Wednesday, November 17
7:30 pm Eastern
TV: NBA League Pass (but note, Washington, DC, readers, that it should be on a local station!)
The Washington Wizards are 2-6 when John Wall plays, and 1-0 when he doesn't. Told you that guy wasn't that good.
OK, so I was mostly wrong about Wall. Sure, he's leading the league in turnovers, like I predicted he would, but it was an easy prediction to make, him being a rookie point guard and all. Other than that statistic -- which is really not a big deal; you have to go pretty far down the list of the league leaders in turnovers to find a guy you don't want on your team -- Wall's been pretty spectacular. His jumper, a presumed area of weakness, has been fine; he's obviously capable of getting to the rim and scoring; he's finding his teammates; and he's wreaking havoc on defense (he also leads the league in steals).
He's also hurt. He sprained his foot on Saturday against Chicago, came back to finish that game, then showed up in a walking boot afterwards. He was in the Verizon Center Tuesday night as the Wizards hammered the Raptors, but he was wearing street clothes and using crutches. While Washington hasn't yet ruled Wall out for Wednesday against Boston, I'd be very surprised if the young buck suits up for what in theory is an electrifying point guard matchup between him and Rajon Rondo.
The Wizards have a decent replacement for Wall in Gilbert Arenas, though Arenas of course is hardly the player he once was. With Wall and Kirk Hinrich around, Arenas -- always a shoot-first player at the point -- can play off-guard, where his gunning is a less-bitter pill to swallow. Arenas' recent history of leg injuries might suggest that he'd struggle on the second night of a back-to-back, especially early in the season, but he did drop 30 points on the Bulls on Saturday the night after playing 32 minutes against Charlotte, so maybe not.
Without Wall, there isn't too much about Washington to talk about. Andray Blatche had a couple of big games against Boston last year, and if I recall correctly, always plays with a certain swagger against the Celtics -- going up against Kevin Garnett seems to bring that out of him. Hinrich, when he was with Chicago, always did a nice job guarding Pierce despite giving up four inches and 45 pounds. But without Wall, Hinrich will almost certainly be tasked with trying to stop Rajon Rondo. The Wizards also have JaVale McGee, a RwH favorite since his days at Nevada.
This should be an easy win for the Celtics. But followers of the team the last couple of seasons know that Boston doesn't always win the easy ones. Blowing out bad teams may be a key to post-season success, however, so Boston would do well to take the Wizards -- who definitely qualify as a bad team, even with Wall -- seriously.
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