2. Wall Learns His First Lesson
ESPN.com
ORLANDO -- Rookie point guard John Wall, the top pick in last June's draft, learned a valuable lesson in his NBA regular-season debut: stay away from Dwight Howard.
And he learned it the hard way. Wall scored the first points of his career when Howard pounded his driving layup off the backboard on a goaltending call. The next time Wall challenged Howard in the paint, he ended up on his backside after a legitimate block by the Orlando Magic center.
Welcome to the league, kid.
"It was tough," Wall said after he finished with 14 points and nine assists, but missed 13 of 19 shots from the field in the Washington Wizards' 29-point loss to the Magic on Thursday. "It really taught me what I need to work on. For my first game to be a road game against one of the top teams [that] made it to the NBA Finals a few years ago, it was pretty tough."
The night ended much worst than it began for Wall, 20, who approached the game with a level of maturity well beyond his years. The former University of Kentucky star even ditched a couple of his pregame routines heading into Thursday's game.
Instead of eating a cheeseburger, his typical meal of choice before each game, he instead upgraded to a steak before facing the Magic. And instead of texting several of his friends who are established stars in the league, such as LeBron James, Wall turned his cell phone off and spoke with only close relatives in the hours leading up to the game.
Wizards coach Flip Saunders was impressed with Wall's approach, and said he carries himself with a savvy and swagger similar to some of the other marquee point guards he's coached. Saunders was in Minnesota when the Timberwolves drafted Stephon Marbury after one season at Georgia Tech. Saunders was also in Detroit when Chauncey Billups annually led the Pistons to the conference finals.
"He's even more advanced than most of those guys, just from the standpoint of his natural leadership ability," Saunders said. "Just how he deals, he's kind of a combination of all of those guys."
There was no shortage of advice for Wall, even from Orlando's players. He spoke at length during the halftime break with Howard. Vince Carter also had words of encouragement after the game.
"I told him I was going to give him two points tonight," Howard said, making light of the goaltending call. "He's going to have a great career. He's so fast. He wants to play at that one speed. I told him to slow down a bit. He's going to learn a lot. I'm 24, and I'm still learning in this league."
4. Wall's Tough Shooting Night
John Wall made 6-of-19 shots from the floor for the Washington Wizards in his NBA debut. Since the modern draft was instituted in 1966, only three other No. 1 selections missed as many as 13 field-goal attempts in their debuts. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) went 12-for-27 in his first game for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969, Mark Aguirre was 7-for-21 from the floor in his debut for the Dallas Mavericks in 1981 and Patrick Ewing was 8-for-21 in his NBA debut for the New York Knicks in 1985.
5. Extreme Behavior
ESPN.com
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THURSDAY'S BEST
Warrick Hakim Warrick, Suns: With Amare Stoudemire doing his damage in New York now, the Suns were looking for someone to fill his void in the lane. For one night, Warrick was the answer, tallying 18 points and 11 grabbing rebounds against the Jazz.
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THURSDAY'S WORST
Williams Deron Williams, Jazz: Two games, two double-digit defeats for Utah. Sure the Jazz are trying to work some new pieces into the puzzle, but Williams, who is the face of the franchise, has to start playing better (6-for-22 shooting from the field).
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QUOTE OF THE NIGHT
"For me, I feel it's a time for change."
-- Forward Carmelo Anthony hinting it may be time for him and the Nuggets to go their separate ways
7. Love For Dwight
(NBAE/Getty) 8. Warrick's Slam Punctuates Night
TrueHoop Network
It took just a single dive.
One vicious foray to the hoop punctuated by a rim-rattling slam, and Hakim Warrick announced himself as the heir to Amare Stoudemire's roll man throne with the Phoenix Suns.
That's not to say Warrick will exactly be Stoudemire. It's not that easy to replace a five-time All-Star who scores at least 20 points pretty much every time he laces them up.
But for a Suns team craving a big man who can roll hard to the rim to draw the defense and finish Nash's beautiful dishes, Warrick showed he can be that guy.
His nasty slam may have made Warrick a trending topic on Twitter and earned him an appearance on "SportsCenter," but really it was just the cherry on top of an 18-point, 11-rebound masterpiece in a mere 24 minutes in which he was a plus-12.
For a Suns team so deficient of rebounders, his prowess on the glass was just as important as the way he sucked in the defense during the plays following his big dunk to open up the perimeter for his teammates.
Warrick did his damage both with the first unit and the bench, but he seems to be a perfect fit playing with the starters. As we learned, he can be that ferocious roll man to pair with Nash, the biggest way the Suns miss Amare.
Robin Lopez just doesn't possess the explosiveness toward the rim to collapse the defense, Hedo Turkoglu is more accustomed to handling the ball in a pick-and-roll situation and Channing Frye is more of a pick-and-pop kind of screener.
Warrick won't ever be Amare, but he can be Amare Light.
And for one play at least when he took a Nash pass off a pick-and-roll and put Paul Millsap on a poster, he looked an awful lot like the man known as STAT.
Michael Schwartz covers the Suns for the TrueHoop Network.
9. What's Wrong With The Jazz?
TrueHoop Network
An 8-0 preseason with all kinds of great chemistry seems like a distant memory for the 0-2 Jazz. Just last week all the talk centered around a new kind of leadership from a revitalized Deron Williams. The players were taking each other to lunch and making plans to start a multi-year dynasty together.
The pendulum swings both ways. The goodwill and camaraderie have been replaced with frustration, confusion, and lack of effort. It all boiled over in the fourth quarter when Williams fired a bullet baseball pass to rookie Gordon Hayward, who was standing only a few feet away. The angry gesture from the newly named team captain seemed to shock the crowd and fueled the boo birds.
Hayward put on a good face after the game, but had to cover for his captain when asked about the incident. "With time it will all be fine. I just need to learn what he wants me to do. Next time I'll be in the right place. Once I stop rushing and just slow down it will all be fine. I keep telling myself to slow down.
"You know, in warmups I can't miss, and then I get out there and the shots won't fall. I just need to shoot. I've been a shooter my whole life. It starts on defense though. If we can get some stops, we'll be fine. We'll be fine; I have confidence in us."
The players tried to say the right things, but after the game, the tension was palpable in the locker room. A frustrated C.J. Miles tossed a crumpled roll of athletic tape and missed the trashcan by a few feet, proving that too much pressure doesn't help with crisp play. So what happened between the end of the preseason and the start of the 82-game grind? Williams talked about players not knowing the offense. Miles thought the team got caught up in the euphoria of being the preseason champs.
"The Lakers started the regular season with a ring ceremony," Miles said, "and I guarantee you they didn't go 8-0 in the preseason."
The Suns are another team that didn't go undefeated in the preseason. The powerful display by the aging trio of Steve Nash, Grant Hill and Jason Richardson as well as eye-opening play from Hakim Warrick and Goran Dragic bode well for the Phoenix squad that looked completely overmatched several times in the preseason. It should be noted that Warrick threw down one of the most ferocious dunks in the history of the world in the third quarter.
Somehow the Jazz need to get their hands on whatever alchemy the Suns medical staff is performing. They've not only rejuvenated 90-year old Hill, they've also created a Slovenian clone of Steve Nash in Dragic.
Jazz fans will have to wait until Sunday to see if a matchup against Kevin Durant and the Thunder in Oklahoma City reveals a new demeanor. The pendulum has to swing sometime.
Spencer Hall covers the Jazz for the TrueHoop Network.
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