Veteran Influence Leads Wizards to 3-1 Series Lead

DC rising

Nene Hilario may be the most influential of the Wizards deep veteran presence prior to the playoffs due to his absolute brute strength along with his ability to knock down mid-range jump shots. With Nene coming to Washington in the 2011-2012 season from the Denver Nuggets he has started a movement for the Wizards of bring in veterans to pair with the young star the Wizards have in Bradley Beal and John Wall. Acquiring Veterans such as Trevor Ariza, Martell Webster, Al Harrington, Marcin Gortat, and most recently Andre Miller and Drew Gooden, the Wizards have put together a strong bench that from those six players have an average of 11 years of experience and 39.5 playoff games between the players.

In game three of the first round playoffs Nene was ejected from the game mid fourth quarter due to a fight with Bulls swing-man Jimmy Butler, at the time of the ejection the Wizards had a slight lead over the bulls and were hoping to secure a 3-0 series lead but once the ejection of Nene happened the Bulls were able to use the deadly shooting of Mike Dunleavy and inside presence of Taj Gibson to come back and beat the Wizards. Then once the game concluded the Wizards received the news that due to the fight and the ejection that their veteran big man, Nene, would be suspended for the game four.

The experience of the new veterans the Wizards brought in would go a long way in the first round game four win against the Chicago Bulls as the the veterans were able to pull together in the third quarter to create a 20 point lead over the bulls even with John Wall and Bradley Beal combining for only 4 points in that quarter. The 20 point lead would help the Wizards hold off a late strong push by the Bulls that saw them bring the Wizards lead down to nine.

With the deadly shooting of veteran Trevor Ariza, who would go on to score 30 points, and the strong inside presence of Marcin Gortat complementing the Wall and Beal combination, the Wizards would go onto win and push the series to 3-1 heading into Chicago to finish off the Bulls and move on the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2004-2005.

With the rising of young superstars John Wall and Bradley Beal as well as the influence of the veteran leadership that was acquired, The Wizards appear to be on the rise in the NBA and Wizards faithful should look for them to appear in many more playoff series to come. DC Rising.

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Brian Hradsky

The owner of MSB, I created this website while in college and it has never died.

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