truly perplexing the moves DC makes and how he tries to spin it post-game. Our scramble defense gave up way too many second chance points.

                    Comment


                    • JawsGT wrote: View Post
                      People are freaking out too much. good things happened yesterday. We lost and that sucked but we played really good D overall, and D was our weak point coming in. Need to clean up the boards and we'll be fine. The offence wasn't that bad either. The team missed alot of shots, and not terrible shots either. Good to see Patterson and Vasquez knock down some shots. Lowry, Demar, Lou and Ross need to shoot better for sure, but I thought we moved the ball well and generally got decent looks. After the game, I was surprised to see how many shots Demar missed. It was a quiet off shooting night for Demar I felt. Similar to how I felt about Beal, only 6/23 with 16 points. I didn't realize he shot so poorly, it was that type of game. Wall too, 5/18 with 10 points. If we continue to do as good a job on those guys as we did yesterday, we will win this series. The Wiz were lucky we shot so poorly, and that we couldn't rebound. The only beef I got was not playing JJ in the small ball lineups. If Pierce is at the 4, then JJ should be too. Not the reason we lost, but may have helped us pull it out.

                      I am more encouraged by our great defence that I am discouraged by the poor shooting. We will shoot better this series, but will we continue to play great D and find a way to get some boards?
                      You could look at the other way--the Wiz didn't play and shoot well and still stole one on the road....

                      Comment


                      • psrs1 wrote: View Post
                        You could look at the other way--the Wiz didn't play and shoot well and still stole one on the road....
                        True. But we are a weak defensive team. That game could have easily been a blowout, but our defense kept us in it. It would have been much more worrisome had we let them score more easily and lost the game handily. We are a top5 offence, and it will come around. We are a bottom defence, but played much better than I expected them too. I think that's encouraging because I don't think the wiz got anything in their bag to surprise us or change the game. We address a few issues, and I don't think they can handle us if we continue to play good D.

                        We need to shoot more FT's...which requires our ballhandlers to cut harder around screens and drive into the paint more frequently. They have to go harder, the execution needs to be crisper, and then draw a foul, take a gimme or dump to a big man or shooter. And that alone should help on the boards cause we are not scrambling back in transition chaotically and out of position.

                        We need to get more boards.

                        And we may need to think about Pierce of course. I expect Amir will start and JJ will get Tyler's minutes next game. I think it's how we defend Wall that determines Pierce's effectiveness. He's great at catch and shoots, or catch, fake, one dribble shoot type plays...we can't really do a hell of alot outside of that stuff. He get's a good look, we're screwed but he isn't creating that look himself. I think we are overhelping off Pierce, and JJ should be able to control him in any PnR action if they do that with Pierce at the 4.

                        Comment


                        • So I was pretty annoyed by some narratives that I was seeing following yesterday's game. Specifically, that we were getting beat up on the inside, and that rebounding was one of the main issues, if not the main issue.

                          I decided that, since I've been working really, really hard lately, I've earned the right to totally waste a few hours on something. I wasted those hours this morning, by going back and looking at, in detail, the issues mentioned above: OREBS and interior defence. Here's what I found.

                          1st Q

                          7:46 – Nene OREB, over Derozan boxing out (Demar boxing out due to rotations made after initial p’n’r coverage). Regular basketball play that happens to every team every game.

                          5:22 – Nene OREB after his own miss, Val covering him. Val was out of position after Nene’s initial drive to the rim, which was the main factor in Nene getting that board. Note that Val was in bad position before Nene drives the ball because he’s helping Patterson contain Wall, who was driving to the rim after getting by Lowry. This is what leads to Nene getting an excellent drive to the rim and the following putback. Was anyone ‘the culprit’, defensively, on this sequence? Hard to say. If you I had to choose, it would be Lowry, for a relatively weak contest on the initial drive. More than anything, though, this was just a nice little sequence for the Wizards.

                          4:22 – Nene dunk on PPat after excellent p’n’r sequence from Beal/Nene. Really, a textbook p’n’r FROM BOTH SIDES. Ross and Val trap Beal hard, and well, and Beal makes an excellent pass out of the trap to find Nene. Patterson rotates perfectly, and is there to meet Nene, but then gambles by trying to knock away the entry pass, which gives Nene some space to dunk over him. If this basket’s on anyone, it’s PPat – shouldn’t have gambled. But, even if PPat doesn’t gamble, and just tries to play Nene straight up, Nene’s going to have excellent position underneath. So to my eyes, this is sequence is just good offence beating good defence.

                          3:55 – Gooden OREB, Nene OREB, Nene putback. Initial poor defence by JV, who overhelps on Wall driving past Lowry, giving Nene a big, fat open lane to the hoop. JV and Ross recover, though, and nicely contest Nene’s layup, causing a bad miss. The real villain on this play is Patterson. Loses Gooden badly on a screen, then doesn’t fight to recover rebounding position which gives Gooden all the space in the world to get the first OREB. Gooden misses, and in the ensuing commotion underneath the rim, Nene cleans up the mess.

                          2:23 – Seraphin easy lay in. Sequence begins with GV in peak pylon form, giving Wall the easiest possible lane to the basket. Seriously, I literally (and I’m using the strict definition of the word ‘literally’ here) could have played defence as effectively as GV did here. And in case any of you weren't aware, I’M NOT AN NBA WING. Anyways, Amir rotates nicely to clean up the mess. Patterson, however, completely falls asleep, is way late on the help, which gives Seraphin fantastic position here for the easy two. Now, I’m going to give Patterson the benefit of the doubt here and allow the possibility that he wasn’t ready for how little resistance GV was going to put up, leading to his late response on the help.

                          0:36 – Seraphin hook shot in transition. Absolutely piss poor transition d by either one or both of Patterson and Amir is what caused this basket. Impossible to know who’s fault it was, but it seemed to me like neither was working very hard to get to their correct cover.

                          2nd Q

                          11:36 – Open 18 footer by Gooden. Simple pick and pop gets Drew wide open. This is probably on Patterson for rotating way late. Could also be on Lou for providing too little resistance on the initial drive, then directing Amir into the wrong position. Either way, if you’re a coach who’s supposed to be some kind of defensive mastermind and we’re seeing these kind of results, something, somewhere, is very, very wrong.

                          10:28 – Drew Gooden dunk in transition. This play, ladies and gentlemen, is 100% on Kyle Lowry. It begins under the Washington basket. After Lowry misses an awful, awful layup attempt, he hangs around swiping at the ball in Seraphin’s hands while his man takes off down the floor. Washington pushes the ball, with Amir having to pick up Sessions due to Lowry’s aforementioned jerking off. Sessions dishes to Seraphin, who dishes to a cutting Gooden for the dunk. Gooden, by the way, was the guy Lowry picked up as his cover. 53 YEAR OLD DREW GOODEN JUST BLEW PAST OUR ALL-STAR POINT GUARD ON A CUT TO THE BASKET FOR A DUNK.

                          9:37 – Drew Gooden OREB. The easiest OREB you might ever see. 2Pat: GO TO THE CORNER. RIGHT NOW. YOU SHOULD BE VERY ASHAMED. Patterson doesn't even TRY to box him out. Honestly, this the kind of basketball stuff you should have learned by grade 8. I'll bet you anything that this team would have trouble running a three-man weave.

                          9:29 – Porter OREB. In the ensuing chaos from the OREB mentioned above, Beal back rims a three, then Seraphin and Porter run SIDE BY SIDE, FULL SPEED, DOWN THE VERY MIDDLE OF THE LANE, UNTOUCHED, LOOKING FOR THE NEXT REBOUND. It’s actually incredible watch. It’s almost majestic, like seeing wild impalas galloping abreast across the plains of the Serengeti. GV and PPAT, the players who should be getting a body on them, just stand there like they’re waiting in line for burritos. Porter gets the rebound. Then Porter puts up a 10 footer, misses, and…

                          9:24 – Gooden OREB. Amir actually almost secures the rebound, but he’s surrounded by three Wizards and just falls over (lol) and loses the ball. The key here is that after Porter takes the 10 footer mentioned above, Beal sprints into the play from offscreen, no cover in sight, like the Wizards are on power play, and gets into the fray for the rebound. If he isn’t there bothering Amir, I think it’s likely Amir secures this.

                          At this point, the game’s starting to give me a feeling I get every so often in pickup games. It’s that feeling of realizing that the guy guarding you either doesn’t understand what boxing out is, or just doesn’t give a fuck, so from now…on every time a shot goes up…I’M GOING STRAIGHT TO THE BASKET! WOOHOO!

                          And btw, the three OREBS that Washington just got on that one possession didn’t lead to a single point.

                          7:02 – Gortat layup. Nice p’n’r execution by Wall and Gortat. Very strange, and troubling, defensive execution by the Raptors. You’d think that Patterson should be rotating over to cover the basket, but instead he’s pointing at Gortat like someone else should be there. But Lou’s doing the same thing, so maybe they both expected the other to go. Regardless, someone effed up, resulting in Gortat’s easy two.

                          5:23 Gortat OREB, fouled on the putback attempt. Rebound was over Derozan, who rotated over to cover Gortat after a p’n’r. Nothing to complain about here, really – defence worked like it was supposed to, Beal missed his layup badly and the rebound went to the bigger guy. These plays are going to happen to every team every game.

                          2:40 Porter OREB. Porter gets this after Wall misses a layup on a fastbreak. Certainly no big was at fault here. If anyone’s to blame, it was Ross – he didn’t commit to either contesting Wall’s layup or putting a body on Porter, which let Porter get inside position for the board.

                          Also worth noting: at this point Pierce is torching whichever big – either Amir or Hands – is trying to check him. They’re just too slow to get out to him on the perimeter, and he’s hit four straight jumpers. THIS is how Washington jumped out into the lead. Not interior play, and not rebounding - but Pierce. I'm telling you, JJ gets to these shots and doesn't let PP get them off. Fuck Casey's narrative of events.

                          2:03 Beal OREB. Now this is the kind of play that pisses me off, because it sets off an idiotic chat room firestorm of “Trade JV!”, “JVs soft!” etc. Porter tosses up a three. JV boxes out Gortat. Ross stands there with a thumb up his ass. Beal, who Ross is checking, is free to go wherever he wants, sidles up next to JV, and is in perfect position to snag the board.

                          1:18 Nene Layup. Nice execution on a p’n’r by Wall and Nene. For everyone who whines about JV’s p’n’r defence, to my eyes he defends this play exactly as any other big does. Demar makes the rotation to defend the basket, but Nene gets to the basket unhindered, as you’d expect. Worth noting: we’re super small at this point, with a lineup of JV/TR/DD/GV/KL. DD, the help man on this play, is guarding Porter. Now, if we have JJ in the game on Porter, he becomes the guy who contests this layup…and if that’s the case, maybe it isn’t a layup anymore.

                          3rd Q

                          10:24. Nene layup. Nice p’n’r by Wall and Nene. JV defends it well. No help comes, but there wasn’t really time or room for any. Nene finishes with a tough layup. Just good offence.

                          8:54 Gortat OREB putback. On a Beal drive, Amir helps and JV is now responsible for Gortat. JV could have been a little more physical, but it wasn’t egregious. Looked like offensive goaltending to everyone in the stadium, including the ESPN announcers, but basket ruled good.

                          8:30 Worth noting, some idiotic transition d by Ross here, who gambles on a steal, which leaves JV to run out at Pierce, and Pierce hits a 3.

                          1:58 Seraphin makes 8 foot sky hook over Patterson. Shades of Kareem. Seriously. Literally nothing you can do to stop this.

                          4th q

                          11:10 Seraphin another 8 foot hook shot over 2Pat. Again, nothing you can do here. Honestly, if this guy can do this on the regular, he’s a near max player.

                          8:48 Drew Gooden OREB tip in. Over Patterson, in semi-transition. Depressingly soft play by Patterson, who lets Gooden nudge him right underneath the cylinder and basically out of the play. If Casey’s serious about needing clean up the offensive glass, this is exactly the kind of play that needs to be addressed.

                          5:56 Seraphin 15 foot jump shot over Val. And for anyone claiming Seraphin lit up JV yesterday: this specific shot was Amir’s responsibility. JV was rotating to the rim to help on the drive, and Amir, who should have been moving out to help on Seraphin, is stuck in cement. It’s actually impressive that JV got out to challenge this as well as he did.

                          1:00 Gortat OREB over Amir. At the end of a pick and roll, Amir and Marcin battle for a 50/50 ball, which Gortat ends up swatting away, leading to Wiz possession. Does JV get this ball if he’s there instead? Possibly. This is the kind of play, though, that’s going to happen to you a few times game regardless of who you are.

                          OT

                          4:33 OREB Porter. This one’s on Lou. After awkward coverage of a Beal/Pierce p’n’r, both GV and LW end up on Pierce. Wall ends up getting the ball and shooting a three, at which point Lou should have dropped down to pick up Porter. But Lou doesn’t move an inch, and Porter’s free to go up and tap out the board.

                          3:14 OREB Nene over Patterson. Again, ultimate responsibility is on Lou. He puts up a garbage 7 foot jump shot attempt on the other end; it’s so bad that he has to contort himself awkwardly in mid-air to avoid being blocked. Because of this he ends up falling as he lands, taking himself out of the play as the Wiz break out in transition. In the ensuing shit storm, Amir’s forced to pick up Wall at the 3 point line. (It’s worth noting that if we have JJ out on the floor at this point guarding Pierce, we end up with much more favourable cross match – JJ on Wall instead of Amir. But I guess we're going to have to wait to game 3 or 4 for this, lol, ) Wall breaks down Amir off the dribble, diverting PPat’s attention, which helps Nene get deep position on the OREB. Now, PPat does play Nene soft on the actual rebound, but that’s secondary to the fact the he had to drift towards the basket to help Amir contain Wall, giving Nene great momentum to crash the board.

                          2:42 OREB Porter over Lou. This is another OREB coming out of transition. One problem that we’re seeing with playing the Amir/PPat combo against Nene/Pierce is that it’s giving the Bullets an enormous advantage out on the break. On this play, Wall/Porter/Beal get a 3 on 2 against Lou/DD as Amir and PPat struggle to get back. Now GV really screwed the pooch by admiring his 3 pt attempt on the other end (he was probably getting his shimmy ready), which is what let Porter leak out and give Wash the 3 on 2. Regardless, if you have a JJ on the floor at this point, it means more quickness getting back. Who knows, maybe he recovers and gets to Porter before he can position himself under the net, because Porter’s the guy who gets the rebound off a missed Beal jumper, as Lou simply doesn’t have the size or strength to box him out.

                          2:21 Dunk by Nene. Poor decision making by Amir. GV actually does a very nice job containing a Wall drive, but Amir helps when he doesn’t need to, leaving Nene wide open for the dunk. You might argue that Patterson should have dropped down to help, but then Pierce is wide open for three, so I can’t really blame 2Pat here.

                          1:37 OREB Nene/Porter. This one’s on Demar. Wall blows right by Pylon Lou. Amir helps and contests the layup. 2Pat rotates to help on Nene. Demar is now left to cover Porter. Now, note that at this point Porter is TWO FEET AWAY FROM DEMAR, AND A LITTLE BEHIND HIM. Demar can easily just step in front of him, and seal him out. It’s not like he’s running cross-court to make this rotation. Again, this is a play that I myself literally could have made - at 6’2’’, I could have boxed out Porter and got this rebound. But Demar doesn’t move an inch towards Porter, Porter gets a hand on the loose ball at tips it towards the corner where it’s corralled by Nene.

                          My conclusions:

                          - If we're going to blame a big for playing badly defensively yesterday, blame Patterson. Multiple instances of awful box outs. Questionable decision making, both in the half-court and in transition. Amir had a few gaffes himself, but nothing too egregious IMO. For the most part, though, our bigs held their own.

                          - The main responsibility for Washington's OREBS lies with the smalls as a whole. Demar overall was fine except for one play where he absolutely fell asleep; KL, LW, GV and TR each made multiple boners over the course of the game. Poor shot selection leading to fast breaks, poor coverage in transition, and repeated instances of absolutely godawful box outs ON THEIR OWN COVERS IN THE HALF COURT is what gave the Wiz the advantage on the offensive glass. So if Casey's serious about cleaning up this rebounding problem, it goes much deeper than simply 'we need to be stronger on the glass'. And he needs be spending most of his energy addressing the points and the wings - not the bigs.
                          Last edited by JimiCliff; Sun Apr 19, 2015, 01:36 PM.
                          "Stop eating your sushi."
                          "I do actually have a pair of Uggs."
                          "I've had three cups of green tea tonight. I'm wired. I'm absolutely wired."
                          - Jack Armstrong

                          Comment


                          • Nice post Jimi. It must suck having to work on Sunday! ahha I hated those days, so glad they're done with...

                            Casey will not change, so I expect more of the same. I just hope the fellas can help themselves out, because they're the ones playing afterall.

                            Comment


                            • Did they increase the price for ball streams ? I swear it used to be $80 for the year, now it's $100?
                              A key that opens many locks is a master key, but a lock that gets open by many keys is just a shitty lock

                              Comment


                              • JimiCliff wrote: View Post
                                My conclusions:

                                - If we're going to blame a big for playing badly defensively yesterday, blame Patterson. Multiple instances of awful box outs. Questionable decision making, both in the half-court and in transition. Amir had a few gaffes himself, but nothing too egregious IMO. For the most part, though, our bigs held their own.

                                - The main responsibility for Washington's OREBS lies with the smalls as a whole. Demar overall was fine except for one play where he absolutely fell asleep; KL, LW, GV and TR each made multiple boners over the course of the game. Poor shot selection leading to fast breaks, poor coverage in transition, and repeated instances of absolutely godawful box outs ON THEIR OWN COVERS IN THE HALF COURT is what gave the Wiz the advantage on the offensive glass. So if Casey's serious about cleaning up this rebounding problem, it goes much deeper than simply 'we need to be stronger on the glass'. And he needs be spending most of his energy addressing the points and the wings - not the bigs.
                                After being advised not to watch the replay, I will only note that the one guy on the team who consistently boxes out, Hansbrough, only played 13 minutes. He sat down after helping the team keep close early in the third quarter and never saw the court again. It's very uncharacteristic that he did not have a single rebound, but I noticed that several times early in the game --the part I watched--a guard beat him to the ball, which again, is the result of a good box-out on defence.

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