Some numbers:
21 – Starting lineups for the Wizards this season with Al Thornton now in the first five instead of Josh Howard.
1 – Points by which Memphis lost at home last night to the Los Angeles Lakers after leading nearly the entire second half.
“You don’t if they’re going to have a shampoo effect from the night before where it’s going to carry over,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “You don’t know if they’re going to come out and just be so upset that they let that one get away, and they’re fighting for a playoff spot, the eighth spot over in the Western Conference, so they need to get this one tonight. We have put doubt in their heads, from the standpoint of just playing hard enough that they look at us and say, boy, this is really going to be hard tonight. Do we really want to pay that price and play that hard.”
3.5 – Games the Grizzlies are out of eighth in the Western Conference
25 – points Andray Blatche is averaging in his last ten games
10.3 – rebounds Blatche is averaging over the same stretch
“I think what he can’t do is he just can’t change how he plays,” said Saunders. “He can’t all of sudden try to change the things he’s doing offensively because he’s playing somebody like that. He’s got to exert his will and get the ball in spots. He’s got to determine the shots that he wants to take. He’s got to make the defense react to what he does and not him react to what they do.”
? – Minutes that Mike Harris gets in his first game as a Wizards. Six of the 11 Wizards in attendance are now between 6-foot-6 and 6-8.
Saunders: “If you’re going to have guys like that, the more you can have that way, the more effective you can be because then everybody becomes pretty much interchangeable both offensively and defensively, and your team doesn’t become as much stereotyped or as stagnant.”
Flip one last time: “One thing I told [Harris] is I don’t want him to try to fit into what we’re doing,” said Saunders. “I want him to do the things that he does. But he fits into what we do now, this type of team. He plays hard, plays with reckless abandon, a very aggressive player, can play a couple of different positions, has the ability being undersized at times but still strong enough to play around the basket but can go outside a little bit.”
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