The Wiz took it to the Raptors last night, establishing that there is at least one team in the NBA that is definitively worse than ours. So we've got that going for us, which is nice. Zards ALards! was once again in attendance (record with ZA in the building: 2-0, record without: 1-6) taking it all in. This time around we even got to do a little coaching, since the place was quiet enough for well-timed shouts to carry easily onto the floor. Announced attendance was 11,513, but if that's true, those were the quietest eleven thousand people in the District. Sure it was a Tuesday night, with no John Wall (or Yi), against Toronto, but there were tickets on StubHub for $2. Two dollars! Buy the tickets!
The 6,000 or so who did turn out were treated to a tidy Wizards victory fueled by everyone's two favorite Zards, Nick Young and Gilbert Arenas. Nick scored 20 on a number of pretty moves, but the highlight was when he shrugged his defender with a wicked crossover, hopped back for a 20 footer, and could only muster about 18 feet of shot. A glorious airball. Nick Young is a lot like Icarus, always flying too close to the sun. If ZA is the first major media outlet to make that comparison, all the better.
Gilbert also scored 20 and looked wonderful doing it. When he got hot in the third quarter a ripple of excitement ran through the crowd, as if they were witnessing a rumor turning out to be true. It's interesting that everyone involved with the Wizards, including Arenas himself, has embraced the narrative of Gilbert's new role as a complementary piece. But what if we're all wrong, and he's still Gilbert the star? Something to chew on as the season progresses.
As for Toronto, well, Andrea Bargnani is seven feet tall and got two rebounds in 28 minutes. I kept waiting for him and the Javalevator to realize they were staring at precisely the other half of their game and walk off arm in arm. Reggie Evans starts at power forward and averages two (2) points a game. Linas Kleiza comes off the bench whenever Coach Triano thinks there's a little too much passing going on. Sonny Weems and DeMar DeRozan team up to make running and jumping look really boring. The Raptors, they stink.
But who cares? We beat em! And with that, our record climbs to 3-6. Thanks for reading.
Its extremely exciting to hear that Zards Alards has reached the status of "major media outlet!"
ReplyDeleteAlso, you should know this is the only place I get my Wizarding news. If you were to exclude the Zards record in your blogs then it wouldn't be unreasonable for me to surmise that this team only plays once a week (or two) and, more importantly, only wins. This suits both my online sports news checking abilities/busy CEO schedule, as well as the innate belief that my team must be the best team. Thankyou ZA.