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I love this photo because literally every single player is ignoring Isiah Thomas.  I'm sure I'm taking this out of context, but it's just so damn amusing.

Anyway, the Knicks will trot out a skeleton crew tonight after their two big trades yesterday.  The result the last time we played the Knicks caused me to unleash this epic rant that made less sense than anything that's ever been posted here.  Hopefully, that won't happen again tonight.

I'm taking the girlfriend out tonight, so I'll probably catch this one on archive.  For those watching live, chat about the game here.

GO WIZARDS!

(No game blog this time because Truth is out of town.  He'll be back for the next home game)

Box Score
Game Flow
Post Recap
Times Recap
Wizards Insider
The Dream Shake can't believe it either
Truth About It
Houston Chronicle

Highest Plus/Minus: Dee Brown (+4 in 15:24)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Darius Songaila (-13 in 13:18)
Best Five Man Unit: Dee Brown, DeShawn Stevenson, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, JaVale McGee (+8 for the first 5:42 of the game)
Worst Five Man Unit: Juan Dixon, DeShawn Stevenson, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, JaVale McGee (-8 down the stretch)

Four Factors:

With 2:22 to go in the third quarter, Andray Blatche fouled Ron Artest.  I don't remember the exact play, and I can't go back to find it because the game was on ESPN and therefore blacked out on NBA League Pass, but I remember that the foul came after Houston grabbed an offensive rebound.  The foul was Blatche's fifth.  This one was legitimate, but many of the ones before it were silly touch fouls that he could have easily avoided. 

From that point on, the Wizards were outscored by 21 points.  That was the moment where this game turned.  Blatche's foul problems triggered every single problem down the stretch.

I hardly mean to say that Andray Blatche cost us this game.  Far from it, in fact.  He was oustanding last night, playing great defense on Yao Ming and actively rebounding.  He didn't commit a single turnover offensively, which is pretty incredible.  But without him in there, Eddie Jordan was forced to go with guys who could not guard Yao Ming.  That led to double-teams, which led to open threes, which led to Eddie's mad scientist brain taking over and crafting strange lineups, which led to Juan Dixon's hero complex taking over, which led to our two start never getting the ball when it mattered, which led to a collapse.

Last night reaffirmed many beliefs I had about Andray Blatche.  Number one, save for Brendan Haywood, he is our best individual post defender by far.  For someone who is so frail, he does a remarkable job of denying his man post position.  Always has, even when he hasn't played well.  The only reason we all noticed last night is that he was doing it against Yao freakin Ming.  JaVale McGee is long and athletic, but like Eddie Jordan said in the Post recap, he has not grasped the concept of playing post defense before your man gets the ball.  Etan Thomas tries to do the things Blatche does, but he's not athletic enough, strong enough or smart enough to pull it off. 

Number two, Blatche is a center.  I know, I know, he's frail, he thinks he's a point guard, but the center position is where he is most successful.  That is where he played the most last year, when he had a mini-breakout.  Playing center makes him a far more effective offensive player because he can pick and slip away from the basket for open jumpers.  Few centers in this league are quick enough to come out on Blatche when he slips.  And if they do, he can at least drive by them and draw the foul.  In essence, playing Blatche at center ensures he's dribbling less and catch-and-shooting more, which means he'll commit fewer turnovers.  Defensively, we've seen that, while undersized and small, he is a very good post defender.  One of the major reasons we defended better last year was that Blatche was taking all of Etan's backup center minutes.  We lost less when Haywood went out of the game defensively because of Blatche's capabilities. 

Those are positive things, but as we all know, Andray Blatche is a fouling machine.  It was on full display tonight, as he committed silly touch fouls that all could have been avoided.  Things like bringing his arms down ever so slightly instead of keeping them up to contest the shot.  Blatche's foul problems stem from being undisciplined, not from being undersized.  And tonight, those foul problems really hurt us.  If he had been able to play that fourth quarter instead of Etan Thomas, we win this game.  There would have been no need to double Yao and leave all those shooters open. 

Instead of Blatche plaiyng, Eddie Jordan had to go to Etan Thomas.  He could have gone to JaVale McGee, but JaVale was getting brutalized by Yao.  Eddie then compounded the problem by going to a remarkably strange AD/Juan/Nick/Songaila/Etan lineup to start the fourth quarter.  That forced Songaila to guard Ron Artest, which failed miserably.  I'm not sure why Eddie felt a three-guard lineup would work when Houston had Artest, Carl Landry and Chuck Hayes.  Eddie probably felt he needed to get Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison rest, but he could have rotated one of those two in there.  He could have put Caron in for Juan, then subbed Jamison for Caron or something.  There was no need to keep both of those two out at the same time.

Anyway, Houston made their run and tied the game.  Needing offense, Eddie decided to keep Juan Dixon in the game with his starters.  I was really angry at Juan last night and probably took it out a little too much on KShark28 in the game thread (sorry dude, though next time, be more constructive with your comments instead of calling people out).  But the thing is, Juan is going to do what Juan is going to do.  Ever since he entered the league, Juan Dixon has been a remarkably inefficient small shooting guard that is a poor passer and uses a zillion possessions.  During the first three games of the season, he flashed the ability to be a Roger Mason-like lead guard in the Princeton, but that promise has faded.  If he's playing the entire fourth quarter on your team, you either suck or have a coach that thinks way too much.  In this case, it was both.  We have no guard depth, and Eddie would have been better served playing AD or even Dee Brown.  Hell, if Eddie wanted a scorer in, Nick Young was sitting on the bench.

Juan Dixon ended seven fourth quarter possessions with shots.  Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison combined to end six.  Even for Dixon, this is unacceptable.  Our defense really killed us down the stretch, but our offense was just as bad.  It was just as bad because Juan Dixon kept taking whatever shot Houston wanted him to take.  It's Juan's fault for doing that, Eddie's fault for not taking him out of the game and the two leaders' faults for not screaming at him. 

Anyway, even though the ending was terrible, the important thing is we played well on the whole.  Losing a ton of close games in a row is bad luck that'll turn around.  I'd be much more concerned if we were Oklahoma City and getting blown out of every game.  So far this year, we've only been blown out twice.  Every other game has gone down to the wire.  I'm confident we'll at least win a few of these types of games soon.

More notes:

• JaVale McGee needs to put on some weight.  Yao really abused him strength-wise down low, including slamming one down on him with authority.  I'm not concerned, though.  Every rookie has a tough game, and this was JaVale's.  He'll grow and learn from it.
• I actually thought AD played really well in this one.  He was drawing defenders and giving his teammates open shots, which is how he has to be in this offense.  AD gets into trouble when he doesn't really make himself a factor offensively.  Then, nobody guards him and we play 4 on 5.  If AD is getting into the lane and making things happen, it makes our offense so much better.  It's like night and day, to be honest.
• DeShawn Stevenson is a lost cause.  Three of 12 and bad defense on McGrady.  Eddie needs to try Caron at the two sometimes to limit DeShawn's minutes.
• I would have liked to see Dominic McGuire get some run as long as we were going small and can't rebound. 
  
• Hey Antawn, you see what happens when you eschew the jumpers and do yeoman's work inside?  27 points on 17 shots, 16 free throws, some great hustle, etc.  We must see more of that.
• Not worried about Caron's bad game.  Ron Artest does that to you sometimes.
• Houston needs to start Aaron Brooks yesterday.  He's much better than Rafer Alston

Apparently Juan Dixon had a bet to see how many times he could avoid passing the ball to Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison down the stretch.

Even in the best of times, Houston has owned us recently.  They swept us in each of the last three years, including a blowout win in Houston last year that may have been the low point of the season.  Without Brendan Haywood, this will be JaVale McGee's wake-up call to the NBA.  I'm curious to see how he passes it.

Everyone's going for the Rockets, including the Great Wall, Crazy Pills and McGimpy.  Ivan Carter's saying Antonio Daniels will play tonight, but Dee Brown will start.  If that's not an insult to AD, I don't know what is.  (For the record, I support it, but man, how do you think that makes him feel).

Check out new SB Nation site The Dream Shake for the opposing view.  They still think AD and Etan are starting, but otherwise, they're funny.  Read them.

And, oh joy, we're on ESPN.  I bet they wish they could take that matchup back.

Game's at 7.  Let's hope we don't lose by more than 20.

Box Score
Game Flow
Post Recap
Times Recap
Wizards Insider makes an economy analogy
Peachtree Hoops (which should be a daily read for you guys if it isn't already)
BDL: Behind the boxscore (see item #2)
ESPN Daily Dime (see #2)
Atlanta Journal Constitution
AJC columnist continues to drink the kool-aid

Highest Plus/Minus: Etan Thomas (+4 in 16:16)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Darius Songaila (-5 in 6:10)
Best Five Man Unit: DeShawn Stevenson, Nick Young, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Etan Thomas (+4 for 3:20 in 2nd quarter)
Worst Five Man Unit: Dee Brown, Nick Young, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Darius Songaila (-3 for 3:32 in third quarter)

Four Factors:

As some of you may know, I was the sports editor for my college newspaper last year and am a higher-up editor this year (see my bylines if you're so inclined).  After our men's basketball team lost two home heartbreakers to two of its biggest rivals, the second loss of which happened in a very similar way to the Wizards' loss last night, I wrote a column that began with the following words.

A team never outright loses a game on one possession, yet one possession can be emblematic of its structural flaws.

It's kind of been my philosophy on analyzing games.  You can never point to one single possession and say "That cost us the game!," but you can look at it and say "That's the best illustration of our problems."

Let's apply this concept to last night's loss.  The problems the Wizards have are numerous.  They don't have great talent without Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood.  They are not being coached well.  They don't move the ball offensively and get the ball into the right people's hands.  They have no inside presence.  They have veterans who stink and young guys who are talented, but erratic.  They can't rebound or defend.  On and on.

With all these issues, one cannot say the Wizards did not lose this game exclusively because of their late-game execution problems.  Truth be told, if there was a stretch that cost us the game, it was when we decided to go to a third-quarter lineup with Darius Songaila in at center, particularly when Atlanta was destroying us on the glass.  But the one possession at the end, after Atlanta took the lead, was where all our limitations came into play.

From what I gather, the play had two options.  The first was for Caron Butler to get the ball from Juan Dixon and make a play, after Caron ran around a bit to keep the defense honest.  The second option was for Dixon to then dribble and find Antawn Jamison in the post, who had set a screen for Nick Young to run to the weakside corner.  The idea was to get Flip Murray switched onto Jamison, and that worked.

As we all know, the play did not work.  Let's go through this problem by problem.

PROBLEM: The Wizards don't have great talent with their injuries.
SPECIFICALLY: The Wizards don't have Gilbert Arenas to close games.
ILLUSTRATION: Caron Butler doesn't do enough to get the ball and Juan Dixon doesn't try to get it to him at all costs.

PROBLEM: Eddie Jordan is not coaching well.
SPECIFICALLY: Eddie Jordan is not setting up good plays and Jordan's players are not executing what he wants well. Eddie Jordan isn't playing the right players
ILLUSTRATION: Dixon picks up his dribble too early without knowing what he wanted to do.  Butler doesn't get the ball.  Jamison doesn't fight for position well enough.  Nick Young takes too long to clear out the side. Dee Brown, a better passer, is out while gunner Dixon is in.

PROBLEM: The Wizards are not passing the ball well and getting it to the right people in the right place.
SPECIFICALLY: Caron Butler isn't getting the ball enough at the end of games and Juan Dixon/Nick Young are using too many late possessions.
ILLUSTRATION: Dixon can't get Butler the ball.  Dixon can't get Jamison the ball, despite Jamison having six inches on Flip Murray.  Failing that, Dixon shoots it like he always does instead of resetting and getting Young or Stevenson open on the weakside. Young grabs the rebound and immediately flings a wild putback when he could have kicked out to Stevenson for a wide open three.

PROBLEM: The Wizards have no inside presence.
SPECIFICALLY: Antawn Jamison doesn't have as much space as usual.  Brendan Haywood is out.  Nobody is a threat rolling to the rim.
ILLUSTRATION: Jamison struggles for position against Murray, making it more difficult for Dixon to get him the ball as usual.  Nobody gives Butler a screen because nobody can set a good screen.  The only shots we can get are contested long jumpers.

PROBLEM: The Wizards have veterans who stink and youngsters who are erratic.
SPECIFICALLY: Eddie Jordan can't rely on either group.
ILLUSTRATION: Dixon can't get his stars the ball.  Young shoots a wild shot on the rebound. Stevenson doesn't space the floor well enough, drifting too close to the top of the key instead of the weakside.

PROBLEM: The Wizards can't defend or rebound.
SPECIFICALLY: This needs no elaboration.
ILLUSTRATION: Every Hawks score down the stretch before this possession.

Basically, every problem we have as a team was illustrated in some way on that last possession.  If you were asked to boil our entire season down to one possession, that last one would be it. 

No, that one possession was not the difference in the game.  Our inability to rebound really, really hurt.  Atlanta is a good offensive rebounding team, but they should not be able to grab over 40 percent of their missed shots.  Going small during a key stretch of the game certainly didn't help matters either.  Our offensive execution was bad even before that final possession as well. 

But man, that one possession just sums everything up.  You can tell just by watching that possession occur that the problem with this team isn't their effort level.  It's their talent, execution and on-court smart that are killing them. 

Other notes:

• Putting JaVale McGee in the starting lineup probably benefits Etan Thomas as much as it benefits JaVale.  You saw how reasonably effective Etan can be coming off the bench.  No, he'll never be totally serviceable, but he plays better when he doesn't start. 
  
• Liked the decision to start Dee Brown.  It's pretty sad that we have to get to that point though.
• Anyone remember Juan Dixon 2.0?  The Juan Dixon we saw in the first three games?  Clearly, that Juan Dixon is gone and the Juan Dixon from his earlier stint here is back.  In the last two games, Juan is 5 for 19 from the floor and is shooting so many long twos its crazy.
• I don't understand why Andray Blatche keeps trying to make things happen with the ball.  He's a very good screener and slipper, why doesn't he use those skills more often? 
  
• Caron is an absolute beast.  He deserves much better.  Antawn's also defending better than he was earlier in the season.
• JaVale needed more than 22 minutes.  I also want to see Eddie run some more plays for him.  He's our only guy with a somewhat decent post game.
• It's annoying to hear Atlanta's broadcasters wax about how Joe Johnson is their "superstar."  Johnson wasn't defended all that well and he still had a terrible shooting night.  He's a third option masquerading as a first option on a team with two key guys hurt.
• I was impressed by Marvin Williams.  He looks much improved from last year
• Other than playing Songaila at center, no real complaints about Eddie's playing rotation.  JaVale should have played a little more and DeShawn a little less, but it's only minor quibbles

I have a meeting now, but I'll be back to chat it up in the game thread shortly.

Atlanta's struggling, having lost their last four games after a 6-0 start.  Two of those losses were to New Jersey, so that makes me feel a little better about us losing to the Nets.

For a more comprehensive game preview, Peachtree Hoops has what you need. 

GO WIZARDS!

UPDATE: Dee & JaVale will start tonight, Al Horford is out with an ankle injury.

Folks, I have absolutely no problem with you using Bullets Forever to try to find someone to take your unusuable Wizards tickets off your hands.  We're a community and it would be unfair to tell all of you that you can't use it for that purpose.  However, it's not good to have the FanPosts cluttered with ticket giveaway requests when it bumps down substantive and productive posts about the state of the team. 

So from now on, the comments section of this thread is the only place where you guys can do that.  I ask you all to rec it so it'll show up at the top of the FanPosts column away from the rest of the FanPosts.  I'll update the post date every so often so that it stays visible there. 

If you try to start a new FanPost asking about selling, buying or giving away tickets, I will delete it.  It also goes without saying that you need to be an active member to propose giving away tickets, as otherwise it is spamming.  But for those of you that are responsible enough to have the priviledge of posting about giving away tickets (ooba and bigrm18, you both fall under this category), please just use this thread to do it.