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East Practice and Predictions for Tonight

Just returned from the East practice, and while it was hardly a competitive practice, it is always special to see so many great athletes all in one place. As far as the Wizards go, Caron Butler did not practice, but he did do some basic shooting before the drills started.

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Here are some quick highlights of the 45 minute session:

  • Jamison joined the vets in a shooting competition against the younger guys. The players shot from 6 different spots on the floor with the young guys pulling out the win.
  • Caron Butler rebounded for the young guys, which included, Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard and Joe Johnson.
  • Caron Butler was sporting his new CB3 All-Star shoes, which are pictured to the right.
  • Rasheed Wallace only shot left-handed in practice (including 3’s), and he still rarely misses. It’s unbelievable how talented these guys are.
  • The East coaches were showing the team out of bounds plays they were going to run when Lebron James drew up his own out of bounds play for the game. East Head Coach Doc Rivers referred to him as Coach James for the rest of practice.
  • At the end of practice the team chose five guys to shoot half-court shots. The players had 60 seconds to make as many as they could, because this was the first time this had ever been recorded the highest total set a World Record. Lebron James and Jason Kidd each tied with 3, with Kidd shooting all of his shots underhand. Ray Allen made two with Chauncey Billups and Joe Johnson both making just one.

    Finally, following practice I had the chance to talk to both Antawn and Caron about their thoughts and predictions for tonight’s contest.

    Antawn Jamison: “I got (Jason) Kapono (in the 3-point contest), I think the contest suits him and he has a lot of confidence from last year, and in the slam dunk contest I’m pulling for the big guy, I’m pulling for Dwight (Howard) to go into his bag full of tricks and do something we haven’t seen in a while. I think it’s going to be an exciting dunk contest, you got four guys that can really contend for it and four guys that really bring some excitement as well.”

    Caron Butler: “I hate to go against my boy Rudy Gay, but Dwight Howard has something up his sleeve and it’s CRAZY! I also like (Jamario) Moon. I saw Moon do some dunks in the warm-up yesterday that was unbelievable. He jumped two feet behind the free throw line, LEGIT, two feet from the free throw line, and then he does the Vince Carter 360 and puts his whole arm in the rim. I want to see what he’s going to do. I like Kapono, I think he’ll repeat.”

    * For more exclusive coverage check out the 2008 NBA All-Star Index on WashingtonWizards.com!

    This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 6:16 PM and is filed under Wizards, 2008 All-Star Daily Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    • 4 Responses to “East Practice and Predictions for Tonight”

    1. Wizards4Life Says:
      February 16th, 2008 at 8:39 PM

      i did not see the pic of the shoe! and this is the first time i have even heard about so if some one could find a pic that would be cool

    2. LilGil Says:
      February 16th, 2008 at 9:09 PM

      Just for you http://www.nba.com/wizards/news/allstar08_dailyblog.html#4 ;)
      Can’t wait for the dunk contest by the way, I’m going with my boy Dwight :D !!

    3. wiz-skins07 Says:
      February 16th, 2008 at 11:57 PM

      Dwight was a beast…best single overall performance in history in my eyes…..

    4. LilGil Says:
      February 17th, 2008 at 7:39 AM

      Yeah definitly, thanks to him and Green we had a great dunk contest cuz honestly the birthday cake thing was just crazy!! But Dwight… wow I didn’t expect that!!

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