[NBA Live 06] Washington Wizards | The Silver Bullet | Trade News

[Breems]

Wizards hold steady against the Clippers
By WashingtonWizards.com staff / February 27th, 2006



vs. Los Angeles Clippers (10-9) | W 93-89

In what would be Marko Jaric and Jarvis Hayes' first chance to face off against their former squads, the Wizards were able to secure their third consecutive victory. Cuttino Mobley and Antawn Jamison came out firing with 12 points each in Q1. Corey Maggette was unstoppable in the paint in Q2 which helped give the Clippers a 48-44 advantage at the half.


The refs take a break

Gilbert Arenas responded by taking over in Q3 to help Washington outscore LA 22-18 in the quarter. Things looked grim for Washington as they opened Q4 with 6 missed shots, allowing the Clippers to take an 8-point lead with the Wizards' starters on the bench. Mobley and Maggette had finally cooled off, however, and the 1-2 punch of Arenas and Jamison put the Wizards back on top with 3 minutes remaining. After 3 lead changes, the Wizards finally began to pull away and closed the game with a steady stream of FTs.

Jamison led all scorers with 26 points. Arenas followed with 19 and 14 assists. Jaric had one of his better performances of the season against his former team with 11 points on 4-9 (3-7 3PT) shooting. Mobley led the Clippers with 24 points, Maggette added 19, and Elton Brand posted a double-double of 14 points, 11 rebounds. Jarivs Hayes only managed 2 points in his homecoming trip to the MCI Center.


Elton Brand sinks a prayer at the buzzer. The shot didn't count.

Player of the Game: Gilbert Arenas
Box Score
Next Game: Mar 14 @LAL

[Andrew]

Good win, and satisfying given the trade. Looks like Jaric is starting to find his shot.

Couple of crazy moments there as well. I know the referees swallow the whistle a fair bit in the NBA, but that's ridiculous.

[Breems]

GM Performance
Overall Record: 11-7
Power Ranking: 20 (+1)
GM Score: 70 (+8)

Wizards


Top 10s
* Antawn Jamison: 1st PPG (24.1), 3rd FGM (195), 4th FG% (68%), 3rd ORPG (3.3)
* Gilbert Arenas: 1st APG (8.1), 1st SPG (3.39)
* Brendan Haywood: 1st ORPG (3.8), 5th FG% (66%)
* Antonio Daniels: T-1st FT% (100%)

Around the League




March 2006 Schedule

[Andrew]

Glad to know I'm not the only one who didn't get a lot of blocks in my NBA Live 06 Dynasty (outside of Tyson Chandler, really). In retrospect, the sliders I was using were probably a bit low in that regard.

[Breems]

Glad to know I'm not the only one who didn't get a lot of blocks in my NBA Live 06 Dynasty (outside of Tyson Chandler, really). In retrospect, the sliders I was using were probably a bit low in that regard.

Indeed. I don't remember getting any blocks recently. I think I'm going to bump that slider up a little.

[Andrew]

Blocking was definitely too easy in NBA Live 2005, so I think the default sliders (and a lot of our custom sets) probably overcompensated for that a little.

[Breems]

Agent Zero tops 40 as Wizards push win streak to 4 in blowout fashion
By WashingtonWizards.com staff / March 14th, 2006



@LA Lakers (7-13) | W 107-83

Where is Kobe Bryant? One year removed from a 28 PPG, 6 RPG, and 6 APG performance and NBA Finals appearance, Kobe is nowhere to be found this season in the MVP race or league top 10s. While his supporting cast has major deficiencies, the real issue for Kobe this season has been injuries. Bryant has been sidelined twice this season with a broken hand and sore ribs which caused him to miss several games in an already shortened season.

Kobe returned to the lineup shortly after the All-Star break and is reportedly playing at 100% now, but Gilbert Arenas and the Wizards weren't interested in helping him and his struggling team get back on track. It was a blowout from the get-go. The Wizards opened the game with a 9-0 run and piled on from there. The Lakers have been missing a true PG all season and had no hope of containing Arenas who had 26 points at the half. The Staples Center remained eerily quiet in the second half - much to the delight of the Wizards fans in attendance - as Arenas continued to put on a show.

Arenas' 42-point performance was the first 40-point game by an NBA player this season. He also recorded 7 steals and knocked down 6 3-pointers. Brendan Haywood was the only other Wizards player to score in double figures with 13. Kobe scored 24 for LA on 11-14 shooting. The Wizards extend their win streak to 4 and overall record to 12-7.

Player of the Game: Gilbert Arenas
Box Score
Next Game: Mar 15 vs. Pheonix

Off the Court
Shot very well from 3 in this one. This Lakers team is bad on the perimeter aside from Kobe, so I got tons of open shots. Also, I didn't use any Superstar moves with Arenas.

Speaking of Kobe, this dynasty has mercilessly hammered the league's best players with major injuries. LeBron, Kobe, T-Mac, Wade, Allen, etc. have all missed significant time with major injuries. I haven't had any yet despite a tendency to attack the rim a lot. I'm almost hoping for some just to shake things up a bit. I'm going to sim some games soon, and that almost always leads to injuries.

[[Hyperize]]

Nice; iirc Agent 0 blew up on the Lakers at Staples that year irl as well.

Despite the injury stuff, Kobe was really efficient.

Do injuries actually occur in-game? They don't in Live 10, and that would just be another instance of them downgrading the game.

[Breems]

Yep, they occur in-game. There's a slider to control the frequency. I want to turn that up, but the sim injuries are already pretty frequent.

[Andrew]

Been waiting for a big Agent Zero game. Reckon he'll go off for 50 at any point?

One of the key problems in NBA Live 06-08 was that trades and injuries reset Primacy ratings, so star players often ended up averaging far less points per game than they should after suffering injuries (even when they were 100% healthy again). That's why I kept the primacy fix in the current rosters; it was worth running it every few games to make sure shot distribution remained as accurate as possible.

[Breems]

Been waiting for a big Agent Zero game. Reckon he'll go off for 50 at any point?

It's certainly doable against the right opponent. Sasha Vujacic was way too slow to stop him in this game. Arenas was getting to the hoop on simple crossovers which never happens against decent PGs.

One of the key problems in NBA Live 06-08 was that trades and injuries reset Primacy ratings, so star players often ended up averaging far less points per game than they should after suffering injuries (even when they were 100% healthy again). That's why I kept the primacy fix in the current rosters; it was worth running it every few games to make sure shot distribution remained as accurate as possible.

Interesting, I didn't know that. Wade, LeBron, and Kobe have all had serious injuries, so that must be why they're not among the top 10s in most (or any) statistics while a player like Jason Williams leads the league in 3PM/3PA.

Is there a version of the primacy fix for vanilla rosters? If not, would it be difficult for me to create one? The .bat file looks fairly simple, even simpler if I could export the names/values from the vanilla rosters.

[Andrew]

I'll just whip one up for the default rosters: Default Roster Primacy Fix for NBA Live 06

I might go ahead and do the same for NBA Live 07 and NBA Live 08, as they're affected by the same bug.

[Breems]

I'll just whip one up for the default rosters: Default Roster Primacy Fix for NBA Live 06

I might go ahead and do the same for NBA Live 07 and NBA Live 08, as they're affected by the same bug.

I had to wait an entire hour!

Thanks a bunch! I'll go ahead and run this now (after backing up).

[Andrew]

No worries, let me know how it goes. It'll give some errors when it can't find PLAYERIDs (I copied data for the entire default roster and some players obviously get pruned when you start a new Dynasty), but all the players it finds should be updated. Comparing Kobe's Primacy rating with the backup after running the fix should confirm it's all working.

[Breems]

Just to confirm, I need to run this against the players.dbf in My Documents\NBA Live 06\saves\Wizards\players.dbf?

[Andrew]

That's right, in the Dynasty save folder itself. That's the database that needs to be corrected.

[Breems]

Updated. Kobe's primacy went from 6 to 88, heh. I may try to set this up to run on a daily schedule when the game isn't running.

[Andrew]

Excellent, glad to hear it worked! If you'd like to try beefing up his scoring to circa 2006 levels, you might want to open up the batch file, search for PLAYERIDs 227, and change the rating to 99. He probably should've had that by default, but I'll leave the fix as it was in the actual default roster.

[Lamrock]

Oh man, this makes me nostalgic. Classic NBA Live and my favorite Wizards team ever.

[[Hyperize]]

Fuck Lamar Odom; Andrew deserves the MVP of this dynasty!

[JuicyShaqMeat]

Great to see this, as it inspired me to start my own Assoc story thread.

The Jamison-Butler-Arenas trio looks solid, glad to see you winning with them. Hope you get that chip!

[Breems]

Washington loses heartbreaker to Phoenix
By NBA.com staff / March 15th, 2006



vs. Phoenix (18-5) | L 110-119 (OT)

Wizards fans, I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news goes without saying. The good news? Read on.

A day after drilling the Lakers in LA, the Wizards would return home in a highly anticipated matchup against the league's best team. Phoenix has it all - perimeter scoring, a dominant big man, solid depth, and veteran leadership. Washington would need a huge lift from its role players tonight.

With the help of a raucous home crowd, Washington opened the game strong, outscoring Phoenix 33-20 in Q1. By the end of the first half, Marko Jaric already had his biggest game of the season with 20 points, including 4 3-pointers. Fueled by Jaric's sharpshooting, the Wizards took a 58-45 lead into the half.

Mike D'Antoni had been in this situation before. With a plethora of talent at his disposal, the '04-05 coach of the year made all the right moves in the second half. The Suns throttled the Wizards' offense and outscored them 27-17 in Q3. Steve Nash and Joe Johnson embodied D'Antoni's "7 seconds or less" offense, and Amare Stoudemire was there to clean up any misses. After trailing by 17 in Q2, the Suns' lightning-fast comeback had put them on top by 3 heading into Q4. Phoenix extended their lead to 8 with 3 minutes remaining, but Jaric hadn't stopped pouring it in from deep, and the rest of the Wizards regained form to make one final push:

phpBB [video]

Warning: NSFWizards

The Wizards left it all on the floor in the final minute, but a few mishaps pushed the game to OT. The refs missed Shawn Marion stepping on the line (1:06 in the video), Brendan Haywood missed 2 FTs, and Joe Johnson nailed a contested, off-balance 3-pointer to tie the game with 1.2 seconds remaining.

Undoubtedly disheartened by a lost opportunity, the Wizards began to fall apart in OT. Jaric went cold, Arenas committed 2 TOs, and the Suns kept the momentum on their side.

Joe Johnson led the Suns with 27 points, including a dominating performance in Q4 and OT. Steve Nash followed with 25 points and 9 assists. Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion each recorded double-doubles with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 14 points, 12 bounds respectively. Marko Jaric had his long-awaited breakout game as a Wizard with 36 points, including 8 3-pointers. All Wizards starters and backup PF Ethan Thomas scored in double figures. Arenas posted a double-double with 17 points, 11 assists, as did Jamison with 15 points, 16 rebounds.

Player of the Game: Steve Nash
Box Score
Next Game: Mar 18 vs. Atlanta

Off the Court
Of course Jaric would wait for our first loss in 5 games to have a monster game. Even when he wins, we lose!

I was really looking forward to this game, and it didn't disappoint. I actually beat Phoenix by 20 the first time, then discovered I had set the difficulty to All-Star for the dunk contest and hadn't switched it back. I set it back to Superstar, restored a save from before the game, and re-played it properly. Now that's dedication! Also, I'm liking those shooting percentages after the slider adjustments. Right around where that team was IRL.

[Breems]

Simulated Game
March 18, 2006

vs. Atlanta (4-18) | W 86-58
Box Score
Next Game: March 29th @New Jersey

[Andrew]

CPU got a bit cheeky there with Johnson hitting the three on a bad release. Unlucky, but with any luck, it's a sign of things to come as far as Jaric's three-point shooting is concerned. At least the sim engine gave you a huge win, looks like the Hawks are really struggling this season.

[JuicyShaqMeat]

Damn, that Phoenix game looked like a nailbiter. Great performance despite losing on overtime.

A little caveat though, the article should indicate the Wizards final score as 110, not 96. I had a headscratching moment when I thought their score decreased, but good thing you have the box score posted.