WASHINGTON (72) AT MIAMI (79), don't blame the refs

Buckhance was screaming about the officiating at the end of the game
again. Buckhance is an unabashed homer. That's his job, more or less.
Derrick Stafford is one of the best. They actually called a stolen tip,
for example, and cleaned up the zones early. I said "nicely officiated
game" to the TV a couple times. And the Wizards had 17 PFs to the Heat's
9. Quite possible. Hayes, Jeffries and Haywood all had ugly fouls. That's
not Wade or Butler's style, and when Alston makes an ugly foul it involves
stitches.

The Wizards had gotten real good at drawing "charges" by running into
someone in the no-charge zone. Too good. A: that only pertains for the
secondary defender, which wasn't the case on Etan's missed layup late in
the game, and B: even if the guy is not the primary defender, the rules
don't say it's a foul on the secondary defender, just that it's not a
charge. I say it's a no-call. The Wizards had been getting the call. A
lot. That may have stopped, and in fact should have.

The Wizards lost again basically in the fashion I've described all year.
They don't find ways to lose, they have a proven formula. The Heat pulled
up chairs at the buffet table of the Inoffensive Perimeter Patty-Cake
Offense late in the game. There was some vague improvement in how the
Wizards' game was coached though. They attacked the paint a bit more,
apparently by plan. Nobody could hit though. Etan was even more
Wallace-like than usual. Another thing the Wizards dried up a while ago
was the traps. They don't leave people wide open as much as they used to.

The Wizards didn't really get out-rebounded. That's new. That's largely
due to Blake, who had six boards. It takes a guy his size a while to
figure out what he can get away with in there. Stevie does a nice Kidd
imitation off a long board too, but nobody is doing the K-Mart or
Jefferson imitations yet.

Juan may be listening to me. He drove more, and put up 11 points on 7 FGAs
in 15 minutes courtesy of 4 freethrows, all made. Fully Iversonesque. Etan
got no freethrows in 33 minutes, which is fishy, but I can be wrong once
in a while too. The other thing that I'm wrong about, or is just fishy, is
Happy Haywood had no boards in 10 minutes. That's not dominant, but it
could be a nasal infection or just the bounce of the ball.

Kwame may be listening to me too. He had a nice dream-laborer line in 10
minutes. One block, one steal, one assist, no fouls, awesome one-on-one D,
and 4 boards, which is a fair bunch for 10 minutes. In other words, he
stayed busy.

The game was a game because the Wizards do really play awesome D. The Heat
was clearly afraid of the paint in set-offense situations. All thier shots
were changed.

Keep pounding it inside until you get good at it. Don't expect fouls, and
they will come. DO expect to make the layup anyway. Just play basketball.
Intentional fouls are not basketball. Don't believe me? Try an intentional
foul in a pickup game.


Happy Chanukwanzamus.

humbubba DeleteThis @smart.net

Rick Hohensee
Precision Mojo Engineer