Wizards 101, Bulls 95: The new dynamic shows its limitations

i wouldn’t consider it a ‘trap game effort’. they were still trying but went absolutely cold in the third. Wiz outhustled the Bulls and Blatche was a beast tonight. Foye can really stroke it. but the new guys keep playing well and Derrick did his best in the end. too little too late.

where I thought “If Noah were in there, we’d have (pick one) snatched that board/ rotated on that dunk/ contested that shot.” He’s our defensive backbone like Garnett was for the championship Celtics- when he’s not out there it’s painfully obvious. That last offensive board we gave up was a killer (I kept screaming for VDN to put Noah back in at the end, but I guess he’s on a pretty tight minute limit. Anyone know anything about it?)

- The place was empty. I could comfortably talk over the intros
- Pargo needs to stop jacking up 20-foot jumpers with 16 seconds left on the shot clock
- There were many times that we could have used Noah on the glass – on both ends
- It felt like Vinny did a decent job of deciding when to not have a center on the floor
- After two games of moving the ball well, our offensive possessions felt very stagnant and congested
- While Flip had a good game, I don’t know how much I like him at SF, especially with Pargo on the floor. I think I’d rather have Kirk/Flip/Johnson than Pargo/Kirk/Flip
- Was Miller’s traveling call in the 3rd legit? Seeing it live, it looked like the ref just got fooled by how slow he is.
- The reason the place got so loud during Noah’s second missed free throw was two-fold: 1) If he missed both, everyone got a free Chik-Fil-A sandwich, and 2) They showed the Dallas Cowboys’ star on the jumbotron
- I absolutely abhorred Vinny’s play calling out of those last few timeouts and everyone’s shot selection on those possessions. It is perfectly ok to get “just” 2 points when down 5 with ~30 seconds remaining

And hope he can put that athletic but still not quite in shape body to good use.

Part of the problem was the Bulls awful defensive effort and then of course the Wiz got hot.

That was a bad 3rd quarter….

I was expecting a cessna crashed into the United Center.

6 years? 18-24? What the hell?

was Rose’s (modest, borderline-timid) fist-pump after hitting that clutch shot in the 4th. Yes Derrick, let loose man. It’s what the greats do.

that much of their lineup is new/untested. flip is a good coach; i can see why fundamental likes him.

I know VDN would agree.

time watching the new look Bulls. I’ve always been a fan of Warrick and i think yfbb’s observation was dead on except id add that on defense he isnt half a TT but yeah on offense he seems more fluid. Flip moves the ball and has been filling it up ( i assume thats because of the current honeymoon) he will come back to earth sooner rather than later.

The biggest thing still hurting this team IMO is coaching. Vinny just doesnt have a play in his coloring book to go too when we need to stop the bleeding. He trys to stop runs with timeouts which is normally ok as long as you come back with something. What happens though is he calls a TO then we come out with some shit play that more times than not ends up with nothing. TO wasted. Run still going. Last night that 6 min strech lost us the game.

Another thing about TT, while he was a sketchy player he also provided some serious intimidation around the rim with his blocking. Whether it was a goal tend, a sick block to the 4th row or just his presence it made a huge difference. We dont have that anymore and it was severely exposed last night by Blache.

Expect more of the same from here on out.

What happened to Noah, he doesnt look half the man he was a month ago. I hope he gets back into shape quickly.

the first two plays of the game were entry passes to taj isoed on blatche. they really forced it there and it was like they talked about this before the game and liked this matchup. i didnt but whatever, they planned it and it worked: 4 FTAs. did they go to that matchup ever again? i dont care personally since i dont trust taj’s iso prowess but its weird to come up with a plan and then forget about it.

I just want to add that Neil Funk jinxed the f out of the game yesterday when we were rolling coming into the 2nd half, and then laid a quick egg in the first minute of the second half and Neil was all like “some very big name that I can’t talk about said we’re gonna finish 24-5 down the stretch post trades”, to which every f-ing real fan watching had to have groaned.

Come on we’d have to see Derrick blossom into a better’n Lebron, Kobe, Wade, Durant, Howard to do that to even have an outside chance at that.

We should improve, but don’t add that crap because we mananged to pry out Warrick and Murray all the while giving away the 2 best talents to do so (Salmons and Tyrus).

I do like Warrick a lot and see a lot of still untapped potential. Maybe he can have a Salmons like end to his 2009/2010 campaign….