Walker delivers

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

I only caught the second half last night.

Walker showed the complete game: posting up and scoring on single coverage, 
and passing out of double coverage including some great long diagonal 
passes that most PFs are just incapable of. He was just shredding the 
Wizards rotations, primarily to Kenny who was hitting the shots. He hit 
Johnson for a nice fast break dunk and had a spectacular fast break 
almost-assist to Pierce that didn't go down. He scored on a huge tip-in 
late in the game too.

A few notes:

1. What opens up these great all-around games by Walker (and he's had 
several in the past) is his ability to beat his man one-on-one. The Wizards 
were forced to double team because they didn't have anyone who could stop 
him and also no shot-blocker to help out if he beat Jones. Late in the 
game, they didn't double after getting destroyed with Walker's passing, and 
he stepped up by scoring on a great one-on-one spin move.

There's certain guys that he can do this to regularly (Van Horn is probably 
at the top of the list) and certain guys he basically can never beat 
(Duncan). But when he doesn't have that ability on a given night, he's 
won't be able to play this way from the low post. I think that's when he 
has to head back outside and yes, jack up some 3's, as painful as that is 
to many on the list, which opens up the lob pass to Pierce as well as 
getting some points on the board. This team requires Antoine to be a 
serious offensive threat to create enough opportunities for everyone else.

2. Two of the major beneficiaries of Walker's passing were a healthy Kenny 
Anderson and Joe Johnson, neither of which was available last year. I wrote 
earlier that these two guys may be able to take the pressure off Walker. 
There were a couple of plays where the ball just whipped around the court 
through these guys. Having three guys who can handle the ball and pass like 
this really opens up the offense. My hope is that as the year progresses, 
we're going to see Anderson and Johnson be able to create more offensive 
opportunities for Antoine too, so that if his one-on-one matchup isn't so 
good, he'll be a threat without having to toss up so many 3's.

Alex