Hornets Smith Has Career Night As Wizards Lose To The Hornets

WASHINGTON- The Washington Wizards go winless on their Southwestern road trip and drop to 0-25 on the road after losing to the New Orleans Hornets 97-89.

Any Wizards fan will tell you that over the years, this team has made a habit of bringing out the best in opposing players. Names such as Earl Boykins, Jannero Pargo and Carlos Arroyo all come to mind as guys that have been ‘Wizard-Killers’. After this most recent loss you can add one more to that list, and his name is Jason Smith.

After the game, Smith told the Associated Press how he felt about his performance.

“"It was a special game, a career night for me," said Smith after his career-high 20 point performance.

In his fourth season out of Colorado State, Smith made what was only his second career start after starter Emeka Okafor missed the game due to a left oblique strain he suffered against the Phoenix Suns.

"I just went out there and tried to play aggressive like he (Okafor) would. We really need him back healthy, but in the meantime we have a lot of guys that are willing to step up."

Hornets star Chris Paul stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals as the Hornets snap a two-game losing streak. Trevor Ariza also pitched in with 16 points as he and Paul connected several times for easy buckets inside the paint.

New Orleans leading scorer David West (18.8 ppg) was out of sync with his shot, converting only 3 of 10 attempts for 10 points in addition to his 8 rebounds. The Hornets got a boost though as Willie Green and Marcus Thornton combined for 21 points off the bench.

On the night where he was named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month, John Wall struggled to find his shot, going 2-10 from the field to tie his season low of 4 points for the game.  Wall also had 7 of the teams 13 assists.

Nick Young bounced back from poor shooting night against Dallas to score a quiet 30 points. Nick looked back in-rhythm as he shot 50 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from beyond the arc.

Thanks to our friends over at Comcast SportsNet over the next two days on Sportsnite at 6p - 10p and 1am, all of us who are interested will get to see Chris Miller's 1 on 1 interview with the man who was never short on words, until he went Agent EMO....

Gilbert J. Arenas, a.k.a. Agent Zero, Hibachi and Black President

From what we are being told, this is not a slow pitch softball interview and is one that leaves no stones unturned. 

As the interview is released Wizards Extreme will provide a quick recap and the video feed from CSNWashington.com.

It all starts tomorrow but what would a tease be without a tease....

Big shoutout to the Comcast Sportsnet team of Chris Miller, Terrence Stroder and Brooks Meriweather for their roles in putting these interviews together. Nobody gets to see the amount of work these individuals do, or the studio folks for that matter but we feel you all should get to see some of the faces who bring you all your Wizards footage via CSNWashington.

Another quick shout out to a media colleague who works his ass off and friend of Wizards Extreme...

More to come on WizardsExtreme.com after the 6pm Sportsnite 2/3/2011

WSH 92 DAL 102

WASHINGTON- After a strong first half, the Washington Wizards once again falter down the stretch as they lose their 24^th consecutive road game to the Dallas Mavericks.

The excitement for Super Bowl XLV was clear through out the crowd at the American Airlines Arena as Steelers and Packers fans were present; Cowboys fans of course booed both.

John Wall came out of the gate determined not to allow his team to get off to another slow start. The rookie guard from Kentucky was aggressive getting to rim as well as setting up teammates early on, finishing with 17 points and 10 assists.

Wall delivered his most impressive pass of the night to during the second quarter when he threaded the needle from the top of the key to a cutting Al Thornton who converted the layup and drew a foul.

After leading by as many as 12 though, the Wizards ended the first half down by one.

There were three reasons that made the Washington Wizards' 23rd road loss of the season at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies predictable.

For one, they haven't won on the road all year so why would Saturday night be any different?

Second, they were coming off of a double overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in which guards John Wall and Nick Young each played 52 minutes.

And lastly, they were without starter, JaVale McGee (flu).

Yet, for some reason, it just seemed like it could finally be night that the embarrassing road loss record would come to an end.  After all, the Grizzlies were missing their starting guard, O.J. Mayo. and were also on the second game of a back to back.

The problems for Washington started and ended in the paint.  They couldn't stop Zach Randolph and he made them pay in the amount of 24 points and 20 rebounds.  McGee's absence was felt, but truth be told, there wasn't a whole lot he could have done against the 260-pound forward on this night.  Randolph's presence and Darrell Arthur's career game helped give Memphis a 68-36 advantage in the paint.  They outrebounded Washington by 11, including an unacceptable 14 offensive rebounds.

"I don't know. We don't stay consistent with play calling.  It's crazy. It can't be us all the time. The same thing we run against the Thunder, we came out with a different plan. It can't be us every night. We should've carried over what we had against the Thunder. We should've came out excited and ready to pump and going with the same routine. Everybody came out forced, like we got to get this done, and that forced us to play different." - Nick Young

If you are a glass-half-empty type, then the Washington Wizards blew opportunities to win their first road game last night in Oklahoma City.

If you are a glass-half-full type, then they left everything on the floor and almost beat one of the elite teams in the western conference, despite missing a key starter and sixth man paired with superstar performances from Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

Both views are correct, and the bottom line remains that the Wizards are getting very close to setting the NBA record for most losses on the road to start the season.

It was a seesaw game that saw Washington jump out to a first quarter lead, trail at halftime, lead at the end of the third quarter, only to end up going into overtime and ultimately lose thanks to Durant scoring 10 of his game-high 40 points in the second OT.  Russell Westbrook continued to show why he isn't just an all-star caliber player, but is becoming arguably the best point guard in the game with his 35 point-13 rebound-13 assist outing- his third triple double of the season.

Nick Young lead the Wizards in scoring with 32 points, including a shot with 13.1 seconds that sent the game into overtime.  However, he missed a chance to win the game at the end of the first overtime in an awkward attempt that fell short.

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Carmelo Anthony's wedding marked a start to a new chapter in the young Super-Stars life.

What Anthony didn't realize was that a toast by his friend and New Orleans Hornets Point Guard, Chris Paul, would start a firestorm of speculation that has clouded Anthony’s, as well as the rest of the Denver Nuggets season.

Free agents like LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Amare Stoudemire made the summer of 2010 a bidding war between NBA teams. Anthony could have joined his fellow USA teammates but he picked up an option on his contract that allowed him to become a free agent during summer of 2011 instead.

Looking to avoid a similar situation to what the Cleveland Cavaliers experienced when James ‘took his talents’ to Miami, Denver has opened up trade negotiations with several teams in order to obtain pieces for the future after Anthony has rejected the teams offer to sign an extension.

The situation becomes tricky for Denver and possible suitors because Anthony has right to sign with whomever he chooses next summer, even if he is traded to a new team. So any organization that wants to trade for the all-star would ideally like him to commit to an extension first.

Wizards Get Crushed By The Denver Nuggets

Wizards 109, Nuggets 120

Andray Blatche went on the radio and off about how the fans turned their backs on him.  Even went to say that Gilbert warned him about it and was next to be booed out of this town.  Check out the full trasnscript over at BulletsForever.com.  Blatche should have never went that far but it is what it is.  Dray had a good game stats wise as he ended up with 25 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assist. Flip did say that he was 'proud' of Andray for his game against the Nuggets.

"We played like soldiers," said Nick Young after the win against the Boston Celtics.

What a game for the Wiz Kids. It felt like a road game as most of the stadium was filled up by the many bandwagon Boston Celtics fans.  This was a surprise, nobody and I mean nobody, expected the Wizards to win.  Who would have thought the Washington Wizards would have won with their best scorer, Nick Young shooting 1 for 13.

"I told Nick after the game, we played hard after the game, you played hard defensively, but you were killing us offensively, kiddingly" Flip stated after the game.

Wizards Lose At Home To The Suns 109-91

It was a tale of two half's once again.  The Wizards were up 53-52 at the end of the first half but it all went down hill from there.  In the first half, Nick Young was on fire, he ended up with 20 points in the 1st half, 5 in the 2nd.  What was the reason? Reston, Virginia's finest, Grant Hill.  Not only did he play great defense, there is a reason to that.  Grant called out the plays for Nick.  It was the same old plays and Grant knew that.  He was studying film about Nick and figured out the offensive plays.  Grant actually has some advice during the game for Nick, "if the first play don't work, then you gotta go to the second one," explained Nick.

Here are the keys to the game by Glenn Consor

GO WIZARDS!