D.C.'S FINEST - 2011- ATLANTA VS WASHINGTON GAME ONE

arenas the criminal is gone... i will start mcgee next year... blatche is starter.... nooo but wall is my favorite target to shoot with

The Chicago Bulls found out last night -- there going to have to play a heck of a lot better if they want to progress further in the post-season.

The Washington Wizards although winning by just seven points in a 72-65 win, looked the far better and far more accurate team in a closely contested defensive slugfest.

"I believe this was a special game, not a boring one." commented Wizards coach Flip Saunders. "Yeah, both of the teams missed a lot of the basket, but both defenses were at it's best and it was an exciting game to watch."

Some may disagree. The Bulls hit less than 40% of their shots whilst the Wizards hit less than 45% of their shots.

John Wall who has notoriously been known throughout the post-season as a playmaker was held to 19 points in what was a game where the Bulls shut him down.

Wall recorded 19 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 4 steals, went 8 of 17 on field goals and 0 of 3 on three pointers.

Although they will never be defied as sexy numbers, try Derrick Roses' numbers, Rose recorded 11 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists and went 4 of 19 on field goals. But the main factor in his bad performence was that he conceded 10 turnovers.

"That was a good defense." said Derrick Rose who had his worst playoff performence well -- for the first time in his career. "I can't go 4 of 20 on field goals, man those are embarrasing numbers."

True that, although Rose will try to rejuvenate the Bulls, who haven't won a championship since the days of Michael Jordan -- still think they have what it takes.

"No question." said Luol Deng who recorded a team high 15 points. "We have the best team in the world, we can get it, leegooo."

The Bulls might need to "leegooo" and start shooting more accurate if they want to get back to somewhere they haven't been in 13 long years.

NBA 2011 Playoffs - Conference Finals


(Oklahoma City leads best-of-seven series, 2-0)

nice win against bulls

Rose 10 turnovers lol

wall for you only 19 points but ypu win that is imporntant

Thanks

BTW my laptop comes back tommorow or day after tommorow from repairs so i can continue

phpBB [video]

Yo Welcome to town John you the #1 pick
If Ernie goes with Turner, he might as well quit
You a down souf kid, like biscuit and grits
He as good as gets at giving point guards fits

Found somewhere on the web lol gives me some hype for the game 2 game.

The John Wall era has begun



One of the most scrutinized draft picks of all time "John Wall" did exactly what he did to the Washington Wizards as he had done a year before as a point guard for the Kentucky Wildcats.

After winning the Rookie of the Year award and leading the Wizards to the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference -- the Washington Wizards are just three wins away from appearing in their first NBA Final since the year of 1979.

31 long years in the making might just pay off as the Wizards looked like the far superior team in game one against the Chicago Bulls.

Even though the Chicago Bulls defeated the heavily favorite the Miami Heat in seven games coming back from a 3-1 deficit, it just doesn't look like Derrick Rose and the Bulls have an answer for John Wall.

John Wall led the Wizards to their best winning in percentage since the league slimmed down from 82 games to 29. It's no fluke, Wall was often the team's leading point scorer during the season averaging 25 points per game.

So how can the Chicago Bulls, Oklahoma City Thunder or the Los Angeles Lakers stop his onslaught.

"I don't know, we haven't managed to come up with one yet." said point guard Derrick Rose who conceded ten turnovers in the critical game one loss.

Wall has the uncanny ability to swerve inside out of helpless defenders and then somehow sprint up to the basket with unparallel speed and do a Wall-esq dunk.

The crowd goes wild, the players get adrenaline rush and John Wall just does his thing. He was so great this past season he could be compared to Lebron James and his transformation of making the Cleveland Cavaliers one of the best basketball teams anually before his midnight departure down south to the golden beaches of Miami.

"You can't stop him." said Wizards coach Flip Saunders. "I can gaurantee you that he will be the best baller in two years, he may just be the best baller by season's end next spring."

Brash words for a league that boasts the talents of Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul.

But stat's and game tape don't lie. John Wall has been owning the National Basketball Association since arriving in June from the 2010 NBA Draft.

It's safe to say that the Wizards don't have another Kwame Brown on their hands, and whatever happens during this post-season...

...The John Wall era has begun, and the Wizards will see a lot more postseason appearences than previous years.

sorry this take so long... it will be next week.

Double-double by Rose. 11 points, 10 rebounds.

Haven't checked here lately. Good to see Wall's still killing everyone

yes woooooooooooooo my laptop comes back tommorow, it took a long time to fix but now im glad.

next update will probably be 24 hours away since i started college in september and have been busy with my course but i will always have some time to do some update.

well i get to play my games in style now

For the second straight game the Chicago Bulls managed to withstand the rookie wizardy of John Wall -- allowing him to record just 7 points -- but also managed to lost for the second straight game.

After defeating arguably the league's best regular season team the Miami Heat, the Bulls have managed to somehow downgrade their skills against the Washington Wizards and are now somehow 2-0 down in the series.

The Wizards are proving that without Wall or a quiet Wall -- they can still get the job done. Jianlian Yi's 19 points and Josh Howards 7 rebounds edged the Wizards past the Bulls in overtime 98-91 infront of 20200 fans at the Verizon Center.

Though Howard turned the ball over six times he still described his play "The best of the series."

The Wizards certainly didn't play their best and the Bulls didn't much either in what was a scrappy contest throughout the four quarters until the Wizards pulled it away in overtime with 12 unanswered points.

Who's to blame for the Bulls' porus performence throughout the first two games of the series? Derrick Rose recorded 17 points but also conceded five costly turnovers and Carlos Boozer looked like an invisible basketball player throughout much of the game.

"We played real good against teams like the Heat, so there is no reason why we can't beat the Wizards." said Rose who plans on hoping that the Bulls close the series gap to 2-1 in the next game.

The Thunder-Lakers Western Conference Finals have been uninteresting as well as the Thunder took a two game lead, even though they were close-ones but still played as the road team. Talking of records... the Wizards are now 10-2 in the 2011 NBA Playoffs.

"Were not interested in records or stats as such, we just want wins." said NBA rookie of the year John Wall, who recorded just seven points and went 3 of 11 on field goals.

The Wizards may not want stats, but the last time the Wizards were in the finals, they faced the Oklahoma City Thunder (back then Seattle Sonics) and lost 4-1.

Just some food for thought on revenge.

Marquis Daniels released without charge


Posted by thatwizardguy
probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com



A while ago Wizards shooting guard Marquis Daniels was involed in a bathroom brawl inside the Logan International Airport.

Infront of bedazzled witnesses Daniels physically assaulted a fan of the home team. It's not known what trigged the event in the first place but the victim (later revealed as a disgruntled fan) settled for an undisclosed fee.

"I'm just happy I can put this behind me and now we can play ball." said Daniels coming out of the court-room. Commissioner Stern also told local news media outside the courtroom that Daniels would not face any league disciplinary action although he was fined $3000 for violating the league's personal misconduct policy.

The Wizards won't take any further action and wrote on their facebook wall. "Marquis Daniels has been cleared of all chargers, will travel with the team to Chicago."

Whether he plays or just sits on the bench is up to Flip Saunders.

NBA 2011 Playoffs - Conference Finals


(Oklahoma City leads best-of-seven series, 2-1)

With all the flashing photography going on... It must of dazzled the Chicago Bulls' players as they were shown just how much a better team the Washington Wizards are.

Behind Wall's 10 assists, Yi's 6 steals and Blatche's 19 points the Washington Wizards took a 3-0 series lead with a 113-110 win at the United Center, in the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals last night.

The Wizards were just as good on defense as they were on offense too -- They stole the ball away from the Bulls 23 times to Chicago's 7 and star player Derrick Rose turned the ball over 13 times himself.

Despite the turnovers, Rose put in one of his best performences ever recording 28 points and 9 assists. Rose was on the court for 70.8% of the night compared to John Wall's 52%.

The Chicago Bulls came flying out on all cylinders recording 32 points in the first two quarters before dropping to 18 and 25 in the third and fourth respectively. Maybe Rose was on the court too often who went 11 of 28 on field goals.

To put that into perspective the most regular shooter the Wizards had this game (Josh Howard) recorded just 21 attempted field goals.

"We have a great team, we know what to do in pressure situations, we came back from a big deficit, we defended well and the 3rd quarter showed that, we were at our best during that period.

The Washington Wizards (11-2) hit 49 of their 108 attempted field goals (.45%) which was slightly lower than the Chicago Bulls .54% (47/87.)

But bare in mind, this season the Bulls are use to comebacks, they trailed the series late against the #1 seeded Miami Heat but managed to scrape through but now face elimination against the Washington Wizards.

"It's not a great feeling," said Derrick Rose. "It's not something we wanted at the start of this series, even if we were to lose, to get sweeped is just disheartening and can demoralise us."

The Wizards will try to do just that, when in two days time again at the United Center they will try to sweep the Bulls, and then advance onto the 2011 NBA Finals, in which they will face either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Los Angeles Lakers, most likely the former who own a 3-1 series lead.

by thatwizardguy | 1500ESPN.com

John Wall is showing the world what postseason greatness can be.

Wall and his Washington Wizards are in the NBA finals for the first time since 1979 after he helped sweep the Chicago Bulls in the fourth game of the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals, with a 100-97 win the Wizards will be going to just their third Finals appearence in franchise history.



Andray Blatche led the Wizards with 20 points, John Wall led the team with 8 assists and the Wizards defense kept Carlos Boozer in-check all night allowing him just 8 points. In what could of gone either way during the series the Wizards closed out the series with four wins, two of those were won by three points, and the other went to overtime. But that isn't to say the Washington Wizards arn't deserving of a Championship shot, because they are.

Ever since the Wizards drafted John Wall with the first overall selection in last year's draft, the Wizards have been on somewhat of a rampage throughout the season, dismantling some pretty good teams on the way to their first Finals appearence in over 31 years.

The Wizards will either have the chance to avenge their defeat in the 1979 NBA Finals to the Seattle Sonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder) or stop the Los Angeles Lakers from threepeating. "Either scenario is fine for us," said Wall. "We don't really care who we get, because were in this to win this."

Wall has been the main protagonist in Washington's re-emergence as a solid team into the league, "It only took 1 year," said head coach Flip Saunders. "We thought it was going to take at least 2-3 seasons just to get back into the post-season, let alone have a shot at winning it."

Although Washington didn't have as good records as Miami or Los Angeles in the regular season, the once top of the league leaders are now in the Finals. "The day we stepped onto the court this season, there was no doubt we wouldn't be able to win the whole thing," said Josh Howard, who has played a big role in helping the Wizards this season.

The biggest role the Wizards have conjured with their magic this season has been their defense, which forced 20 turnovers in the final game against Chicago, and conceding just 8 of their own as well as stealing the ball 15 times to allowing just 5 steals.

"Obviously we are gutted that we ain't gone go all the way this year," said a upset Rose at the post-game press conference. "We didn't do enough, the Wizards were the better team, so good luck to them, represent our conference well, and we look forward to seeing them next year, hopefully in a re-match."

Rose was the main problem for the Wizards defense, and so was Wall to that of Chicago's but when it counted, Wall was there to do what the Wizards needed: Game Changing Talent. Although Rose is now considered one of the best players in the NBA, it's undeniable that John Wall is on his way to being the best in the league.

Yes, on his way to being better than the King Lebron, DeWayne Wade and Rose, even though he is still in his rookie year, the light is shining bright in Washington for once and maybe not in the sunshine states of Florida and California, where on paper the best teams play (Los Angeles, Miami & Orlando.)

Even though it's still far too early to talk about a surging dynasty, let the Washington Wizards bask in their glory as they prepare to face the Western Conference Champions in what will set to be a great Finals.

NBA 2011 Playoffs - Conference Finals


(Oklahoma City wins best-of-seven series, 4-2)

Finally after an exciting 8 months on anticipation, the NBA Finals are here again, and as always, be sure to watch as it won't dissapoint with the #3 Oklahoma City Thunder (16-12) going against the #2 Washington Wizards (21-8).

The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the #6 Phoenix Suns, #7 Dallas Mavericks and #1 Los Angeles in a combined score of 12-4, the Washington Wizards took a much tougher path having to defeat the #7 Boston Celtics, #6 Orlando Magic and #5 Chicago Bulls, the first former and latter they swept.

Nobody predicted at the start of the season that the Thunder would face off against the Wizards in one of the most prestigious series in sports, most thought it would of been the Heat-Lakers, but alas for those teams, the Wizards and the Thunder got it done in the post-season. As the post-season got rolling I was correct in my prediction that the Thunder would defeat the Lakers and go onto beat the Wizards for the 2011 NBA Championship in seven games, that will be decided in the next couple of days if my prediction was correct.

The Washington Wizards are somewhat of a cinderella team this year, drafting Johnathan Wall with the first overall pick, releasing Gilbert Arenas in the first quarter of the season and losing to Boston and Los Angeles in the season raised eyebrows whether the Wizards will at least win a series in the playoffs.

Well that team led by Wall beat three of the best six teams in the National Basketball Association and are ready to avenge their 1979 NBA Finals defeat to the then Seattle Sonics, the previous year before the Wizards defeated the Thunder 4-3 to capture their second and only Eastern Conference World title, the Wizards haven't been in the NBA Finals since Thunder haven't been back in the Finals since then, and the Thunder haven't made a trip for 14 years.

"Were aware of the records," said Wall. "Were not going out to see if we can win the thing for the first time in almost over three decades, were going out there to win it, because we want to, I don't care if I get 30 points a game or 12, If I can lay up some scores, then I'm going to do that, I've had a great first season in the NBA, but now I need to get what I really want, an NBA championship, I've dreamed of getting one since I was a minor, now that can be reality, but I can do that, If I'm thinking of records."

Each game in the locker-room the Wizards have played "I Believe I can Fly - R. Kelly" - "That gave us some extra inspriation, because we know we have the talent, the motivation and the desire to get there," said Blatche who has mentored Wall this past season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have a John Wall in their own: Kevin Durant. Durant has been raising hell in the playoffs and the regular season, he's been critical in shooting baskets and carrying the Thunder to the Finals. "I'm doing what I'm getting payed for," said Durant, who is widely considered as the best basketball player behind Kobe Bryant these days.



Despite the Wizards looking like a great team during the post-season, their magic runs out and the city of Oklahoma claim their thunder in a 4-3 series.

Notes:... Each time the Wizards have captured the NBA Finals, they have won it with the end year date of 8 (1948, 1978), the other years have resulted in losses...


Permalink | Comments | Latest stories in: Home, Latest News and Rumors, NBA Mobile Exclusives - Rumors, Washington Wizards

Hmmm, Its Good To Matchup These 2

Yeah, It's gonna be a big game tonight, I think I'll take tonight's game.

by thatwizardguy | 1500ESPN.com

In what could easily be called one of the greatest game one games of the NBA Finals in history proved to be exciting through out the entire 60 minutes which culminated with a last gasp three point jump shot by rookie Kevin Seraphin.

Nobody really knew of Kevin Seraphin, the french basketball player, until tonight that is. Behind Wall's 31 points, Howard's 9 rebounds and Seraphin's 17 points, which included the game winning shot was all enough as the Wizards barely scraped through a 134-133 win in front of a record attendence of 22,500 fans.



"It's by far the best game I have ever seen or coached," said Thunder head coach Scott Brooks. "It was absolutley exhilirating through out,I can't beleive we could of got that intensity in game one, we were unlucky to lose, but I feel, if we can put in more performences, were gonna win [sic]."

Most fans and analyists will hail this as the greatest Finals game one of all-time, but shooting guard Kevin Durant is already calling John Wall; the greatest rookie of all time; and possibly Wizard, "He was just excellent, hands down, if he wasn't on that team, they wouldn't of won this game, In fact they would of not even made the post-season, probably would of had 10 wins tops."

Both teams were accurate shooting field goals, the Thunder went 49/90 (54%), whilst the Wizards matched that going 55/101 (54%) that led to a high scoring affair, in which it came down to the last millisecond. As Seraphin took the ball and went into shooting motion, the crowd went silent, they slowly all stood up snapping pictures as the ball bounced on the basket before going down through the net to give the Wizards game one of the series.

"It was awesome," said Seraphin, the Wizards pre-game had "I gotta stay fly - Three Six Mafia" booming through the radio. "It gave us motivation," said Josh Howard, who went 6 of 11 on field goals and racked up 18 points.

The Thunder were moments away from winning, from Harden's 33 points, Westbrook's 29 and Durants 24, it all looked sealed, but it wasn't to be as the Wizards claimed the first win in their own court.

"We could of played better on defense obviously," said Westbrook who went 9 of 22 on field goals and turned the ball over a game high seven times. The Thunder will rest before striking Thunder again at the Verizon Center, this time they hope for better luck, like a game winning basket going their way -- or at least bouncing their way.

For now the Wizards have the ball bouncing their way, in their backyards -- and will want to keep it that way with another strong performence in game 2 of the NBA Finals.

View the highlights Here!

Notes:... Each time the Wizards have captured the NBA Finals, they have won it with the end year date of 8 (1948, 1978), the other years have resulted in losses...

By how your team has been playing lately, I don't think the Thunder have a chance.

Notes:... Each time the Wizards have captured the NBA Finals, they have won it with the end year date of 8 (1948, 1978), the other years have resulted in losses...

By how your team has been playing lately, I don't think the Thunder have a chance.

Ha that's true, If I didn't have John Wall, well I'd be trying to get brandon knight, i just crawled out game 1 with a lucky win, lol that basket bounce, I thought it was a miss... sooo lucky lol.

JOHN WALL: That was a hard fought win, that was a great, classic game, I have never seen a better game before, But Ima [sic] might be a little bias as I played in this great game, I thought we played real good on the offensive side of the court, we have some stuff to improve on on [sic] the defensive side of the court going on forward continuing into the next game, I thought we played very well tonight, they played very well tonight, it was the best two teams in the league going at it, and it was a lucky bounce from a hail mary type of a jumpshot, that it luckily bounced our way, very pleased that God was on our side, I don't think we could of asked a lot more of us, I'm just very pleased to get here, a lot of us had big games tonight Sep [Kevin Seraphin] had a major game tonight, that last shot and just his awareness around the court was much appreciated when he came off the bench, each game were looking for new guys to come in and step up their game, were a very young team, the Thunder are a very young team, so we need to outsmart them on knowledge, we did that tonight.

KEVIN SERAPHIN: Whow, now dat's what I call an incredible ball game... That is all what I was thinking when I lofted that ball into the air, the flashing lights all around the arena, the silentness, the epicness, it was just awesome, the atmosphere was just incredible, I don't know how I made that shot, I guess it was just beginners luck, maybe rookies luck now, It was my first full game of getting a lot of minutes, I wanted to cherish the moment but at the same time make the most of my minutes and I think I did that, were a team so as many minutes I'm out there, I'm going to take full advantage of it, I think I haven't reached my full potential yet, John [Wall] has done a great job this season, he has unparallel talent, leadership and he's just a winner, his mentality is just not matched, it's just win win win.

KEVIN DURANT: Well hat's off to the Wizards for winning the game, I'm dissapointed we didn't win, I thought we could of taken this one, then the last milisecond comes a miracle shot, on offense we played great, the best we have all season long, our defense wasn't great tonight, fix that and we could of been 1-0 up, but it's the opposite yet, they have a few great players, especially John Wall, he's fantastic, no other words to say, his ball possession, his accuracy, his passing, his speed, he's just got a certain swagger about him you just don't get in other point guards, I do beleive he is the best in the business right now, and right now he's still a rookie, man you should just rename the 2010 NBA draft the John Wall sweepstakes.