Results tagged “wizards>”

Heat 93, Wizards 89: It was the Dwayne Wade show at the Phone Booth last night. When Wade was on the court, he poured in 40 to lead all scorers; unfortunately for the Wizards, they couldn't transplant their very good play for the short periods of time when D-Wade was on the bench to when he was playing. Gilbert Arenas had 32 to lead Washington, and Brendan Haywood and Caron Butler both chipped in double-doubles -- although the three were an ugly combined -34 in plus/minus. Statistics aside, it just wasn't enough to overcome Wade, who was hitting key baskets all night. With back-to-back games against two of the league's five best players, the Wizards will probably be relieved to see mega-star-deprived Indiana next on the slate. Oh, and Mike Miller picked up an injury to his arm -- but as Dan Steinberg notes: what's new?

So there you have it, Redskins fans. Dan Snyder apologizes that his team has made your Sundays miserable for the better part of two months. He "feels bad" for you. He's "embarrassed." Here's the man many people are attributing with lead one of this town's biggest cultural institutions to a slow drive into irrelevance, telling you he's sorry.

Wizards 102, Mavericks 91: Something tells me that the Wizards are going to be a real interesting team this season: new coach, a whole host of new players, and old players returning with the grudge of last season's epic failure hanging over their heads as motivation. But for whatever reason, the Wizards' hopes seem to always rest on the back of Gilbert Arenas. And man, the old Gilbert was back last night: dishing dimes, driving to the hoop with strength and finesse, and reminding us of that guy whom you could have made an argument for as the best fourth quarter player in the league three years ago. Gil had 29 points and nine assists in the Wizards season-opening 102-91 win on the road in Dallas. Of course, it wasn't all Agent Zero -- new boss Flip Saunders has stressed defense during the offseason, and Washington held the Mavs to only 39% from the field. Andray Blatche, Randy Foye, and Caron Butler also chipped in double digits. Dirk Nowitzki (and his long hair) paced Dallas with 34.

So much for the "action" part of this post. The only professional sporting involving a team from the area last night was an exhibition basketball game; the Wizards won -- Gilbert Arenas had 24 and Antawn Jamison had 15 and 11 -- but c'mon, who really cares about an exhibition NBA game? Yes, although October may be one of the best months on the national sporting calendar, we in Washington are in a bit of a lull. The Redskins are pathetically struggling to make it through the easiest schedule stretch in NFL history at .500. The Capitals are on their first slump of the year, though it's still early. Our local college football teams, for the most part, are nothing to call home about, and hoops doesn't really kick in for another month or so. D.C. United is winding down a disappointing campaign, the Wizards are still in first gear, and the Nationals are stuck wondering how they can get their city to watch them on TV.

• Flyers 6, Capitals 5: As someone who spent some formative years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there's plenty of things about the current NHL which really don't resonate with me. No teams in Quebec and Winnipeg. A two-week break in the middle of the season for the Olympics. Only three players in the last two seasons reaching 100 points. But while the first two are more complex issues, at least the Capitals are bringing that heyday of NHL offensive play, the one that I fondly remember, back. Coming into the game, the Caps boasted the top four scorers in the league. And sure, they may have lost in overtime to Philadelphia on Tuesday night in a matchup of the two teams which, along with the Penguins, have to be considered the favorites in the Eastern Conference. But this is the kind of game that was straight out of 1991 -- 11 goals (including seven in the second period), 12 power plays (four of which ended in goals), 78 combined shots, and offensive superstars all over the place. Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin -- harkening back to speedy goal scorers like fellow Russians Pavel Bure and Alex Mogilny -- both had two goals, but were outshined by Philadelphia's Mike Richards, who netted his second career hat trick. It was the kind of game that brought this observer back to the days when 6-5 games in the league were the rule, rather than the exception, and hockey was dynamically entertaining. Maybe it was Peter Berg's excellent Gretzky-to-L.A. documentary which got the juices flowing (a must see, by the way), but it sure feels good to come back to a league where scoring lots of goals is, once again, chic.
• Wizards 101, Grizzlies 92: Who says the NBA preseason can't be exciting? The Wizards had two buzzer beaters, and Caron Butler had a big time flush (or so I'm told), as Washington won it's first exhibition game of the year against Memphis in Richmond. The first quarter was a positive sign, as Agent Zero had seven of his ten assists and both Antawn Jamison and Butler were in double figures in the first fifteen minutes.

• American League 4, National League 3: Hey, it's a Nat at the All-Star Game! (Not that it was anything to write home about.) Washington representative Ryan Zimmerman -- seen above coolly acknowledging all twelve people at Busch Stadium who realized that Washington actually fielded a major league-level baseball team -- entered the game in the top of the the fifth inning, replacing David Wright at third base. Zimmerman almost got into one in the bottom of the fifth, but just got under the second pitch he saw, flying out harmlessly to A.L. center fielder Josh Hamilton. Obviously unsatisfied with the length of his first trip to the plate, Zimmerman swung at the first pitch he saw in his second at-bat, weakly popping out to right. As far as I could tell from the television coverage, Zimmerman had nary a truly meaningful ball thrown or hit to him in the field -- although at one point, I think I caught an unfocused glimpse of Zimmerman in the background as Derek Jeter ran past him at third. So, you know, there's that.
  
  As if the fact that our rep's jersey doubled as an invisibility cloak on the field wasn't bad enough, Barack Obama also went out of his way to diss the Nats during his half-inning in the Fox announce booth. (C'mon, Mr. President -- that's just low.)
• Wizards 96, Cavs 93 (Summer League): The Wiz beat Cleveland in NBA Summer League play last night. From what I've ascertained, wins in the Summer League are even more meaningless than wins in baseball spring training games, but hey, far be it from this writer to complain about the Wizards winning anything. For the truly obsessed, Sports Bogger Dan Steinberg is hanging in Vegas for the week (man, what an awful locale for an assignment), so he's all over the scene.
• Caps Schedule Out Today: On a slightly more interesting note, the Capitals released their preseason schedule yesterday; the regular season schedule comes out today. When's Crosby coming to town? There's payback to be had.

A lot of teams use the annual NBA Draft how it's supposed to be used: a way to spruce up rosters by selecting talented young players from various universities and overseas. As a result, teams usually end up with a younger lineup than they had before.

Sure, the Wizards beat the Chicago Bulls on Friday night 113-90 (only to follow it up with a stinker last night in Milwaukee), but this post is less about a twenty-three point victory by a 14-45 team over another sub-.500 team, and more about President Obama, who made the trek over from the White House to catch some Friday night hoops.

The Chicago Bulls visited President Obama at the White House yesterday, and now word is that Obama might show up at the Verizon Center tonight for their game against the Wizards. The rumors are no doubt the greatest thing that will happen to Wizards tickets sales this season; the last place team has had trouble even filling the arena to half-full for the last couple months. Click here to purchase tickets to tonight's game, which starts at 7 p.m. This would be the first Wizards game Obama will have attended since taking office.

LeBron James has an arsenal of moves in his repertoire, and with the game on the line on Sunday against the hapless Wizards, he chose "the crab dribble," which can also be called "taking three steps while going to the hole." Result? A surprising traveling call and a win for the Wizards. Witness!

Ho-hum, the Wizards beat the Pistons last night. But that's not hard to do since Detroit acquired Allen Iverson last month. The Pistons are only 8-9 since the trade and sitting in the middle of the pack in a competitive Eastern Conference. The Wiz, meanwhile, are 4-15 and going nowhere fast. Or are they?

Looks like that loss to a seven-man New York Knicks squad over the weekend was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, as news is breaking that the Washington Wizards fired head coach Eddie Jordan this morning. Jordan, one of the longest tenured coaches in the league, had been in charge of the team since 2003 and enjoyed four straight playoff appearances, but got off to a very rough 1-10 start this year.

Via Deadspin, looks like Madame Tussauds Wax Museum unveiled a Gilbert Arenas statue yesterday. Agent Zero paid lip service to the tourist attraction that immortalized him in wax:

"It is an honor to join the ranks of sports icons such as Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods by being immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds Washington D.C.," Arenas said. "Like the Wizards, Madame Tussauds has become a fixture in the nation's capital and one that I'm proud to be a part of."

Even with all of their injury troubles, it's safe to say the Wizards didn't expect to start out 0-5 this season and be stuck with the dreaded "last winless team in the league" tag. But it's hard to say they don't deserve it. They currently rank last in the league in points allowed, opponents field goal percentage and three point shooting. Etan Thomas has already missed one game and Antonio Daniels is day-to-day with a knee injury. Settling for Utah castoff Dee Brown as the third string PG seems like a horrendous move in retrospect. Still, there have been some bright spots, like the play of youngsters Nick Young and JaVale McGee (Dwight Howard is a fan , apparently). The schedule this week offers little relief, with games against Utah and at Miami. Oh, and Gilbert got an Obama tattoo. On his left hand. Of course he did!

Ruh-roh. Not long after news leaked out that Wizards starting center Brendan Haywood might be lost for 4-6 months, team captain Antawn Jamison went down with a knee injury in Dallas midway through the first quarter of last night's preseason opener. The team is officially calling it a "sprained knee" but on TV it looked much worse than that. The CSN broadcast cut to a nattily dressed Agent Zero on the Wizards bench and he looked like he was about to lose his lunch. Not good. Jamison is scheduled to undergo an MRI today, but he thinks he will be OK. "It was a scary moment, and it hurt really bad at first," Jamison told the Post. "But once I got back [to the locker room] and got some ice on it, I actually don't feel any pain right now, so that's a good sign. We'll have to wait and see what the MRI says, but I think I'm going to be fine."

Dan Steinberg posted this funny Jeopardy clip over on the Bog, where none of the contestants were aware of any of Wizards star Gilbert Arenas's nicknames. Maybe the often injured guard has been out of the national limelight a little too much over the past two seasons? Of course we love Agent Hibachi no matter what, and if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to read about the adorable way in which Arenas recently proposed to his girlfriend.

It's all speculation and rumors at this point, but this is one potential reality TV show we're happy to hype. Mr. Irrelevant caught Wizard's star and highly trained professional blogger Gilbert Arenas calling in to 106.7 WJFK’s Big O and Dukes show, where at some point, he mentioned that he's been approached to do a reality show.

True to his word, yesterday Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas opted out of the final year of his contract, leaving $12.8 million on the table in the hopes of signing a longer and more lucrative deal. Whether that will be with the Wizards remains to be seen. Arenas played only 13 games this year, his season cut short by a nagging knee injury, leaving open the question of whether any team will pay top dollar for a player who has not yet demonstrated that he is fully healthy.

The Cherry Blossom parade will modify many downtown Metrobus routes this weekend. The parade starts this Saturday at 10 a.m. and marches on Constitution Avenue between 7th and 17th streets, and will force the 5A, 13, 32, 34, 35, 36, 52, 54, 66, 70, 80, P6, S2, S4 and V8 to alter their routes until about 1 p.m. If you plan on taking any of these buses tomorrow, you should expect delays.

A banner weekend, indeed. The Washington Capitals and Wizards clinched a playoff berth within 24 hours. This week we have another full lineup of Washington area sports, highlighted by a jampacked Wednesday night featuring three local teams playing home games in front of massive crowds. Our picks for this week are below. Go on and add your own in the comments.

Last night while some of us were taking in the sultry sounds of Jens Lekmen at the Black, the one and only Gilbert Arenas made his first appearance since November. Yay! Unfortunately, his two late free throws weren't enough to lead Washington to victory, as Ramon Sessions (who?) hit a jumper from the corner at the buzzer to propel Milwaukee to a 110-109 victory. To make matters worse, DeShawn Stevenson and Antawn Jamison were both hurt in the last few plays of the game.

The Washington Capitals have won eight of their last nine games. Will they be able to maintain their run of form for the final three games of the season? The Caps sit on the edge of the playoffs, though they are on the outside looking in. Their three home games this week should give fans some of the more thrilling moments in recent seasons. What's more, there's plenty of other regional sports action on the table this week. Feel free to leave your own suggestions in the comments.

Perhaps lost amid this week's Agent Zero "I want to play" - "They won't let me play, I'm outta here" - "I'm day-to-day every day" hoopla is the fact that the Wiz have won seven out of their last 10 games and are currently sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference playoff standings. If that seeding holds true, it would lead to another first round match-up with the Cavs, this time filled with Jay-Z v. Soulja Boy intrigue. We can't wait, especially if Agent Zero will be in the mix. He's traveling with the team during their five game road trip, which begins tonight in Portland, and may suit up, but his likely return is next Wednesday v. the Milwaukee Bucks.

While much of America is focused on the NCAA Men's Tournament, we are forced to turn elsewhere upon the elimination of our area's three teams. And come on, you know you aren't going to win that office pool your friend pressured you to join. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternative sports viewing options this week. Feel free to leave your own in the comments.

Another wild week awaits area hoops fans. The madcap, non-stop college hoops action of Thursday and Friday represents the pinnacle of sports viewing for many fans. Sneaking out of work, bracket in hand, for an extra hour of lunch is an annual ritual for many a weary office drone. At this point next week, our brackets will be hopelessly crumbled, highlighted and marked with cryptic marginalia. Right now, however, hope springs eternal. Don't forget to join the DCist Reader-Staff Pool to take part in all the madness. Our suggestions for this week's sports viewing are below. As always, feel free to add your own in the comments.

It's every NBA coach's nightmare: Under 20 seconds on the clock, LeBron James has the ball and he's staring down your defender. What do you do, hotshot? Double him and leave a teammate open for a jumper, or take your chances one-on-one with the best player in the NBA? Well, the Wizards went with option number two twice last night and came away with a 101-99 victory that had a raucous Verizon Center crowd going crazy. DeShawn Stevenson, not one to be intimidated by King James, forced James into an offensive charge and a missed jump shot on his two end game possessions, giving the Wiz a much needed win over their rivals from Ohio.

March is without a doubt the dog days of the NBA schedule. College ball takes center stage while half the teams in the NBA start jockeying for ping pong balls. So do you stay at home and watch Idol murder the Beatles or take in a game against a team 17 games under .500? Judging by the "14,755" in attendance for Washington's 105-97 win over the Milwaukee Bucks last night, most people chose the former. Too bad for them, as rookie Nick Young paced the Wiz and excited those in attendance, including Redskins QB Jason Campbell, with an array of dunks, finishing with a career-high 22 points in 27 minutes. Antawn Jamison added 23 points and pulled down eight rebounds, but left the game in the last minute with a lower back strain.

Last week's slate of games elicited emotions ranging from despair to jubilation for our area teams, and this week should be equally as tumultuous; the postseason fate of numerous squads hangs in the balance. This week's picks are listed below; feel free to add your own in the comments and email me with suggestions for next week.

With a number of area teams gearing up for a playoff run, it's an exciting time for sports in the Washington area. Here's what you should be watching this week. Don't hesitate to leave your own suggestions in the comments, and, if you're so inclined, shoot me an email with suggestions for next week.

It's time for the weekly DCist sports roundup, the games we think you should check out.