Author: DefeatingTheCurse

This week the #dcFamily saw what no one was expecting. The Wizards allowed their domination of the Atlanta Hawks completely slip. The Wizards dropped 2 straight at Philips arena. It wasn’t even a 2 close games where the Hawks were able to close, it was 2 dominating performances by the Hawks. This has caused panic all over the DMV! Anyone notice how tense the dcFamily was today? Notice how all Wizards fan were in a horrible mood today? We sure did! We had heated discussions amongst the DTC crew to the point where some of us almost uninstalled WhatsApp, the unofficial DTC group chat tool, while discussing this series! While on twitter during the game yesterday I read comments from fans that read, “I wish we still had Nene”, “Keef is garbage”, and even some suggesting we should turn to Trey Burke! I think the whole fan base can agree that emotions were high and a lot of nonsense was talked about yesterday. None of those things are true or should even be considered. 24 hours after the Hawks tied up the series 2-2, we can all calm down and come back down to reality. The reality is that the Wizards struggled mightily and there is certainly cause for concern, but its now a best of 3 that the Wizards can and should take. Here are a couple thoughts that could turn this series back into the Wizards favor.

Enough of the theatrics

The series started with the Wizards playing physical ball. In games 1 and 2 the Wizards were the better team by leaps and bounds, but maybe the game within the game back fired and got into the Wizards heads. It’s time to stop worrying about “MMA”, “Cry babies”, “stare downs” and worrying about the refs clearly calling lopsided games. The Wizards are averaging 10.2 more fouls than the Hawks this series, which is actually the biggest foul difference in any post season series. At this point the refs are not going to change the way they’re officiating the game and the refs aren’t going to let the Wizards play physical, so its time to change the game plan. The Wizards have to find a way to win despite the refs. The Wizards are the better team, and when the Wizards can play the game they know, moving the ball around, getting Gortat involved on the offensive end, crashing the boards and playing sound defense the Wizards can and will win.

Get Wall and Beal some help

The offensive game has been lopsided most of the series with maybe the exception of game 1. Wall and Beal have certainly been putting in the work to get their points but the rest of the team has to get more involved on offense. We saw Otto Porter and Bojan Bogdanovic get a little bit more involved in game 4 and this has to continue. The Hawks had 7 players in double digit scoring in game 4 where the Wizards only had 4. This has got to change and in order for this to change this all starts with staying out of foul trouble. At this point I look to Markeiff to change his defensive game up and get back to the game 1 Keef. Balanced scoring is a must.

Defense wins the series

This has probably been a struggling point of the team all season, but at this point it comes down to will, Wizards will over the Hawks will. Maybe this means more time for Oubre, maybe this means more energy and more effort from the front court. Whatever it is, it needs to happen ASAP. The Wizards have their backs up against the wall now and the series momentum has shifted in favor of the Hawks, the Wizards need to come out and shut down the Hawks by playing defense.

The series is sitting at 2-2 but the Wizards still have the home court advantage. A win tomorrow night where tip is at 6PM and the phone booth will likely be half full (We all know how bad traffic is in this area making it very difficult to make a 6PM tip) will define the series. As fans lets give the team some energy and come out with a win!

The 2016-2017 NBA season has come to an end and in just over 12 hours the Washington Wizards embark on their post-season run. In this post we are going to dive deeper into the season stats for both the Washington Wizards and the Atlanta Hawks, and give our 5 keys to the series then finally make our official Defeating The Curse prediction.

First, lets take a look at the season stats. As you can see in the graphic above the Wizards are a better team in almost every statistical category with the exception of rebounds per game, and even then the Hawks are less than 2 boards per game better than the Wizards. This is going to be an extremely important category for at least the first half of the series as the Wizards are going to be missing probably their best rebounder on the team in Ian Mahinmi. If you have been following our blog or our podcast you know that I, LP, has been specifically high on Ian. Mahinmi has only averaged 4.8 rebounds per game and 5.6 points per game in his 31 games this season. However, in his only game against the Hawks, on March 22, he racked up 10 boards. 5 on the offensive glass, and 5 on the defensive glass. Mahinmi is surely going to be missed, let’s just hope his calf can heal sooner rather than later. He is scheduled to be re-evaluated this week. With Mahinmi out that surely doesn’t mean the Wizards are doomed so lets look at 5 specific things that could propel the Wizards to the second round.

1. Calling on all centers, surprise! This is on the top of my list with Mahinmi out. 19, 10, 13 and 15. Those are the number of boards that Dwight Howard has put up against the Wizards in 4 games this season. Dwight hasn’t had much success scoring against the Wiz, only having 1 good scoring game. However, the centers specifically Gortat and Smith (likely the only 2 to play) need to do a better job of boxing Dwight out and being physical with him. Dwight surely isn’t the player he was in Orlando or even Houston but he can still play. The Wizards have to keep him in check. The hack-a-Howard tactic likely won’t be used since he isn’t the scoring threat he once was so the Wizards centers just have to out physical him and get him into foul trouble.
2. Back court duo – No surprise here, the Wizards are as good as John and Brad make them. I have little to no fear here as I am fully confident in these guys. These guys are still young but this is their 3rd post season, and John probably has extra incentive (not that its needed) to beat out Dennis Shroeder since being injured in the 2014-2015 playoffs.
3. Holding the Hawks to under 100 – The Wizards and 3-1* against the Hawks this season. There is an asterisk by the 1 because that was the first game of the season. We all know that the Wizards team game 1 and the Wizards team November and on is a completely different team. Anyone who says different clearly knows nothing about basketball or just hasn’t watched this team. In all games except the one marked by the asterisk the Wizards held the Hawks to at or under 100 points. In the playoffs teams usually don’t score as much as they do in the regular season so this matters even more. Defense, defense, defense! The Wizards can be a great defensive team it just all comes to effort and leadership. Again this is where John and Brad can lead the team.
4. Keef – Markieff Morris has to keep Paul Milsap in check. John Wall spoke some strong and encouraging words saying that this is going to be a good matchup for Morris and he has full confidence in Morris. This is Keef’s first playoff appearance and we all know as he has said many times he’s just ready for the playoffs to start. Keef has had some success scoring against the Hawks and I look forward to continued success in the playoffs.
5. Bench scoring – Generally in the playoffs the bench plays less, but in this series I look to the bench being effective. Bo-Buckets has cooled off a bit in the last 8 games but when it comes to bench scoring it starts with Bojan. He has got to get back into the form he was in before this slump. Maybe a few days off is exactly what he needed. Jason Smith, Kelly Oubre, Brandon Jennings can all help in this category as well but look to Bojan Bogdanovic to get back into form, the catch and shoot has to be lethal again. After all that IS why we call him Bo-Buckets.

We all have full confidence in this team, and I think the last month of the season wasn’t a plateau but more of a temporary slump. Scott Brooks has instilled an energy and excitement in this team and I think the slump ends in less than 12 hours. I have the Wizards winning this series 4-1, as a matter of fact all the members of DTC have the Wizards winning this series. Lets fill the phone booth! DC Family lets get this done!