Game #30 Preview: Wizards @ Spurs - Recovering from the loss

So the Spurs are coming off their worst performance of the year.  An embarrassing loss to the Magic on Thursday will hopefully motivate the Spurs to come out and lay a whoopin' on the Wizards.  The Spurs will look to improve the defense, which was nowhere to be found against Orlando, against the hapless Wiz.   Washington has traded away notorious head case Agent 0 (aka Gilbert Arenas) and has a new look team headed by our old hated foe, Mr. Howard.  The Wiz have yet to record a road victory.

via 4.bp.blogspot.com

It's time to take that hammer and pound out another winning streak.

Hack preview after the jump:

Just got an update from Tim.  The Wizards front court starting is suspended.  Bullets Forever has the story.  This should make this tough game for the Wiz even harder.  Spurs should roll here today.

This makes me laugh.

Real song:

Sorry for the super hack preview.  I'm working on an hour of sleep over the last 48.  Here we go:

San Antonio Spurs vs Washington Wizards Where: AT&T Center When: 12/26/2010 at 6:00 p.m. Spurs Time - Timezone Converter Watch: Fox Sports Southwest By the Numbers Data source: basketball-reference.com
Category Stat Rank Offensive Rating 113.2 1st Defensive Rating 104.8 11th Defensive Rebound Rate 74.8 10th Offensive Rebound Rate 26.2 15th Field Goal Percentage 47.4 4th 3-Point FG Percentage 40.8 1st Free Throw Percentage 77.6 11th Turnover Percentage 12.7 3rd			Category Stat Rank Offensive Rating 102.6 25th Defensive Rating 109.7 24th Defensive Rebound Rate 68.0 30th Offensive Rebound Rate 27.6 9th Field Goal Percentage 44.3 23rd 3-Point FG Percentage 32.7 28th Free Throw Percentage 76.2 14th Turnover Percentage 14.9 27th
Record Wins Losses Overall 25 4 Conference 17 3 Division 4 2 Home 16 2 Away 9 2       Position Conference Division Record 1st 1st Lineups Starters PG: Tony Parker SG: Manu Ginobili SF: Richard Jefferson PF: DeJuan Blair C: Tim Duncan Key Bench Players  Antonio McDyess Tiago Splitter Gary Neal			Record Wins Losses Overall 7 20 Conference 4 16 Division 1 7 Home 7 7 Away 0 13       Position Conference Division Record 15th 5th Lineups Starters PG: Kirk Hinrich SG: Nick Young SF: Rashard Lewis PF: Andray Blatche (suspended) C: JaVale McGee (suspended) Key Bench Players Al Thornton Hilton Armstrong Josh Howard

Matchup Analysis

	Point Guard
	Shooting Guard
	Small Forward
	Power Forward
	Center
	Bench
	Coach
	Intangibles
	Mojo
	Winner

Starters

PG: Wall is a nice scoring PG, but he's about to meet the best scoring PG in the game.  Oh yeah, and Frenchie McWonderbutt is passing too.  Tony might have his hands full on defense, but he should get his.

SG: I like Henrich, I think he'd be a nice fit on the Spurs outside of how much he costs.  That said, Manu Claus is off from Christmas and should be ready to dominate here.  Manu should have his way with Henrich and Nick Young.

SF: This is a tough match up for Rage.  Lewis is big and can spread the floor.  I imagine that RJ will have a tough time stopping Lewis, but Lewis does have his moments of checking out of games.

PF: I'm giving this to Blair even though I know nothing of how good Blatche is or isn't.  Blair has been playing much better of late and I'd love to see this continue. 

C: Duncan didn't play too well against the Magic.  I'd look for him to come out nice and rested and have a solid game. 

Bench

Splitter, Neal, Bonner and McDyess against Josh Howard and friends.  I'm going to have to go with the Spurs bench here.  I'd love to see a lot more of Splitter over the next month.

Coaching

CIA Pop is full of turkey.  That can't bode well for anybody.

Intangibles

Really good team at home against what is a team without a road win.

Mojo

Spurs are coming off of a bad loss and playing a bad team.  Oh yeah, and they'll be rested.

Prediction

Spurs win big

Key(s) to the Game

Key 1 - Defense - It's time for the Spurs to show a little defense against a bad team.

Other Reading

Spurs

48 Minutes of Hell 

OPPONENT

Bullets Forever(SB Nation) -

Following Along

TV 

TV LISTING 

Radio

WOAI 1200AM; Audio League Pass[streaming]

Online

As always, NBA league pass is recommended for those who are willing to pony up the cash.  Almost every Spurs game will be broadcast there, which is especially helpful for those of us who aren't in the San Antonio area.

Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in the game thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate. You can also shoot an email to poundingtherockmail@yahoo.com(IMPORTANT:  Please include your PtR username in the email for reference) for further assistance.

UPDATE:  McGee and Blatche are suspended from today's game.

UPDATE #2: It's being reported that Hill is going to be back tonight.