Wizards Win It For Flip

Wizards Win 103 - 96 against the Minnesota Timberwolves

If you expected Cartier Martin, Maurice Evans and a sick Trevor Booker (who had flu like symptoms) would be one of the reasons why the Wizards would win, then you are a freaking genius.  Cartier was hustling and was giving the Wiz Kids plenty of his energy.  Maurice Evans hit some key three pointers from the corner.  Flip Saunders even said that he shoots the corner 3's really well.  Booker did not feel well as he had flu like symptoms but the Wizards asked him to play sparingly and he agreed to do so.  Nick Young actually did not play this game because he had flu like symptoms. 

Booker had two back to back dunks that got the crowd on their feet. "The 2 dunks were crazy, don't know which one was crazier, the 1st or the 2nd one," said Blatche about Bookers dunks.  Despite being sick, Booker had the adrenaline rush hit him after the dunks as he described it after the game. By the way, Booker thought the 2nd one was better.

Andray Blatche, for someone who gets alot of grief because of the way he plays, had a really good game.  I guess he was motivated playing against Kevin Love (he finished with 20 points 21 rebounds).  Blatche ended up with 20 points 7 rebounds, and 4 assist.  If only Blatche could be this motivated and emotional during a game.

Coach Saunders said that Blatche's performance was "good as he's done all year." 

Speaking of good, Kevin Love is tied with 50 double doubles as he ties Moses Malone and next in line is Kareem Abdul Jaabar who had 51 of those bad boys. Guy is a beast inside and watching him live, it's incredible how he can get so many rebounds.

Having a death in the family is hard, but what is harder is having your own mother die and you must continue coaching.  Flip Saunders had some what of some puffy eyes as he was describing before the game how he had to coach this game and then Sunday night, he would not coach because he had to go take of the funeral services.

Tonight, it was all about effort says Dray after the game, the Wizards need more of that on a consistent basis.

By the way, John Wall almost had a triple double, it's only time where he will have plenty of those.  He finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assist.

 

Box Score

Minnesota Timberwolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Michael Beasley, PF	34	8-20	1-4	1-2	0	4	4	2	0	0	2	5	-1	18
Kevin Love, PF	37	8-18	0-2	4-5	8	13	21	3	0	0	5	0	-2	20
Nikola Pekovic, C	26	6-7	0-0	1-2	4	4	8	1	0	0	3	4	-3	13
Luke Ridnour, PG	35	7-15	0-1	0-0	1	1	2	6	3	0	3	6	-6	14
Wayne Ellington, G	40	6-11	2-2	1-2	1	4	5	4	2	0	3	2	-6	15
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Anthony Tolliver, C	18	1-3	0-1	1-1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	-9	3
Lazar Hayward, F	21	0-6	0-1	2-2	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	2	-9	2
Jonny Flynn, PG	13	2-4	1-3	0-0	0	2	2	3	1	0	2	0	-1	5
Anthony Randolph, PF	15	2-6	0-0	2-4	3	2	5	0	0	3	3	3	+2	6
Darko Milicic, C	DNP PERSONAL REASONS
Sebastian Telfair, PG	DNP COACH'S DECISION
Wesley Johnson, SF	DNP FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF		PTS
		40-90	4-14	12-18	17	31	48	21	6	3	21	22		96
		44.4%	28.6%	66.7%
Fast break points: 16 Points in the paint: 42 Team TO ( points off ): 21 (18)

 

Washington Wizards
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Rashard Lewis, PF	23	3-11	2-4	2-2	1	0	1	1	0	0	2	2	+1	10
Andray Blatche, PF	40	9-18	0-0	2-4	4	3	7	7	3	0	2	4	+5	20
JaVale McGee, C	29	5-9	0-0	4-6	3	4	7	0	1	2	2	4	+5	14
Jordan Crawford, SG	20	3-10	1-5	1-2	1	3	4	1	1	0	2	2	-3	8
John Wall, PG	39	8-17	0-0	2-6	2	9	11	8	1	0	2	2	+8	18
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Maurice Evans, SF	25	5-10	3-5	2-2	0	1	1	0	2	0	1	1	+6	15
Cartier Martin, GF	27	2-8	2-4	1-2	1	4	5	1	1	1	0	1	+12	7
Mustafa Shakur, PG	9	0-1	0-0	2-2	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	0	-1	2
Yi Jianlian, PF	1	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	+2	0
Trevor Booker, C	17	3-5	0-0	1-2	3	4	7	1	1	1	0	2	+10	7
Kevin Seraphin, F	9	1-1	0-0	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	-10	2
Hamady Ndiaye, C	DNP COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF		PTS
		39-91	8-18	17-28	16	28	44	21	10	4	13	20		103
		42.9%	44.4%	60.7%
Fast break points: 21 Points in the paint: 48 Team TO ( points off ): 14 (16)

 

Game Highlights Courtesy of CSNWashington.com

 

 

Post Game Quotes Courtesy of The Wizards PR Staff

WIZARDS HEAD COACH FLIP SAUNDERS

On the play of the bench:

“The bench, Booker, Cartier, Mo (Evans), you know all those guys did a really good job. Booker was sick, that’s why we didn’t use him much. We didn’t know if we were even going to be able to play him and it got to the point that we just needed some energy.   We put him and he did a great job for us.”

On Trevor Booker:

“I toyed with the idea of starting him today, just because of how he’s played. You know he has been as effective as anybody for our team and how we’ve played.  He did a phenomenal job, with his two dunks, his two highlight dunks, got emotionally us into the game, got the crowed into the game.”

On Andray Blatche:

“I thought Andray (Blatche) gave his most sustained effort.  That’s probably as good as he’s done all year.”

WIZARDS GUARD JOHN WALL

On tonight’s game:

“We played great. We played hard. We knew it would be tough stopping (Kevin) Love on the boards.  Minnesota plays a tough game, and that’s what we did. We finished it out. We really closed out the game.”

On Kevin Love:

“He’s tough. He’s so great at getting into position on rebounds.  Coach said, ‘whoever is guarding him, box him out and let the other guys get the rebounds.  I really tried helping out the big men tonight.”

On Trevor Booker:

“He was great. He always gives a lot of energy when he comes into games. It was tough for him to play being sick but he really added to the lead for us.”

WIZARDS FORWARD ANDRAY BLATCHE

On the game:

“Tonight was all about effort, we came out and we played well together. We scored well and we defended. We were really prepared for this game especially after the drills Flip put us through yesterday. We didn’t put our heads down and we played with confidence.  (Trevor) Booker made two great plays and gave us a lot of great energy. We just have to bring this game out every night.  I’m really happy with how everyone played tonight especially without having Nick (Young).”

WIZARDS FORWARD TREVOR BOOKER

On the game:

“I tried to go in the first half and put in work but I wasn’t feeling too well tonight. I tried to bring as much energy as I could. My big thing is offensive rebounding, that is how I get most of my touches.  I just try and get the ball every time and nobody was able to box me out so I just went for offensive rebounds every time.”

TIMBERWOLVES HEAD COACH KURT RAMBIS

On the game:

“I thought our guys did a pretty good job throughout the ball game back and forth, we got ourselves a little lead at the end of the third quarter and then we just couldn’t find ways to get stops. W e had several great chances to make baskets but we fell a little bit short in that area.”

On John Wall:

“We really wanted Wall to beat us without outside shots.  We didn’t do a good job of keeping him from the basket because he is so quick and explosive. We did a good job passing the basketball, but at the end we missed a couple of shots that we should have made. “

On the Wizards:

“They made big plays. They made shots and got second chance opportunities. We turned the ball over and we missed some shots that could have kept the game in our favor.  (Trevor) Booker made a couple of key baskets off of offensive rebounds, but Wall’s speed and quickest hurt us. They found ways to score, so our defense hurt us again. “

TIMBERWOLVES FORWARD KEVIN LOVE:

On the game:

“We had good things going for us obviously we were down at half, but in the second half, especially that third quarter we were playing well.  We were knocking down shots, we were executing and at one point we had our game rolling.  The game is not about the first three quarters, it is about how you finish and they just finished better than us tonight.”

On pressure for the record:

“There is no pressure.  We have the Mavericks on Monday and that is all I am really thinking about.  I’m not worried about the record.  I feel like I am playing good basketball right now and a few guys are on this team are as well, but as a team we need to put all those guys playing well together and start winning some games.”