Derrick Rose vs. John Wall: 5 Things the Washington Wizards Learned against the

John Wall and the Washington Wizards faced off against Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls in search for their third win of the season.  Statistically speaking, the outcome wasn't much of a surprise, as the Wizards took the loss. 

Rose and Wall faced off again in a matchup of speedy young point guards with similar backgrounds. Both played for John Calipari in college and were selected No. 1 overall by lagging franchises in need of a boost, Rose in 2008 and Wall this year. 

Their first regular-season matchup went to Rose, rapidly blossoming into one of the NBA's top players in his third season. Wall, playing his third game in four nights, is on his way to a record-breaking season.

All the talk before the game was about Rose and Wall, but Wizards coach Flip Saunders downplayed the similarities, pointing to Rose's experience while praising Wall's maturity and development.  The Wall talk related to just about all the top point guards in the NBA and how Wall compares to them.

By the way, the Bulls paid tribute to Hinrich during a timeout in the first quarter, showing a montage of his career highlights on the overhead videoboard, but the former Chicago Bull finished with just eight points.

The Wizards and Flip Saunders should've taken a lot from the game, but I'm going to point out what I took...

Give Trevor Booker Some Minutes

Trevor Booker, the Clemson stud that made ESPN's Top 10 every game last year, was drafted 23rd overall by the Washington Wizards.  Although he had a promising summer league with John Wall, he has rarely gotten any playing time with the Wizards. 

After a disappointing loss to the Charlotte Bobcats, where the Wizards got out-rebounded 48-30, Flip Saunders decided to put guys out on the court that are willing to fight for every rebound.  

Booker happened to be one of those guys.  

Despite only grabbing two boards in 17 minutes, Booker played great defense and boxed out great...which really made a difference because once Booker got in, the Wizards made a comeback.

The Washington Wizards SHOULD give Trevor Booker a decent amount of playing time after his performance against the Chicago Bulls.

But then again, I've seen Flip Saunders do crazier things.

They Need John Wall to Chill Out

Derrick Rose looked like the better of the two PGs in their first matchup of the season.  John Wall, on the other hand, wasn't bad, but he looked totally out of control on fast breaks and drives to the basket.  

Wall had four turnovers and Rose had three, and it looked as if Wall was thinking about the PG matchup the whole game.  Every time Rose scored, Wall wanted to jab him right back with a bucket of his own.  That isn't always a good way to handle those situations.  

What Wall needed to do was relax and let the game come to him, instead of trying to force things.

Here's one situation where you could tell he wanted to press the action:

After Rose split the Wizards defense and scored a layup-altering bucket, Wall demanded the ball right when it went through the net and jetted down the court.  Unluckily, when Wall was halfway to the basket, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson were their waiting for him.  So Wall turned around to set up the defense,and Rose was there to trap him, forcing Wall to commit the turnover.

I'm pretty sure Flip Saunders or Sam Cassell will address this with Wall and go over some tape with him so he can understand what went wrong.

Stop Benching McGee in the Fourth Quarter

Elsa/Getty Images

BOSTON - MARCH 07: JaVale McGee #34 of the Washington Wizards heads for the basket as Kendrick Perkins #43 of the Boston Celtics defends on March 7, 2010 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees tha

One of the things that I share with head coach Flip Saunders is his occasional frustration with the starting center, JaVale McGee.  But a thing that I don't understand about Flip Saunders is his reason for sitting JaVale McGee out for the whole fourth quarter.

In his 20 minutes in the game, McGee had five rebounds and four blocked shots, but Saunders benched him the whole fourth quarter.

Flip has done this numerous times before, but McGee's presence makes a big difference in the amount of layups and dunks attempted in a game.

Fouls weren't an issue either, as McGee had no personal fouls at all in the game, normally a problem for McGee late in games.

If McGee continues to get benched constantly, the Wizards might need to eventually make a coaching change.

No Zone

The Bulls must have seen this video.

The Wizards played a zone defense the whole game against the Bulls.  Against Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, that might be appropriate.  

That is, unless the other team continually breaks it on offense.  The Wizards played mostly a 3-2 zone in the first half because of all the shots that were being made and the quickness of Derrick Rose.  

Yet the zone seemed the least effective scheme, as Flip Saunders continued to watch the Bulls break down the defense with ease.  

All Rose did was drive and kick out to a shooter in the baseline corners, and if that didn't work, the shooters simply passed the ball to a man cutting down the middle for an easy basket or foul.

The zone can be effective at times, but if players are too slow to rotate around it will seem like a shooting drill all game long.

I'd rather let the team play man defense because although the players may get beaten to the bucket every time, it will still be a learning experience for a young promising team such as the Washington Wizards.

Start Gil

He's back! He's back!

Hibachi is back!

After scoring 30 points in 31 minutes off of the bench, it appears that Gilbert Arenas has found his shooting touch once again after taking a great amount of time off the court.  

Although the Bulls took the victory, the Wizards can definitely take a positive out of the situation—they now have their scoring stud back.  Gilbert already said after a sub-par performance that it would take some time for him to get back to his normal form, and it seems as if that time was exactly 24 hours.  

For the past few games, and even during his limited playing time during the preseason, Arenas has grabbed my attention with better effort on the defensive end.  Gil is showing that he still has active hands and seems to be bothering the offense a lot more. 

For once, Gil is actually looking like he is trying on the defensive end now, which is great.  

He definitely would help the Wizards add the scoring punch they were hoping for this season, and I don't see any other reason for him not to get more minutes.