Category Archives: Sports Fix

Sports Fix, The Features
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From hockey to basketball at Verizon: A familiar routine

Photo courtesy of
‘Verizon Center change over’
courtesy of Max Cook

Last Saturday was a busy day for the bull gang at Verizon Center.

Then again, the operations crew working in the hub of Chinatown is always busy.

Yet, last Saturday was a little bit different. Verizon Center makes multiple switches every week from a hockey arena for the Capitals to basketball for the Wizards with modifications for both Georgetown and the Mystics. Normally, it goes from basketball to hockey, a familiar process for the crew. On Saturday it was a quick afternoon turnaround though from hockey to basketball as the Caps played an uncharacteristic early-afternoon matinee at 12:30 p.m. and the Wizards had a later-than-usual start at 8:00 p.m.

Both teams lost. Badly.

It turned out to be a marathon day for this reporter. It came to the point where our fearless leader, Tom, was set to dispatch a St. Bernard to the Verizon Center with one of those little casks tied around its neck as part of a rescue team. Being a working Saturday, I naturally told Tom to have the St. Bernard’s cask (in my mind I called him TimBo) filled with tequila. A working man has a powerful thirst, you know.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Washington Wizards Mid-Season Report Card

Photo courtesy of
‘All Alone’
courtesy of ‘MudflapDC’

Last night the Wizards closed out the first half of the 2010-2011 NBA season in a way that characterizes their season so far.

A loss.

It was a loss on the road, bringing the Wizards to a road record of 1-26. Thank goodness for the post-LeBron Cavaliers for getting that monkey off our backs. Wednesday’s loss to the Magic was worse than a devastating, last-minute defeat like their loss against The Heat.

It was apathetic.

Apathetic in terms of the attendance I’ve seen at home games,where the lower level is a sea of empty seats. Apathetic where you wouldn’t think twice about leaving in the last quarter if the Wiz were down. Apathetic where we look talk about the Redskins, Capitals, and even the Nationals.

The Wizards may not be last place in the NBA, but they are last place in DC sports.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Wizards Collapse Late In Defeat Against Hawks

Photo courtesy of
‘Wizards’
courtesy of ‘erin m’

There’s no “me” in Wizards.

Go with me on this one, I had to change up the adage a little bit.

After half-time the Wizards went back onto the floor trailing the Atlanta Hawks 52-46. Over the course of the second half the Wizards managed to catch back up to within striking distance but didn’t have enough juice in the final quarter and fell short 92-99. The key difference was in their free throw shooting where they went 8-18, compared to 26-35 from the Hawks. Doesn’t matter if you criticize the FT% or the free throw attempts, it’s still a terrible number.

On the surface the team didn’t do too bad: the players shot 50%, Nick Young had another solid night with 21 points (and a new fro), and Al Thornton had a dunk that is already being called “Dunk of the Year.

The problem is the team isn’t performing to the true sum of the parts. Everybody is trying to one the game on their own, not as a team.

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capitals hockey, Sports Fix
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Caps Evolve, Shut Out Penguins 3-0

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Last year at this time, DC was buried under Snowmaggedon. The Caps lit the region with a hard-fought win over the Penguins as everyone prepped for the Super Bowl. This year, it’s deja-vu…sorta.

The Caps came into this afternoon’s contest on a mission to establish themselves and their game plan. After their dominating win over Tampa on Friday, it was imperative the Caps continue their new-found momentum as the Pittsburgh Penguins visited the Verizon Center.

Pittsburgh, however, arrived missing two of their marquee players. Sidney Crosby was currently out of the lineup due to lingering concussion symptoms from a Jan 5 game against Tampa Bay, and Evgeni Malkin was out, awaiting a second opinion on his torn MCL/ACL in his right knee. (Malkin may be out for the season at this point.) Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Sports Fix: The Last Midnight Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘Al Harrington and Andray Blatche’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

Wizards

Record: 13-33
Last Two Weeks: 2-6
Place: 5th in the Southeast

In the middle of a four game road trip, the Wizards have yet to find that magic road W and fall to 0-23 on the road this season. The patience and reasons are running thin. The trip started with a promising double-overtime loss to Oklahoma City that was followed with a disappointing loss in Memphis that caused Wizards’ forward Nick Young to criticize the play calling.

Up until now the Wizards have taken their road losing streak in stride and have avoided pointing fingers. This looks to be the shot across the bow as the team struggles to figure out what they have to do to get a win on the road. It is surprising to see Young break away from his friendly, easy going, personality in the locker room, perhaps a sign of true frustration among the team. Maybe Young needs to start receiving $50 behavior fines like John Wall.

 

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nuggets Get On Top Of Wizards In A Chinatown Shoot-Out

Photo courtesy of
‘Rashard Lewis and Carmelo Anthony’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

What happened to the defensive stops that the Wizards displayed in their surprise victory over Boston? After following that up with a high scoring loss against the New York Knicks, the Wizards return to the Verizon Center with another high scoring shoot-out defeat against the Denver Nuggets.

The Wizards, who typically shoot 44% from the floor, drained 51% of their shots in the 120-109 loss. Per usual Nick Young led the night with 26 points and Andray Blatche had a great game with 25 points, 15 of them in the first quarter alone. John Wall facilitated the offense with 13 assists.

Sounds like a great night offensively for the Wizards- where did we go wrong?

Denver had a better night.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Meet The Newest Washington Wizard: Mustafa Shakur

Photos courtesy DC Sports Bog

The Wizards were dangerously low on Point Guards heading into last Saturday’s game against the Boston Celtics. The night before Kurt Hinrich sustained an elbow injury and wouldn’t be able to play in the game. Late Friday night, the team decided to call up Mustafa Shakur from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Shakur arrived to the Verizon Center on Saturday and found an NBA jersey with his name and number on it.

However it wasn’t a perfect fit. That’s what you get when you are signed and asked to play within the same 24 hours.

That didn’t stop Shakur from making an immediate contribution, starting Point Guard John Wall ran into foul trouble early in the game and just like that Shakur would make his debut in the NBA.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Wall’s Last Second Shot Clinches A Shocker Over Celtics

Photo courtesy Patrick Pho

Yesterday I said the Wizards didn’t possess the perseverance to overcome a deficit in a Friday night loss to the Suns.

Last night they found it, and hung around to upset the Celtics in a thrilling 85-83 win.

There weren’t that many As to put up on the “Great Wall of Assists” (Wall had only four assists), in fact the sell-out crowd was so packed they couldn’t hang signs because there were too many standing room only patrons. John Wall ended a 16 point, 6 rebound game with a three-pointer with 57 seconds left in the game to put the Wizards on top for the first time all night. The team managed to hold on after the Celtic’s Paul Pierce tried for a last-second game winner of his own and missed.

“I felt good, got a great look- it just wasn’t my night,” the Celtics captain said post-game.

The game started with a 35-20 Boston lead in the first quarter and it started to feel like another bad night for the Wiz was in store. Washington dug deep and managed to hang around, battling their way throughout the night. After flirting within a point for most of the second half they managed to take the lead after the offense that kept Boston on top all night started to falter.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Wiz Can’t Stop Frye In Loss To Suns

Photo courtesy John Powell

You look at the roster of the Phoenix Suns and there are a few familiar names: Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Vince Carter. Combined the three have 41 years of NBA experience. Of course there are older teams in the league (tonight the Wizards take on the Celtics) but the point is that the Wizards are a very young team and their inexperienced showed in last night’s 109-91 loss to the Phoenix Suns.

The game started off quite well for the Wizards. Washington got up 33-22 after the first quarter and John Wall already got himself nine assists. The Wizards looked dominant as the press raced to the record books to see if Wall was on a record pace in single game assists.

However the second quarter was a different story. The team was unable to keep the pace they set in the beginning and the Wizards let the Suns catch up and get ahead with the help of Channing Frye, who led the team with 25 points including a 7-11 effort at the 3-point line.

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Sports Fix
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Wizards, Blatche and Wall Live A Dream in MLK Matinee

Photo courtesy of
‘Wizards Home O King, Jr. pener’
courtesy of ‘MudflapDC’

On this Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, it’s really quite appropriate that we’re talking about dreams.

Who would have thought that it would be one from Wizards forward Andray Blatche?

“I had a dream last night. That we won today, then we won the road. I woke up, then had a dream that we made the playoffs.”

What Blatche failed to tell the media is if his dream happened to have any hints on the type of game him and the Wizards would have in the 108-101 win over one of the best from the Western Conference, the Utah Jazz.

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Sports Fix
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Sports Fix: Two Sport Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘Close-in Ice’
courtesy of ‘tbridge’

Editor’s Note: This is the next to last Sports Fix roundup. Starting in February, we’ll be doing sport-specific features on a bi-weekly basis.

Capitals
Record: 25-14-7, 57 points
Last Two Weeks: 2-2-2

Place: 2nd in the Southeast, 5th in the East

Welcome to Thunderdome, er, I mean, January, where many hockey seasons are made or broken. The Capitals have marked January with offensive struggles and some serious road game failures, and it’s taken its toll on their position in the standings. While the Caps are still in the middle of the playoff picture, they’re closer in points to 8th place than they are to 1st place. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Are the Hoyas Trying to Prevent an Orange Overthrow at Verizon?

Photo courtesy of
‘WE ARE GEORGETOWN!’
courtesy of ‘petesolecki’

The Georgetown/Syracuse rivalry has plenty of history from these last few decades, dating back to the rounds of bouts between John Thompson, Jr. and Jim Boeheim during the 80s. Recent memory has certainly reinvigorated this: both teams have made Final Four appearances in the last decade, and both have been incredibly competitive in the Big East.

As rivals in the 16-team conference, SU and Georgetown are one of the few pairs of teams that will often play twice during the regular season, once at each team’s home court. While Georgetown fans don’t exactly jump at the opportunity to head north every February to cheer on the road at the Carrier Dome, the same can’t be said for the opposite: between the many Syracuse alums who live down here and others who are willing to make the drive from various corners of the northeast, Verizon sometimes feels like some weird version of Syracuse South.

Otto’s Army, a Syracuse fan blog, is suspicious that Georgetown has had enough of this Orange invasion – so they are doing something to try and prevent it for the February 26 match in Chinatown.

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News, Sports Fix
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Caps fall short, drop home game to Canucks 4-2

Photo courtesy of
‘DSC_6298’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

The Caps faced off with the best of the NHL on Friday night at the phone booth, knowing exactly how difficult an opponent they faced.  The Vancouver Canucks entered Washington with 62 points and the best road record in the NHL.  The Caps, though, possess the East’s best home record, and the clash of the titans was on Friday night at the Phone Booth.

Short some inspiration until the third period, by then it was too late to make up the difference, despite skating the ice like demons possessed.  Alex Ovechkin tried to single-handedly skate through the fire for the Caps tonight, running four consecutive shifts late in the third to spark something for the struggling offense, and they just couldn’t convert their chances.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Coach Saunders Uses Viral Video To Inspire Wizards In Victory Over Nets

Andray Blatche’s new haircut (photo Patrick Pho)

Earlier this week we said that Andray Blatche was growing malcontent. He’s slumping, the center of trade rumors, and hasn’t been winning fans over.

He didn’t act like that during warm-ups last night.

Sporting his crazy new ‘do he warmed up today all smiles. He laughed with players and in a moment of playfulness gave his basketball to a girl on the sidelines and asked her to inbound it back to him. The energy appeared to be infectious amongst the team as the Wizards trounced all over the New Jersey Nets 97-77.

Where did this newfound energy come from? Would you believe a viral video?

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capitals hockey, Sports Fix, The Features
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Halfway There: Capitals Midseason Review

Photo courtesy of
‘DSC_9034’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

At the beginning of the season, many fans of the Caps pretty much wanted to fast-forward to mid-April and get going with the playoffs. Going into this year’s campaign, the Caps looked pretty good on paper and were predicted to be yet again runaway winners of the Southeast Division and one of the top three seeds in the Eastern Conference.

Now? Well, it’s not all doom and gloom – but reality has definitely sunk in.

The Caps currently sit second in the Southeast Division, one point behind the current leader, Tampa Bay. And two points behind the Caps? The surprisingly strong Atlanta Thrashers. This year’s division race will not be a repeat of last year, when the Caps had sealed their division title before the Ides of March with a thirty point cushion. It will come down to the wire again, much like 2007-08, when the Caps wrested the title from the Carolina Hurricanes on the last game of the season.

When comparing the first half of this season to the last two, the Caps are virtually in the same spot. Currently sitting with 52 points this year, it’s only three points less than last season and five points less than two years back. True, it is “less than,” which annoys many fans to no end. But considering the adversity and issues the team has had to deal with so far, the fact that they’re not less than 10 or 15 points back is something to take a bit of pride in. Or is it?

Let’s break the team down so far and see what we can see. Continue reading →

Sports Fix
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Sports Fix: Delayed Gratification Edition

DSCN0905
DSCN0905 by bhrome

Capitals
Record: 23-12-5, 51 points
Last Two Weeks: 4-0-1
Place: Tied for first in the Southeast, Fifth in the East

We’re pretty much at the halfway point of the 2010-2011 Season, and the Caps have settled into a winning groove after their brutal losing streak in early December. They’re about to be tested, though, as January looks to be a defining month for the season. Two games against co-leader of the Southeast Tampa Bay, tough games in Philly and Atlanta, and home matchups against the Rangers and Senators, with just a few matches against teams they should beat.

Looking back on the Winter Classic, we saw a Caps team that continued their first period struggles, their second period explosion, and a third period full of fight. That’s been this Capitals team all season long, and until they can figure out their first period struggles, I think they’re not going to be strong contender for Lord Stanley’s Cup. There’s much to work on this season, and still a good amount of time to see it happen. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Where Would a Washington Winter Classic Be?


All screengrabs from Google Maps, photo editing by D. Levy, in scale to fit this column.

I’ve spent a lot of time tracking the Winter Classic, both this year (station break, go read all three of Ben H. Rome’s awesome posts about the Caps’ WC debut and win; they’re really good) and last when the Bruins were a part of an outdoor fest at Fenway Park’s temporary rink, which incidentally also hosted an incredible college hockey matchup the following week that featured the two most recent national champions.

Couple that with an exciting win and the chatter that bubbles around who hosts January 1, 2012, and we have ourselves a photo editing project. Now, it’s highly doubtful that the NHL will repeat a participant in back-to-back years – especially if warmer weather is a concern again – so it’d be pretty surprising to see the Caps back in the Classic next year (my proposal: Stars/Wild at Target Field with Emilio Estevez in a Gordon Bombay jacket dropping the puck). Still, it’s fun to dream, and maybe some day, the Classic will be in the District. With that in mind, here are a few ideas for where to build an outdoor rink in DC.

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capitals hockey, Sports Fix, The Features
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Road to the Winter Classic (Part II)

DSCN0868

The 2011 Winter Classic has come and gone, showcasing the best of the league in one very unique experience.

And what an experience it was.

As I’d mentioned in Part I, I was in quite a state before the game. A mix of both my fanboyism for my beloved Penguins and my more observational respect for the Capitals, the team of my home city, the entire experience was shaping up to be one of personal epic proportions.

My entire experience was not mine alone, however. I had several participants in my weekend drama, making it one of the most convoluted and awesome events I’ve ever attended. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Week 16 Recap – Skins vs. Giants

Photo courtesy of
’89 ;-) Santana Moss’
courtesy of ‘littlerottenrobin’

The Giants needed a win over the Redskins and a Packers loss to make the playoffs. They got the win but so did Green Bay. At least New York will be watching the post-season just like the Skins who had plenty of chances but also 4 turnovers in the 17-14 loss. Rex Grossman was pressured all day, but again looked solid with 336 yards and 2 touchdowns. This game may have earned Grossman the starting job next season for Mike Shanahan. Unfortunately, they couldn’t protect the ball and that’s what ultimately cost them a victory. The Skins finish the 2011 season with a 6-10 record and plenty of work to do this off-season. Continue reading →

capitals hockey, Sports Fix, The Features
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Caps Overcome Rain, Penguins in Winter Classic

DSCN0906

In a Winter Classic between the NHL’s top two greatest players, neither had a hand in the game that unfolded before the 68,111 people at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field or the national audience viewing on NBC. The Capitals, who grabbed two points in a tight Eastern Conference race with a 3-1 win, saw Eric Fehr and Semyon Varlamov show up as the heroes for the evening.

Despite the uncooperative weather, the Caps managed to even the score from the last time the two teams met. The game, originally scheduled to start at 1 pm, had been moved to 8 pm due to a rainy cold front that rolled through the area. As the game unfolded, light rain fell in spots, making the ice less than optimal but still playable; it didn’t hinder either team from plowing full force into the other.

Bottom line, however, was that no one left the game last night unsatisfied. The Winter Classic, much hyped over the last month, lived up to its billing for fans, coaches, and players of both teams. “It was one of the best experiences of my life,” Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin said. “I can’t imagine football players play every game like this. It’s unbelievable. It’s the kind of thing you want to do all the time, go out and play like this.” Continue reading →