By US Direct

CSN went on to announce that its game day broadcast crew would remain intact with the return of play-by-play announcer Steve Buckhantz, analyst Phil Chenier and sideline reporter Chris Miller.  This will mark the 15^th season that Buckhantz and Chenier have worked together.  Ron Thompson will also return to provide analysis on Wizards Postgame Live which will be hosted by Chris Miller.

We will see how many of the 85 games will actually be broadcast due to the continuing NBA lockout.

Today at 2:30 PM Ernie Grunfeld and Flip Saunders will introduce two of the Wizards 2011 draft picks Chris Singleton (18^th overall) and Shelvin Mack (34^th overall) at the Verizon Center.

Photo by Keith Allison

Source:NBA Entertainment

Tonight the Washington Wizards went up against another struggling team on the road – the Detroit Pistons. And eerily similar to many of their previous road games they looked as if they were disinterested, in a malaise or completely disoriented.

And I can already imagine the explanation:

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In fact, shortly after the game began, Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier of CSN commented on how the team did not make it to its hotel until 3 AM Sunday morning. And while that was not the on-air team’s intention, it felt as if the Wizards had a built in excuse for a lackluster performance. They were tired.

As in many Wizards performances this season, there were a few faint bright spots, such as JaVale McGee’s block on Greg Monroe as the shot clock nearly expired. However, this team is not yet capable of stringing together enough positive plays to allow it to consistently beat teams (even bad teams) on the road. What is often more perplexing is the lapses in energy and effort.

A night after going up against the best rebounding team in the league, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and holding their own (MIN 48 – WAS 44). The Wizards were pounded on the glass by the Detroit Pistons (DET 45 – WAS 29). On the surface it appeared that Andray turned in a respectable night on the glass finishing with a team high 9 rebounds – he and JaVale McGee much too frequently give up good rebounding position, take bad angles or (more frustratingly) leak out before the rebound is secured. However, he did finish with the team high – an accomplishment that would make him the tallest garden gnome. Who were the second and third leading rebounders on this night, you ask? John Wall (5 rebounds) and Nick Young (4 rebounds). Clearly that type of effort on the boards did not on this night – nor on many others – get it done.

However, rebounding wasn’t the only problem. The Wizards gave up 113 points to a Pistons team that was averaging about 96 PPG. And while the Wizards couldn’t string together stops when they needed them, they didn’t appear able to stop anyone. Seven out of the ten players who saw action for the Pistons finished with 10 or more points.

And when you lack energy, get man-handled on the boards and can’t defend anyone, then tonight’s result is the expected outcome. Expecting anything else should be the definition of insanity.

Unlike the previous two loses in which the Wizards played well and were able to take away some small moral victories, there would be none taken away from this game. The Wizards were over-matched in nearly every phase of the game and lost to the Bulls 105 – 77. Early in the game, the Bulls were unstoppable in the paint and finished the game with 48 points in the paint. The Bulls were also able to own the boards, pulling down 56 rebounds – 17 more than the Wizards. Following the game, Flip Saunders put it bluntly, “There bigs kicked our butt.” High percentage shots in the paint combined with their success on the backboards enabled Chicago to hit 48% from the field.

Andray Blatche finished the game with a double-double, he led the Wizards with 15 points and 11 rebounds. However those statistics, as they often are with him, are misleading. Andray is rarely in good rebounding position, often is slow getting back on defense and doesn’t appear to be focused when on defense. Those shortcomings can and were exploited by a team like the Bulls. Andray can put points on the scoreboard but they often come at the expense of good offensive flow.

It leads one to wonder if the team would be better served by having Blatche come off of the bench – rather than starting. In the last two games the team started Rashard Lewis and Josh Howard at the two Forward positions – while Andray Blatche was out with an injury. In those games, the team’s offense flowed a little more naturally and the team appeared to be more effective on the defensive end of the floor.

JaVale McGee also deserves a fair amount of criticism. McGee finished the game with 5 points and 8 rebounds, but he managed only 2 points and 3 rebounds until the game was largely out of reach. JaVale has a nasty tendency to come up very small against the more physical and talented front lines in the NBA. The issue is part physical and part “fundamentals.” JaVale needs to focus this off-season on getting stronger, which will likely add few pounds to his frame. JaVale when he has position is not strong enough to maintain it and is often pushed off his spot. On the other hand, JaVale is often out of position and would be well served by studying film on both his more successful contemporaries (such as Joakim Noah), as well as some of the greats that played the position. JaVale has the ability to make a major impact on this team, but he needs to get stronger and become a student of his position. Time will tell if he is willing to point in the requisite work to become an all-star caliber player in this league.

The Wizards are playing to develop their young players. Their focus is not on wins and losses but how well they are playing. In this game, too many things went wrong resulting in a 28 point beat-down.

Another video against the Spurs.  In this short video clip, notice how Andray Blatche quickly looks at the offensive player as the shot is going up.  Rather than put a body on him… he looks at him.  The rebound goes long and guess who is there to get the ball… no not Andray Blatche.  See if you can catch John Wall’s expression at the very end of the clip.