A Quick Recap The Wizards First Round Win Over The Bulls
The Good:
Nene and Trevor Booker - Nene has been really, really good this postseason. The Bulls kept giving him the open jumper and he nailed it every time. He made life very, very difficult for defensive player of the year Joakim Noah, outshining him during the series. His suspension aside, Nene showed up huge. During that game 3 suspension, Trevor Booker started and was fantastic. He has also shined coming off the bench for both Nene and Gortat, providing a spark and big defensive presence. Last night, Steve Kerr was wiling out about Booker, pretty sure he said Booker is his favorite player or something.
Coaching - Nobody has ever said Randy Wittman was a good coach. He made quite a number of late game blunders during the regular season. One game I went to this season was the Wizards vs Bucks. The Bucks were the worst team in the league and ended up beating the Wiz by like 17. At one point Wittman had a lineup of Jan Veasley, Chris Singleton, Glen Rice Jr, Otto Porter, and Eric Maynor on the floor. It was like watching 7th grade girls basketball. Wittman has since cut the shit, and now uses a decently good but very shallow 8 man rotation with Martell Webster, Trevor Booker, and Andre Miller off the bench.
The Bad:
John Wall’s Shot: Wall is shooting just 36% from the field. He has to be better than that. The good news in the bad news is he isn’t letting his low shooting % affect his all around game. He played great defense all series, still averaged 7 assists a game, and hardly turned the ball over vs the Bulls defense.
Depth: You can’t win a game in 2014 with a lineup of Andre Miller, Al Harrington, and Drew Gooden. They had that lineup in for a bit in game 4 and got punished. Yes, they were without Nene, but it showed their lack of depth. The Wiz absolutely cannot afford for both Gortat and Nene to get into foul trouble.
There really wasn’t much bad to say about how the Wizards played this series again the Bulls. Bradley Beal showed the rest of the world how good he is, Trevor Ariza has been outstanding, John Wall has been solid, Gortat has perfected the back tap, and Nene has been a beast. Wittman has coached pretty well, and the team looks dangerous.
Now they get a few days off and await the winner of the Hawks vs Pacers series. How wild is that? Are either of those teams supposed to scare you? I’m not saying I’m already looking ahead to the Eastern Conference Finals but fuck the Heat.
PS: Never forget:
