There is plenty of excitement over the Wizards this season and for good reason. This is the first time the Washington basketball team has made the playoffs since 2008 and if the Wizards win one more game, they will have won their first playoff series in eight years. The real Wiz fans out there remember that was when the big three were together (Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler/Larry Hughes). To enhance this playoffs excitement, the Wizards were the only mainstream Washington professional sports team to make the playoffs in this year’s cycle. The majorly hyped Nationals and Redskins both fell on their faces. Sports Illustrated picked the Nationals to win the World Series while many were hailing the Redskins’ offense as one of the greatest ever. Both teams failed to make the playoffs. Even the Capitals did not make the playoff cut. After six straight seasons of failure, nobody in the media was focused on the Wiz kids.
Now that the Wizards have opened a 3-1 lead over the lackluster Bulls in the first round of the playoffs, people are praising the Wizards as an excellent and impressive team. Lets take a realistic view of the situation. Yes, the Wizards have talent and potential, but they are very fortunate to be in the Eastern Conference this season. The last seed in the East (Hawks) was six games below .500 entering the playoffs where as the last seed in the Western Conference (Mavericks) was 16 games above .500. The Wizards were only six games above .500 and have proven that they are a very immature team. They now get to play against a Bulls team that remains once again without their star point guard Derrick Rose. Over the course of the regular season, they have shown they can knock off the big dogs as they did with Miami and others, but they struggled mightily with subpar teams. During the regular season, they made horrible decisions down the stretch. One of the worst offenders was the star of the team, John Wall. It is true the All-Star point guard has ridiculous talent and speed, but he needs to play smarter to take the team to the next level. There is no doubt that he has improved tremendously this season, but he still has not reached the level that the team needs him to be at. Wall often takes ill-advised shots early in the shot clock without going through the offense. He tries to make ridiculous passes and turns over the ball. It seems he makes these mistakes most often when the game is on the line. However, he is showing that he is almost there (especially in this first round match-up).
Obviously, it was not just John Wall; he is the team’s most talented player. It seems at times the entire team is out of sync. This is why veteran additions like Drew Gooden and Andre Miller provide stability. Drew Gooden has been a fantastic and indispensable pick up. Without his performance filling in for Nene, the Wizards would not have even had a chance to obtain the fifth seed. Having big men who perform has made the difference this season.
Going into the playoffs, based on their regular season performance, it seemed as if the Wizards were simply not ready for any type of real competition even in the Eastern Conference. As huge NBA fan and Wizards follower, senior Oscar Huang stated, “The Wizards are a treadmill team stuck in mediocrity and ready to be swept.” It now appears the Wizards talent is overshadowing their immaturity (they have shown signs of maturing in this series).
But before we hail the Wizards as this fantastic team, lets take a step back at their current performance. The Chicago Bulls are a team that is very similar to the Wizards. Both teams are defensive minded teams that often struggle on the offensive end. The Wizards matchup well against the Bulls and have always had a shot at victory. The return of Nene gave the Wizards a chance to make a run, but they will have to leave the pee-wee mistakes at home. That means less boneheaded plays and better free throw shooting (this almost cost them game one and two). Even though the Wizards are focused and have come to play, they continue to show that they are a team that is at the right place at the right time and has no place contending for a championship. The free throw shooting in the first three games was abysmal. If they were playing the Raptors or even the Nets or Bobcats, who have more offensive production, it may have cost them all three.
Even Nene has acted unprofessionally. In game three he got into a fight with Bulls guard Jimmy Butler and was ejected and suspended a game. The stakes are too high for this type of behavior.
On the positive side the shot selection and ball movement of the Wizards has greatly improved. John has taken less rushed and ill-advised shots and instead the Wizards are running their offense the way it was meant to be run. It is clear Head Coach Randy Whitman had them prepared for this series.
The Wizards are very fortunate to be in the Eastern Conference. If the league did not use the conference system, the Wizards would be at the very bottom of the playoff seeding and out of the playoffs in the first round. But because they are, the Wizards have an opportunity to make some noise, however if they expect to get to the conference finals they will have to play like they belong. Unfortunately, no matter what happens, the Wizards have no chance of getting past Miami. If they happen to get that far, the sharp play of Miami will likely tear apart Washington.
