Truth About It» Hamady N’Diaye and Kevin Seraphin Do A Pre-Game Jig

Young Kevin Seraphin and young Hamady N’Diaye.Bound by their knowledge of the French language and born abroad, these fresh faces couldn’t be having more fun chasing basketball dreams in the capital of the United States.

Happy-go-lucky guys they are, but hard workers and promising talent as well, especially the bruising Seraphin who you’ve seen more of on the court lately (just observe him set screens), and who you likely could see a fair bit of tonight against the Miami Heat as JaVale McGee’s availability is limited—according to Michael Lee, he’s available, but won’t start.

Rewind back to last Saturday night at the Verizon Center for a second. Into the locker room, before the game while the media is allowed to mingle in the team’s home sanctuary, Seraphin and N’Diaye came bounding through the threshold, literally arm and arm as they’ve been figuratively (Seraphin’s English is a work in progress; N’diaye, fluent in multiple languages, helps Seraphin via French).

Doing a jig-type dance, they were, bringing smiles to faces. My Flip-Cam ignited to capture them doing so when someone from the media contingent dedicated to covering Yi Jianlian requested that Seraphin and N’Diaye do what they called their new pre-game dance again. So now you can enjoy…

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Truth About It» Poor Vince Carter, and The Pop of Patrick Ewing

Poor Vince Carter.Above, he can be seen shooting a basketball before a recent meeting between his team and the Washington Wizards in the District of Columbia. He didn’t play in said game against the Wizards, as Carter is wont to do— not play in games due to injury, that is.

Poor Vince Carter. He’s getting paid $17 million this year. He’s previously quit on a team from Canada according to some (Like A Bosh), he could keep his current team, the Orlando Magic, from winning a championship, and he seemed to be ever so slightly perturbed that the photographer taking these pictures, aka me, was taking these pictures.

“They’re supposed to be out here already?,” blabbered Carter to an assistant coach. I appeased the man by walking away upon detection of his annoyance at such a disturbance. Sorry Vince.

I guess it was just too much for Carter to stomach, as he is currently not exposed to opposing crowds aiming to thwart his jump shot attempts with noise. The soft clicking of photos being taken. From a distance. For a couple minutes. What a distraction. Poor Vince Carter.

Who will understand Carter’s plight? Maybe Patrick Ewing will.

Here, Snacktrick Ewing (get it? /zinger) can be seen, snacking on a Sprite and some packaged crackers, but he did not make an appearance as Patrick Chewing, the Snickers aficionado. He ate some Pop Tarts during the photo shoot below. I remember Pop Tarts from the old country/days, you could eat them hot, you could eat them cold, you could eat them court side before an NBA game.

Top Wizards-Magic Quotes:

{Craig Stouffer - Washington Examiner}

Whatever concern there was over Arenas’s fitness or confidence or aggression or over-dependence on his jump shot or maybe even his redemption story itself, he’s putting those questions to rest.

Yes, his 3-pointer was not falling (1-for-6), and there had to be some surprise down the stretch that he didn’t find a way to get the ball into scorching hot Nick Young’s hands instead of taking it himself repeatedly. But Arenas did score the Wizards’ final nine points with a variety of jump shots and drives. By the final seconds, he’d earned the chance to go for the game-winner.

{Mike Prada - Bullets Forever}

Maybe I’m more annoyed about the poor first half if this team wasn’t rebuilding.  But it is, and you expect lulls like that.  In the end, they went toe-to-toe with one of the East’s best, without three players in the top eight of the rotation, and lost on a fluke’y air ball.  Arenas had a very good game, Nick Young got hot, and Alonzo Gee provided something. It was exciting, it was fun and it was still a good learning experience.  Make fun of that attitude all you want, but that’s my feeling about tonight’s loss.

{Eddy Rivera - Magic Basketball}

To put it simply, the Magic’s effort and energy was pathetic. Just as Orlando went through the motions against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, that’s what they did last night. Hustle stats like steals, rebounds, and block shots, which usually provide a clue as to which team is playing with more passion, were in the Wizards’ favor.

{Evan Dunlap - Orlando Pinstriped Post}

I didn’t find myself enamored with the Magic’s gameplan, but maybe that speaks more to the Wizards’ focus on defense than anything else. This team doesn’t do much well on that end, and Howard still hung 32 on them. But the Wizards at least made him work for those points. The Magic got a bit stagnant watching Howard pound the ball into the floor with his back to the basket, often in single-coverage, as coach Flip Saunders firmly discourages double-teaming. He had success defending Howard in this way during his days helming the Detroit Pistons, though that team had better low-post defenders. The Magic scored an efficient 100 points, but few of them came easily.

{Samuel Chamberlain - TBD.com}

On the very first Magic possession, Howard beat McGee to the spot to receive an interior pass, drew the foul, and finished off the glass. On another possession inside the game’s first two minutes, Howard established body position in the paint closest to the basket and received a high-low pass from J.J. Redick for an easy layup while McGee, his back to the passer, flailed helplessly in Howard’s wake. Moments later, McGee was substituted from the game after committing a silly traveling violation in the backcourt.

“He made some mistakes early,” Wizards head coach Flip Saunders said of McGee.“I thought he was a little hyped up.” Earlier, prior to the game, Saunders had called McGee’s situation in guarding Howard a“Catch-22.”

To close, Vince Carter took a floating holiday… at leastthat’s the excuse via Brain On Funk.

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Truth About It» Wizards-Magic Pregame with Flip Saunders and Andray Blatche

No John Wall, no Vince Carter as the Wizards put their 5-2 record at home to the test against the best team they’ve seen yet in the friendly confines of the Verizon Center. But without those two, there are still plenty of story lines for the holiday hangover matchup on NBA TV— JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche vs. Dwight Howard, Gilbert Arenas versus Jameer Nelson, Kirk Hinrich versus the sure-to-get-booed J.J. Redick (or Arenas and Hinrich guarding the other way around), and the opening night blowout in Orlando hanging over Washington’s head. Question is, will this game be any good? Exactly.

Let’s go to the pre-game video where Flip Saunders and Andray Blatche discuss:

• Flip talks about his team in general, playing against good opponents home and away.
• Blatche talks about what the team is focused on with the opening night loss in Orlando and the Thanksgiving night loss in Atlanta in mind, and how this Wizards team approaches Dwight Howard’s effect on defense.
• Flip talks about the progression of Nick Young and his role coming off the bench (note: the newly acquired Alonzo Gee will be starting at the three spot with Wall out due to a bruised left knee— he joins Gilbert Arenas, Kirk Hinrich, Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee in the starting lineup).

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Truth About It» Patiently Waiting For Accountability

{Andray Blatche gets consoled by Wizards trainer Eric Waters after experiencing a malady early in third quarter against the Hawks. Trevor Booker would be subbed in for him around the 8-minute mark and Blatche would not see the court again on the night. Due to getting poked in the eyes? Perhaps. Due to other inefficiencies? Probable.}

“Maybe too much turkey,” Flip Saunders suggested to TNT’s Craig Sager during a sideline interview early in Atlanta’s 116-96Thanksgiving nightthrashing of the Washington Wizards on national television.TheWashington Post’sMichael Lee pointed out (viaTwitter) that the team ate their holiday meal together at an Atlanta hotel the day before the game on Wednesday.

But a one-day carryover of sleepiness resulting from Tryptophan or not, there aren’t too many excuses for a young team to come out lacking energy, toughness, aggression and any other immeasurable trait that’s also wholly noticeable. Inexperienced squads like the Wizards do tend to struggle with consistency, but such miniscule effort has happened way too many times in a season just 14 games old. Hopefully the Wizards enjoyed their holiday vacation and comradary together in the South, because they sure didn’t show up in Georgia to play basketball. They were never even in the game.

Notes and thoughts, randomly:

• Flip Saunders, it seems, has been pigeon-holed into playing the gimmicky three-guard lineup, because it includes some of his better, more veteran talent. But it’s not going to work against most teams.
• With big men behind those guards who have very low-level awareness— from harder concepts such as rotations, to easier tasks like simply having hands and limbs active in passing lanes— all an opponent needs to do is be patient enough to make the extra pass against the Wizards and they’re golden.
• Mike Prada opineson Bullets Forever:“… if the concern with pairing Wall and Arenas is that neither guy plays well without the ball, how does adding Hinrich to that mix help? Saunders, so far, has gotten the Hinrich of 2007 rather than the Hinrich of 2009 this year.  He’s gotten the Hinrich that dribbles around looking to make plays rather than the one that sits in a corner and finishes plays.”
• In other words, in Saunders’ system Hinrich is closer to Earl Boykins.
• Rebounding just might be the toughest assignment in basketball. Sure, constantly chasing a wing guard around screens can leave a player with bruises. Jostling elbows in the paint with some of the largest athletes in the world ain’t an easy job either. But rebounding either produces or preserves possessions, and doing it well requires relentlessness, something the Wizards simply do not have.
• Well, let me check that for a second. JaVale McGee has really impressed lately with his hustle, his version of relentlessness. When he appears to be trying as hard as he has been (with stellar statistical results), it’s much easier to swallow his instances of cluelessness… while he’s young.
• Of course, when McGee wastes offensive possessions trying to get to the basket from 20 feet away by dribbling the ball once and then using that lengthy step of his to wrangle around a defender, contorting his body in ways that should be on display in a museum while throwing up some floating junk that’d even make a playground pickup game pause, you still want to pull out your hair and sit his ass on the bench, even though he’s really the only Wizards big man who can make a difference on both ends of the floor.
• And then there’s Andray Blatche. He’s certainly improved his basketball skills now that he’s in his sixth NBA season. And surely he’s acquired more basketball intelligence, making inherent to his thought process some of the game’s nuances. But c’mon folks, let’s be honest, this is thesame exactBlatche he’s always exposed to us.
• On the Hawks’ first offensive possession, Blatche set a tone by casually letting an offensive board slip through his hands. I hesitate to denote anything past the area around Blatche’s waste as“soft” right now— to flat-out accuse a player of being soft these days requires some more due diligence– but Andray certainly doesn’t embrace contact like a big man should.  On offense he acts like a guard willing to do anything to keep a shot attempt from the lengthy arms of a much larger defender… then you realize that Blatche is a 7-footer and you wonder why he just can’t take the goddamn ball right to the rim in order to draw a foul. He’s a great free-throw shooter, you’d think he’d want to produce more undefended points.
• On defense, Blatche rarely offers much resistance in the paint. Sure, he can use acquired technique to hold his position, or his long arms to thrawt shot attempts, but most of the time, if an opponent works hard enough to get position on him down low, it’s over.
• The most damning vision from Blatche against the Hawks was his single rebound in 19 first half minutes. To his credit, he did snag three more rebounds over the first four minutes of the third quarter, but by then it seems that Flip Saunders had seen enough. With eight minutes remaining in the period, Blatche would be relegated to the bench for the rest of the night (believe that it was due to his eyes being poked if you must, he looked fine on the bench later in the game). When you’re getting your butt kicked as much as the Wizards were, you definitely don’t want to see a complacent, apathetic performance from one of your most talented players. And actually, I’m hesitant to call Blatche apathetic. It’s not that he doesn’t care, he just, perhaps, never knew how to work hard in the first place, and this team has never taught him. Or maybe they have and he’s just incapable, which would really bring into question why the Wizards signed him to an extension this past summer.
• Ted Leonsis doesn’t get embarrassed easily, he says. But you wonder at what point he becomes concerned to the point of action. It’s still much too early in the season to be making rash decisions. It’s not like the Wizards’ situation is asdire as Detroit’s.
• But clearly, someone needs to have a‘come to Jesus’ with Blatche. Which, again, is kind of hard with that extending of his contract. Not sure how effective a parent would be if they gave their kid a cookie and a Snickers and then told them to sit in the corner to think about what they’ve done.
• Saunders is a great coach, and the circumstances unable to be controlled by him during his tenure in Washington have been rather miserable, but the coach also hasn’t exactly expanded or enhanced his resume while with the Wizards. Not that he’s incapable of turning it around, but he’s not off to the best start.
• Patience, patience, patience… rebuilding, rebuilding, rebuilding— valid aspects of what the Wizards are currently going through. But at some point, accountability must go hand-and-hand with those terms in order for a franchise that hasn’t been relevant in over 30 years to truly build.

At least there’s this (via the Post’s Lee):

“It’s still not a big reason why we played that bad. We have to change some things and just start playing hard. We get paid for this. This is our job, this is our dream. This is what we want to do. We got to start acting like it and taking it more serious.”-John Wall

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Truth About It» Thanksgiving With The Washington Wizards

Before Tuesday night’s thrillingOT victory over the 76ers, I gathered up comments from JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche, Hilton Armstrong, Cartier Martin, Trevor Booker and Al Thornton about the Thanksgiving Holiday. I asked the players what they were thankful for, what food they would serve at dinner, about their fondest memories of the holiday growing up and got them to provide a short greeting to the fans.

Since the team is in Atlanta for a game against the Hawks tonight, they will eat a meal together Thursday afternoon. Thornton, who hails from Georgia, will be able to spend some time with his family and friends.

Enjoy the video and everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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Truth About It» Gilbert Arenas On Playing Weight& Regaining Basketball Shape

Whether you’re in the NBA or not, what you eat and how your body reacts is kind of a big deal… but especially if you are in the NBA, or any other type of athlete. Just this season, we’ve seen Al Thornton playing with more hustle and explosiveness, partially due to his summertime consumption change of cutting beef, chicken and pork out of his diet. On the other hand, we’ve seen Andray Blatche struggle to get in playing shape, seemingly more than he should be after suffering a broken foot in June, due to his dabbling in late-night snacks.

Gilbert Arenas is a third case on the team, at least in terms of playing weight and getting into full game shape. Most of Arenas’ setbacks can be attributed the groin and ankle tweaks he experienced in preseason, which also caused him to miss the first three games of the regular season. When asked about how his knee felt after Wednesday’s home game versus Houston, Gilbert scoffed,“I haven’t had a knee problem for a year and a half now, so I don’t know why people keep asking about it.”

But otherwise, as John Townsend noticed in his‘Player Lock’ on Arenas, he doesn’t exactly look physically comfortable on the court just yet, and that’s to be expected… asArenas himself has admittedthat he’s probably about 10 pounds overweight.

“Gil’s still a long ways away,” said Flip Saunders after Wednesday’s game.“He needs to lose some weight and he needs to just get practice time on the court to get his legs under him. Because when you don’t shoot well, he’s not shooting well, you don’t have your legs under you as much. Give him credit, he worked hard on the defensive end --tried to work— so it’s going to be a work in process. But what we can’t do is we can’t put him in situations where we start playing him too many minutes because we don’t want him to have any kind of an injury.”

Before talking to him aboutpooping in shoes, which, believe it or not, is a result of what you eat, I briefly spoke with Arenas about losing weight. I started by asking him if he’s changed his diet to facilitate weight loss, Gil went in his own direction, indicating that he’s not completely willing to buy that he needs to lose weight, or that he’s overweight. And on regaining basketball shape, Arenas says he still doesn’t completely trust his ankle and is weary of it becoming a lingering injury.

Oh, and also, in the summer, when it’s hotter, you don’t eat as much, says Gil. Kind of makes sense since people like to pack on pounds when it’s cold (also via eating around the holidays). Also, kind of doesn’t make sense. Whatever, just watch.

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Truth About It» All Eyes On Yi

{Note:  This is the second installment of"Player Lock", where we at Truth About It focus on one player for an entire game.  The first installment focused onGilbert Arenas.}

Yi Jianlian had to be feeling the pressure Wednesday night.

It was Asian Heritage Night at the Verizon Center, which meant there was an increased number of Asian fans and media watching his every move.  Across the floor, there was a man from his native country in Yao Ming, who already draws his fair share of Asian fans wherever he goes, let alone in Washington D.C. on Asian Heritage Night.   To make things even more interesting, there were going to be millions of basketball fans back home in China, watchingthe country’s biggest basketball stars go head-to-head.

So I chose to dedicate this version of the“Player Lock” series to Yi, because I wanted to see if he crumbled under pressure, rose to the challenge, or was just indifferent to it all.  I got my first indication of how Yi was feeling about 35 minutes before game time when I saw him holding court in front of several members of the Chinese media.

He was relaxed, he was smiling, and he did not look like he felt one iota of pressure.  As it turns out, that was a good omen for his performance on the court.

Yi entered the game with 4:16 left in the first quarter, and the crowd gave him a rousing round of applause. He immediately found himself defending Houston’s Luis Scola.  Scola attempted to body Yi and back him down, but he stood his ground and forced Scola to give up the ball.  This may not sound like anything significant, but JaVale McGee, who Yi replaced when he entered the game, frequently leaves his feet and finds himself in bad positions defensively.  Thiswas a refreshing change.

About a minute later, Yi took a pass fromGilbert Arenas,and drained a 19-foot jump shot.  He ended the quarter by rotating away from Jordan Hill (who replaced the injured Yao Ming), and blocking a shot by Kyle Lowry.  It was yet another picture perfect defensive play, and clear to me at that point that Yi was motivated to play at both ends of the floor.

In the second quarter, Yi had every aspect of his versatile game on display.  He had a pretty assist to Andray Blatche, he blocked the shot of Chase Buddinger, he drove strong to the basket (even when he missed), and he grabbed rebounds.  He also had a goal-tending violation called against him, but that was highly questionable so he gets a pass there.

My favorite play of the period came with about 5:48 left in the second, when Yi took a pass from John Wall and nailed a 19-foot jumper.  Instead of just running down the court after he hit the big shot, Yi held his follow-thru hand up a bit longer than usual.   For a man who rarely shows emotion on the court, it was quite a demonstrative gesture.  He was subbed out of the game (not because of the gesture though) at the 4:38 mark to yet another standing ovation.

Yi only played about five minutes in the third quarter, but he continued to do little, but necessary things on the defensive end.  He played physical defense on Scola, he blocked Kevin Martin’s shot, and he grabbed a couple rebounds as well.  His aggressive defense seemed to boost his confidence on the offensive end as well.  He went 3-for-5 in the third, which was highlighted by a strong dunk on an assist from Wall.

Yi’s play on both ends of the floor was so stellar, Flip Saunders decided to play him the entire fourth quarter, leaving McGee relegated to the bench. He didn’t score from the field in the fourth, and his defense slipped a bit as Scola became more assertive on offense.  Yi did grab three rebounds and blocked a shot for the fourth consecutive quarter.  As he ran out of gas a bit, I kept expecting to see McGee by the scorer’s table, but it never happened.

Yi scored the last basket of the night for the Wizards (a free throw), and when the game ended, he had achieved season highs in points, rebounds and blocks, finishing with 13 points, seven and four.  After the game, Saunders and Andray Blatche both had nothing but high praise for Yi.

“I thought that Yi was huge tonight. He made big shots. You know he made big blocks. Unfortunately Yao couldn’t play most of the game, but Yi was the best player from China tonight.”-Saunders

“Yi is a great player…  He gave us some key shots that we needed and got some great rebounds so he played a solid game for us tonight.”- Blatche

Toward the end of his press conference, I askedJohn Wallabout Yi’s play:

Yi not only performed well on what could have been a difficult, pressure-filled night, but he seems to have earned the trust of his head coach going forward.  Given the average play from the Wizards front line so far this season, that can only be a plus.

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