WE Recap: Wizards at Pistons 4/5/12

 

	1	2	3	4	FINAL
Wizards	21	19	24	30	94
Pistons	28	23	25	23	99

 

TOP PERFORMERS
Wizards			Pistons
John Wall	PTS	28	Greg Monroe	PTS	18
Kevin Seraphin	REB	9	Jason Maxiell	REB	8
John Wall	AST	10	3 tied	AST	3
Wall / Seraphin	STL	2	Wallace / Bynum	STL	2
Jan Vesely	BLK	1	Wallace / Jerebko	BLK	4
3 tied	TO	3	Brandon Knight	TO	5
Jan Vesely	+/-	+10	Jonas Jerebko	+/-	+12

Wizards Player of the Game

John Wall bounced back from a tough night with a 28pt, 4 reb, 10ast, 2 stl peformance that was highlighted by his 1000 and 1001st career assist. A few more assists would have been there had some of his teammates knocked down open shots but I was happy to see the turnovers down, the free throw attempts high and seeing John play with a little bit of swag again.

WE’s to Watch/WE Spotlight

Greg Monroe For the second night in a row the Wizards played against a former Georgetown Hoya Center and for the second night in a row that Hoyas Center led his team to vicotry. Monroe finished with 18 points on a more than efficient 70% from the field in only 21 minutes of play. We basically saw what you typically see from Monroe night in and night out, a steady performance putting the basket in the bucket as well as solid rebounding and defense.

Kevin Seraphin I rolled in late on the Seraphin train but for all the crap we give Ernie Grunfeld about his personnel moves you can now say his draft class of 2010 has four solid contributers. Seraphin's improved play in the past few months, really by virute of his increased minutes continued with another solid effort against the Piston's Centers. Unfortuately he fouled out on a pretty bad flop by Benjamin Wallace but I continue to be impressed with his comfortablity around the basket. It's been a long time since we've had a player in DC that was comfortable playing with his back to the basket so Kevin's play of late should give Wizards fans something to be excited about.

The Good

The Wizards fought back and stayed in the game after enduring a brutal 2 minute stretch at the start of the 4th quarter. Going down by as many 20 and coming off last night's performance against the Pacers I was cringing at the thought of having to watch 8 minutes of "I don't care" basketball. Fortunately, thanks to some timely 3's by Cartier Martin and Roger Mason Jr. the Wizards kept it close and really almost had a chance to get the game squared at the end. A loss is a loss but clearly this was a better effort than the the performance Washington had the night before.

The Bad

Jordan Crawford's night. I'm not going to take this space to crush JCraw, just going to say he had an off night and the Wizards can't win games when the starting shooting guard goes 2 for 13. I didn't like some of Jordan's decisions during the course of the game, and say what you want, what essentially ended up being the Wizards last chance (a fadeaway 3 point attempt that air-balled) shouldn't have come off of his hands. That ball needed to find it's way to either Roger Mason, Jr., or Cartier Martin. Asad would probably kill me for saying that and would argue that a shooter needs to shoot but I like my chances better with the guys who are a combined 5 for 9 than the guy who is 1 for 5, especially when the game is on the line.

The Ugly

The referees. The whistle was inconsistant all night and no one wants to watch the Wizards and Pistons play to the tune of 68 free throw attempts. I think Bavetta, Workman and Rush all missed key calls on both sides of the court and killed Washington with a few key fouls towards the end of the game a couple of which they completely blew. Kudos to Big Ben Wallace who pulled off some soccer like flops and must have set at least 20 illegal picks throughout the night. What ever happened to having to set yourself in position on the pick? That's the last time I talk about referee's. Ever.