Comment from LilGil
Time April 2, 2008 at 9:59 PM

I really hope the guys are okay and that their injuries aren’t too serious…. Loosing them at this time of the year could still mean not get to the playoffs…

Comment from wiz-skins07
Time April 2, 2008 at 10:17 PM

what a bummer…guys what place are we in…SportzWiz any ideas….

toronto lost and from what i heard Phil and Buck say if we lost and Toronto lost we would still hold the 5th for now

Comment from John50
Time April 2, 2008 at 10:50 PM

Thanks DJ/SportWiz for posting the injury updates. I’m happy to see that we could get updates on this rather than hearing how bad we played; which I think we didnt even play as bad as people are making it. hint Utah…

It’s time for us to pick up and go to the next game and wish our injured players support.

Because without all of them who are injured or playing while injured there wouldnt be those stats that some people love to charactorize games off of or someone to point the finger at heh? (Maybe I’m being an A**hole right now, but come on pointing fingers or looking at stats saying who is bad aint going to accomplish anything.)

WIZ FANS STEP UP AND SHOW THEM SOME SUPPORT!!!!

Comment from Brickjp
Time April 2, 2008 at 11:20 PM

I feel like we are in the movie ‘Groundhog Day’. These guys don’t deserve this. I hope we can clinch Friday maybe? and gear up for the playoffs. With our big three even at 80-85% I like our chances. The other players have stepped and had that experience of helping a team win.

Comment from SportzWiz
Time April 2, 2008 at 11:43 PM

Currently all 3 teams are tied for 5th, here is how it works for a 3 way tiebreaker.

2. Better winning percentage in all games among the tied teams.
Wizards are 4-3
Raptors are 4-4
Sixers are 3-4

The Wizards play Philly one more time if they win that, Wizards would hold the tiebreaker if not it goes to #4.

4. Better winning percentage against teams in own conference. (all 3 teams have all their games against the eastern conference)
Raptors are 26-19
Wizards are 24-21
Sixers are 23-22

Therefore if its a 3 way tie and we lose to Philly, we would be the #6 seed. Hope that helps.

Comment from Wizards4Life
Time April 3, 2008 at 12:15 AM

that’s as about as clear as it can get lets hope the guys are OK and we get the last few games down this one was a give me game and we did not take it… and i don’t know why but i seen that coming we were not playing like we wanted a win and people seemed to be more into Arenas being back on the floor than the win lets hope this is a cold smack in the face to the guys so they focus on the games because we need this to get the best playoff spot we can!!!

i am going to die from one of the close games one day i can see that coming too

HEADLINE
Anthony A.K.A. Wizards4Life DIES FROM LAST SECOND WIN/LOSS FROM HIS BELOVED TEAM THE WASHINGTTON WIZARDS

Comment from wizards_fusion
Time April 3, 2008 at 12:22 AM

Obviously, the loss was really bad for the Wiz. For reasons no one can explain, the Wiz players always get hurt against the Bucks – not just this game, but every time the two teams play. It’s like bad karma Bucks. Oh, and tonight’s injuries all occurred during the last two minutes of the game. It is very deflating to see your guys hit the floor and can’t get up. I didn’t even care about the game anymore when Caron was on all fours but can’t get up (he eventually did); Stevenson limping off the court with help; Jamison hunched over on the bench and on all fours and couldn’t be in the last play for defense. A very queezy feeling in the gut and I can still feel it …

For Wiz fans that followed the team closely (like the frequent bloggers that are die-hard fans), we all feel closer to the players now than in years past. We do care, to an extent, what they do off the court as well. It’s like a brotherhood (borrowing from Adidas). Because of this extra bond, nothing upsets me more than to see more injuries. It is beyond comprehension. I don’t even want to see a papercut on the guys. I don’t know how Coach Jordan and Ernie Grunfeld even sleep at night.

Onto other thoughts:

NBATV showed the 3way tie SportzWiz mentioned above, but the current standing is Toronto 5th; Philly 6th; and Washington 7th. Atlanta is 3 games behind and stuck at 8th. Wiz will make the playoffs because the team has too much pride to let it slip now. I’m just hoping that everyone in the Starting 5 can get as healthy as they can as we move to the home stretch.

What a solid performance from Arenas. He was certainly favoring his offense over defense. The explosiveness is not quite there yet and you can clearly see he got some “junk in his trunk”. That’ll go away as he conditions. What I liked about Gil’s game tonight was that he made some tremendous passes to guys like Blatche and Songaila for easy baskets. He did that during Larry Hughes’ last year in Washington but has abandoned it for his stats to increase. It is back and it’ll certainly make the Wizards that much more dangerous. There were moments in the game where no one on the floor really knew what Gil was going to do, so they just stood around and watched Gil. This is what happens when your star player misses like 66 games. I’m sure Eddie Jordan will address this during practice.

This is my last post for this season. It’s been fun but work is taking me away. Good luck to the team and I hope the Big 3 all come back next season.

Comment from Reuben
Time April 3, 2008 at 6:29 AM

Wow last night was terrible I hope Twan And DeShawn are ok.
Does anybody know if a win against the Heat would clinch?

Comment from Beeb
Time April 3, 2008 at 8:14 AM

You could see Daniels is worn down. He couldn’t chase down that critical tapped ball. Villanewthug physically pushed Jameson out of bounds. No wonder he was hurt. Of course Javie swallowed his whistle. Arenas was out of position for the last Sessions shot but the Wizards are basically 5 on 4 when he’s on defensive. Makes you question why he would be out there for the last 1.2.

Comment from aznzero
Time April 3, 2008 at 9:32 AM

What a heartbreaker game last night. I was at the game last night and it was one of those were its like yay Gilberts back and then you see Caron, Deshawn, and Antawn go down and then a buzzer beater! It sucked driving two hours back home.

You coouldnt really miss me cuz I was the azn kid in the black/gold jersey that played the Arenas Three Ball Shuffle game after the first quarter.

Few things to mention while at the game:
I was sitting next to the wiz tunnel and saw Arenas walking out the tunnel w/ 5:35 left in the first. The whole time I was disappointed he wasn’t going to play, but in the back of my head I had a feeling Gilbert was goona surprise us. And yet he did! I was one of the few people who saw him come in and started cheering. The rest of the arena didn’t know that he was walking in yet until they finally showed him on the HD screen. Boy was it great to see him back and moving on the court. Crowd gave him a standing ovation when he checked in. The Hibachi was warmed up right away going 3 for 3. It might have been his Hibachi shoes he was wearing!

The whole game I had a feeling it would go down the final seconds. The wiz were letting the Bucks stay close. I was disappointed how we were outrebounded and the Bucks were getting lay ups on us at the end. Not to mention the no call for the BDAY boy Deshawn (also Etan Thomas’ BDAY-i think) near the end!!! In one play seeing two of our guys go down was painful. The whole time the arena was silent. It took awhile for Caron to get up but seeing Stevenson hop off wasn’t a good sign. All these things seem to forshadow what was going to happen.

At the last inbound I saw the ball thrown to Bogut. I had some tall guy in front of me so I didn’t see Sessions shoot it. In my head I was thinking there is no way he got it off. All I see was the backboard light up then the ball went threw the hoop. All the air was sucked out off me. I couldnt believe it!!! A great comeback story for arenas ruined with 1.1 seconds to play.

Despite that play I tried to not let it ruin my night. I chilled and talk with DJ Styles for the last 3 minutes in the first quarter as we waited for the game I was going to play. Ivan Carter (Wizards Beat writer) looked at me and waved during pre-game. I planned to talk to him after the game but left right away because I was so blown. I said Happy BDAY to Deshawn when he came out the tunnel and got Nick Young’s attention again as I showed him my girlfriends Nick Young jersey.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time April 3, 2008 at 12:29 PM

A tough loss to swallow — hope the team doesn’t feel too down. Of course, I worry if AJ has to miss games; we’ll find it hard to win without him.

Comment from James_Hughes_92
Time April 3, 2008 at 2:44 PM

I think if these two arent back by the playoffs we’ll be dead.Yea we got Arenas back,but these two guys are key.But these nest two games are a gimmie having Miami and Chicago. But we cant overlook them like we did with the Bucks or we’ll get another loss.Wizards; 44-38

Comment from gee wiz
Time April 3, 2008 at 8:27 PM

u know what i just thought about it. i hate those muth$#^&($ bucks! everytine we play them we get hurt. the league need to look into this! some would say its a coincidence but hell to that. they got caron twice, now deshawn and twan. were going john cheaney next time on them. were sending the goons out