When the Wizards won the first overall pick for the draft that is taking place this Thursday, they were overrun with John Wall mania (as they should be). Now, John Wall is going to be the number one pick on Thursday, no doubt about it (they didn’t even work out Evan Turner) so the question becomes can the two play together?
Before we get down to looking at some game tape, let’s look at some numbers. 82Games.com is a fantastic statistical site, and maybe my favorite aspect of the site is they give you the top 20 most used lineups for whatever team you want. Looking at the lineups for the Wizards, one lineup in particular caught my eye. That one was the most successful lineup (in terms of +/-) with Arenas in it:
With the Rockets-Wizards game tied at 92 with 33 seconds left, the Rockets had a tough decision to make. With 22 seconds on the shot clock, they had to figure out if they wanted to go quick to preserve the two-for-one opportunity, ensuring that they will get the ball back, or if they just wanted to take their time, get the best look possible, and give the Wizards the final shot. The Rockets decided to go quick, and they run a quick hitter coming out of the timeout:
Aaron Brooks comes up the middle of the court, making himself available to the basketball. After Kyle Lowry inbounds the ball, he is going to cut along the baseline, running off of a Luis Scola screen.
After the Wizards hit a three pointer to send the game into overtime, I thought that the Wizards were going to be able to use that momentum to steal the game from the Bobcats. However, the exact opposite happened as the Bobcats outscored the Wizards 13-4 in the final 5 minute period.
The key seemed to be the Bobcats willingness to attack the basket. The Bobcats seemed determined to get themselves inside the paint every possession of overtime. Each time, it resulted in one of two things; a trip to the foul line or an easy basket:
Possession 1 – Gerald Wallace Gets To The Line Using A Screen
On this play, the Bobcats set up what looks to be an ISO set for Gerald Wallace. At the last moment, Tyson Chandler comes up and sets a screen for Wallace. Wallace uses the screen and gets all the way to the rim, where he is fouled.
