Game Report Wolves @ Wizards

[DNatagal]

Figured that I would give this a shot...I attended the Wolves game in person for the first time ever!

I arrived 1 hour before tipoff and there were 3 Wolves on the floor shooting. Kevin Love, JJ Barea and PEK!
Kevin was really working on getting his legs under every shot. JJ was working on his mid-game and Pek was working on 1 on 1 plays around the hoop.

During the pre-game warmups with the team, Corey Brewer was goofing around with all kinds of crazy shots. Like 18' hook shots with his left hand crazy. Ricky tossed down a 2 handed dunk from the right side. Shved's shot looked awful the entire time. He made 2 or 3 shots in total.

The Wizards fans didn't really show up until the 2nd period and the crowd prompts did nothing to excite the crowd...until they made the announcement that 2 consecutive missed free throws by the visiting team would win the crowd free Chik-Fil-A sandwiches...that got them to their feet! Too bad Pek missed those 2 in a row, if he would have made them, the crowd would have never gotten going.

Will add more

[DNatagal]

Nene was a beast on both ends. He really made Love's job tougher than most nights. He stayed in KLoves jock the entire night and pushed him around whenever there was a shot.

The combination of Gortat and Nene is a killer to Pek and Love.

KMart just looked....off, all night. He was trying to fight thru screens, but the Wizards really had their defense ratcheted up for most of the 2nd half.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Nene was a beast on both ends. He really made Love's job tougher than most nights. He stayed in KLoves jock the entire night and pushed him around whenever there was a shot.

The combination of Gortat and Nene is a killer to Pek and Love.

KMart just looked....off, all night. He was trying to fight thru screens, but the Wizards really had their defense ratcheted up for most of the 2nd half.

Gortat and Nene a killer to Pek and Love huh? If that's the case, let's trade them both. -__-

[DNatagal]

Gortat pushed Pek around...but the Wizards defense did a good job cutting off the passing lanes for that deep lane post up for much of the game. In my opinion the difference in the game was KMart. If he made ANY of his normal shots, this game would have played out differently. I would not trade Love or Pek, but I would trade anything off our bench for Vesaly. He has promise.

Robbie Hummel is a surprise, his leaping ability is shocking, more than once the Wizard fans in front of me were asking where he came from. If he starts making shots, Shved will never see the floor again.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

I watched the whole game too and it really was a tale of two halves. Our D on Wall was pretty bad in the 2nd half. Should have had Rubio in the 4th qtr. A string of about 3 turnovers and bad KMart shots really changed the game. Some positives I noticed:

-Watching Love go after an offensive rebound is special. Just has a knack for it that not many guys can do.
-Brewer cutting to the basket with Pek holding the ball in the low post
-Hummel looked pretty composed out there and I think he will continue to get his burn
-Pek was pretty solid in the 1st half. He got a couple lucky bounces but his positioning was good and D was ok

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I watched the whole game too and it really was a tale of two halves. Our D on Wall was pretty bad in the 2nd half. Should have had Rubio in the 4th qtr. A string of about 3 turnovers and bad KMart shots really changed the game. Some positives I noticed:

-Watching Love go after an offensive rebound is special. Just has a knack for it that not many guys can do.
-Brewer cutting to the basket with Pek holding the ball in the low post
-Hummel looked pretty composed out there and I think he will continue to get his burn
-Pek was pretty solid in the 1st half. He got a couple lucky bounces but his positioning was good and D was ok

I noticed all those positives, BBTT, and actually felt kind of upbeat after the game. Martin will have occasional bad shooting nights, and it's heartening to know we can compete on the road when he has an off night. The Wizards TV team was drooling over Love's shooting and offensive rebounding. And like many on this board, I am encouraged by Hummel. I watched him last week at halftime effortlessly drain three after three, and was waiting for that shooting to appear in a game. Now that he's more relaxed , he should shoot like he is capable.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Yeah, if Hummel can become a solid bench player and we slowly work Dieng into more games, I don't see an urgency for a trade. But if somebody wants Derrick real bad, then of course we do it, but I wouldn't be pressing for it.

One more positive was Dante. He had a nice block and he was hitting his pattented 15 footers pretty nicely. He plays a lot bigger than he looks. Our 2nd team played much of the second quarter and gave us a 15 point lead. So our bench isn't getting a lot of minutes, but let's not panic quite yet.