John Wall Bucks Up

In his first true test as a professional basketball player, John Wall took the challenge eagerly and did not disappoint the fans in attendance at the Verizon Center to watch this pre-season game. The intensity was high during the first half of the game as Wall vs Jennings was running at full speed in spite of coach Flip Saunders rotating potential Wizards throughout the game causing different ebbs and flows as chemistry became an apparent issue. The highlight of the Wall vs Jennings show was when Wall crossed jennings and got past him for a quick layup that Wall followed by turning around and smiling at him. Jennings not so pleased did not respond and proceeded with his coaches next called play. Jennings obviously upset that he is no longer part of the shiny new car smell group.

Wall played with intensity along side Gilbert Arenas and the pair looked to actually be having fun on the court. Arenas came into the game off the bench and got got loud cheers from the audience in attendance and he responded with a few waves of his hand. Both Wall and Arenas created turnovers that led to some quality fast breaks that got the crowd excited. It was too soon when Gilbert came limping to the bench with that appeared to be a groin issue of some sort. No official word at time of press but I was told off the record that it was the groin. Some of my colleagues used the word karma in terms of describing Gilbert's injury but others call it what it is and hope he gets better soon as it's becoming obvious that the Wall/Arenas guard combo will be a force to reckon with this season.

The 2nd half of the game was what one would expect from a pre-seaon game. Coach Saunders shuffled guys in and out and many vets got a well deserved break. This is in essence is a try out for many of the young players. Saunders replaced Hinrich and Wall with lester Hudson who is quickly making a name for himself as he has solid fundamentals and a great shot from the perimeter. Time will tell if Hudson and the others in this cast will make the team. The energy in the building faded as live try outs commenced and the assistant coaches got busy with their note taking but one Adam Morrison did his part by draining a long three that temporarily got the crowd fired up if only for a short while

The young Wiz kids seem to be enjoying this time and Andray Blatche told me that the chemistry portion of the equation is coming together at a decent clip. Lets hope it continues and carries over into the regular season as the men behind the curtain create this years team for the fans

 

Post game quotes to note

 

OCTOBER 14, 2010

BUCKS 96, WIZARDS 88

 

WIZARDS HEAD COACH FLIP SAUNDERS

On how the big men for the Wizards played:

“Our bigs are basically trying to play too much perimeter. That’s something we have got to clean up.  We got to have a thrust inside.  They keep on popping out, popping out.  That just isn’t going to work.  We got to have more of a presence in the paint.”

On how John Wall played:

“John had eight assists in the first half, and he ended up with 11.  I thought our team played extremely selfish today.  So when that happens, especially when you’re a point guard and that happens it becomes very frustrating.”

WIZARDS GUARD JOHN WALL

On how he felt about his double-double:

“It means, to me, nothing if we don’t get the win.  That’s the key point…come in to help the team as much as I can; lead the team like Coach wants me to do right now, try to get the win.  It’s great to have a double-double but doesn’t mean anything.  I think we took a step back more like we did last game.  So we got to go back and do some more work and then progress up for the next game.”

WIZARDS GUARD KIRK HINRICH

On the game:

“Flip didn’t seem too happy with the offense tonight. When you play those good teams, we can’t play that way.  We learned that last year the hard way and are trying to fix it this year.”

WIZARDS FORWARD ANDRAY BLATCHE

On the team’s performance:

“We’re still growing and getting to know each other as a team. You just have to give it some time. None of the players on this team are selfish players, we all care about each other and now it’s all about time and getting to know each other’s game better.”

WIZARDS CENTER JAVALE MCGEE

On his performance:

“Coach has definitely instilled in me to talk more on defense and offense, so I’m just trying to be more vocal. All we want to do is win and do what the coaches are asking of us.”

On the team’s performance:

“We are all still learning off of each other and we’re all going to change in order to fit the system.  I see our chemistry coming along really well.”

BUCKS HEAD COACH SCOTT SKILES

On the game:

“We talked about it at halftime, we had 14 turnovers.  We’ve got to trim those down, we’ve got to turn up our defense, and do a good job on both things and get to the line a lot.”

On getting to the free throw line:

“We were 14 of 15 in the first quarter so we got to the line right out of the gate.  We got a couple early in the third, and that’s not uncharted territory so we’ve got to take advantage of it.”

BUCKS GUARD BRANDON JENNINGS

On the game:

“I’ll take it, you know, with the win…and the guys, I think we did a great job in the fourth quarter, I think we held them to nine points, or something like that.   The second half, I think defensively we did great.”

On John Wall:

“He’s good…real fast with the ball.  He pushes the ball.  He’s exciting of course, I just hope they don’t try to bring him out too much.  He’s playing a lot of minutes and it’s only preseason, so I tried to tell him after the game, ‘take your time.’  I’m not going to tell him don’t work out but remember there’s 82 games, ‘just pace yourself,’ and that’s what I’m trying to do right now because I know what’s coming.”

More on Wall:

“Yeah he’s strong.  He reminds me of a Derrick Rose or Russell Westbrook, those type of players.  Fast with the ball, likes to push it.  He did his thing.”

BUCKS GUARD KEYON DOOLING

On Yi Jianlian:

“He’s a guy who I enjoyed working with.  That’s my guy.  He’s a great guy.”

 

Javale Mcgee post game interview

Andray Blatche post game comments

Pics from the game