Tonight the Washington Wizards renew their rivalry with the Cleveland Cavaliers (preseason) for hopefully the first of a great season of moments between both teams. The Wizards are finally healthy after a 19-63 season in 2008-2009. They have all 5 starters back from the 2006 season when they were in first at the all-star break, after last season when they saw three of their 5 starters go down. Interestingly Gilbert Arenas says he is done with the pranks, jokes, blogging, and media back and forths he has had with the Cavs over the years. He even went as far as to say that he would stop meeting with the media until he was fined. So, after a long absence in media sessions Gil was fined 25K and also cost the Wizards organization 25K. He responded to the fine yesterday after last nights win over the Pistons with basically a no comment. So has the entertainer forever died in Gilbert? and is this the year the Wizards get serious and get far in the playoffs?

Uh...i doubt it...but then I stopped rooting for that franchise after it was no longer the Baltimore Bullets....Earl the Pearl, Gus Johnson, Jack Marin, Kevin Loughery and Wes Unseld....that was my team, man...

Lez Bullets did win last night, but preseason doesn't count (after all, the Detroit Lions were 4-0 in 2008 preseason, and we all remember how that turned out).

I'm Rocking the Red at the VC tonight to help Ovi and his posse get off the schnied :)

Well they won 45 games with the starting five they have now, so with the deeper bench of Mike Miller and Randy Foye, who both had over 20 points last night, they're probably a 50 win team. I think they can beat anyone in a seven game series, but to me they get to the conference semifinals or conference finals and lose. To me though they are the best team in the Southeastern conference and are just as good as Cleveland. Even though Cleveland has Shaq they lost a few starters. They now have Anthony Parker (inconsistent player) instead of Wally Szerbiak, and jamario moon instead of Joe Smith, so to me they can't win 65 games like they did last year. The Wizards have better 6th and seventh players than Cleveland. And as far as the starters go, they are even. Three all-stars (which the Wiz have) equals two all-pro type players (which the Cavs have). The Wiz could get to the finals but probably won't unless the defense improves under Flip saunders.

The Wiz played really well in their season opener last night holding the Mavs to under 40 percent shooting. They won without Jamison pretty easily because of the scoring from Foye who had 19, and Blatche who had 20. Oh and by the way Arenas had 29 points and 9 assists. Gil is 100% and it looks like they can hold their on until Jamison comes back. Also, great job by Oberto, Jamison's replacement starter, for the great second half defense on Dirk. I know it is just one game, but if u think about it 3 to 4 starters every game should be able to put up 20 points each. Therefore, I look for the offense to put up the best numbers in the NBA, and put up middle of the road defensive stats. If that happens, which is very realistic, the Wiz should be a 50 win team coming in 3rd or 4th place in the Eastern Conference.

Of course a person is allowed to post anything they would like here.
My question is why would you want to talk basketball on a Baseball board?

I don't know. I just want to talk about basketball. Baseball is on the down low right now especially the O's so i just was trying get a conversation going. This board just seems more fun than the Wizards board so i post about it here too. I mean people talk about the Caps on here, so why not the Wiz too? I guess i have to give it up on here, unless Gnats Fan comes back he is the only one that cares about basketball.

I am a Wizards fan too. They looked good last night. Good start.

Yep everything they could of hoped for happened last night. Atlanta should be another tough one Friday. Wiz and Hawks are predicted to finish around 4th or 5th in the East, so we need to make a statement and say we are gonna finish ahead of them. Nobody wants to give the Wiz more than 43 wins this year. I think it can be more like 48 to 52. How many wins do u think they can rack up this year? And what place do u think they will come in?

There is so much that depends on their health. Especially Gilbert. He looked like the Gilbert of old last night. I am more of a casual basketball fan. I mostly only watch the Wiz. I think the addition of Foye, Miller and Oberto were great. And actually the defense looked better than it has for a while too. Maybe I am being a homer, but I can see 50+wins.

Yeah i think 50 wins is very realistic. Not sure though that just 50 wins is enough for fourth place, because Atlanta or Toronto could win 55 or so. But they will make the playoffs this year. Hopefully they don't have to face Cleveland in the first round again. I'm thinking Cleveland will finish first or second so we would only face them in the seond or third round, of course if we finish 4th or 5th. Everyone says that finishing third is impossible but i know this team is really motivated and they aren't going to settle for 4th or 5th place. Third also could be easy to finish at if Kevin Garnett has to sit out for the majority of the year with Boston.

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The Wiz hit a bit of a cold streak last night against the Hawks. Also, Caron Butler sat out the second half with a bruised knee. Turnovers, foul trouble and poor free throw shooting were really the difference last night in the loss. Hopefully Caron can go tonight which is the home opener against the Nets. Going 1-1 against the Mavs and Hawks is pretty darn good considering the injuries to Antawn, Crittendon, and Caron. If they have Caron tonight they should win. Also Happy birthday to Phil Chenier, former Wizard's star and current color man. He turned 59 yesterday.

The Wiz play the Cavs tomorrow in Cleveland at 7 pm. The Cavs got their first win over the Bobcats a few days ago, and the Wiz moved to 2-1 with a win over the Nets, 123 to 104. Butler didn't play Saturday against the Nets, but the Wiz got great contributions from the bench. The bench's top scorer was Andray Blatche who scored his career high of 30 points. Blatche is playing more consistent than he ever has. In game one he had 24 points, in game 2 he had 14, and in game three he had a monster game of 30. His field goal percentage is way over 50% also.

Arenas added 32 and Haywood had 19. After the Wiz play Cleveland they play Miami the following day, which will complete the second back to back of the season. Keep it going Washington!