If you didn’t think last night’s game was over when Ray Allen hit a 3-pointer to give Boston its first lead in more than two quarters early in the fourth, that’s fine. But the real sign that the Wizards were well and truly done was when Earl Boykins drove in the lane and got his shot swatted by Tony Allen like any other 5-foot-5 player should who isn’t Boykins. The reason his career has lasted so long is precisely because he’s been able to avoid making himself look silly with that kind of play so when it does happen, fatigue indeed has set in and alarm bells should be going off.
“For Earl, we probably played him too many minutes, but we probably didn’t have a choice,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders.
So, with nearly 48 hours rest for Washington versus half that much for Boston, which was on its heels for nearly all of the first three quarters, it was still the Wizards who ran out of ideas, energy and execution.
“Emotion is big,” said Wizards center Brendan Haywood. “Emotion is your energy and your attitude, and you need to come out with that every night. When that’s not there, that’s not acceptable. I don’t think it should be hard to maintain your enthusiasm for the game for four quarters. It’s only 48 minutes.”
The problem is, the Wizards also preferred to look at it only as one game.
“Shots just didn’t fall,” said Caron Butler. ” We had great looks. I had a couple good looks. Antawn [Jamison] had a couple wide open shots, some little bunnies that we just missed. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get over that hump, and we all feel in that locker room that we let a big game slip away.”
But last night was how one loss turns into 31, regardless of what happens with Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton.
Other top quotes, in reverse order:
10. Antawn Jamison: “It was tough night, offensively and defensively, getting my body right. I just need to get the kids, put them in the car and just forget about it, man. Watch some cartoons and laugh a little bit.
9. Jamison, on breaking Paul Pierce’s ankles but not finishing: “I like to show them off every once in a while, the handles. Young guys don’t think I can dunk. I show them off every once in a while, let them know I still got it. I made a good move, I just couldn’t push off my leg. I missed a layup that 99 out of 100 i make.”
8. Saunders: “I tought the refereeing was inconsistent. At times, I thought that I ’Twan got hit a few times. You don’t go 2 for 17 in his situation and not get to the line more than six times.
7. Saunders, on Randy Foye: “He struggled so bad, in both of his stints when he was in there and the only time we seemed to have any pace to the game was in Earl was in there. And he seemed to do a better job on [Rajon] Rondo.”
6. Foye: “I’m not confused. I want to go out there and help contribute. Earl did a great job, he scored and got the team in sets to win it, but we couldn’t pull it out toward the end. I was just trying to get my teammates the ball. if you watch me, I just take what the defense gives me. I was coming off. I was showing hard. I found Mike [Miller]. I found Brendan. After that I was taken out.”
5. Boykins, asked about the Arenas op-ed: “I think it’s good to teach kids about gun violence.” That didn’t come out right.
4. Jamison, again: “Whether it’s been stats or anything affiliated with the game, it has been a very uncanny and very unique season. To go with no rebounds, that’s something that I can’t recall that’s happened, to 23 rebounds. To go from 3 for 17 to making just about every shot that I touch. That’s when, mentally, you gotta forget about the bad things that happen and try to duplicate some of the good things that take place.”
3. Saunders, on Andray Blatche. “I think that he had a great first half. The second half I think he played hard but he didn’t have much to show for it because he missed some crucial shots, great looks at the basket. In the second half three shots within six feet of the basket came up dry. Which at that point, you need to knock those down.
2. Blatche: “It was definitely hard to see all our hard work sliding away after a couple missed shots. But I can’t hang my head about that. It wasn’t like I wasn’t trying. I was trying my hardest. Shots just weren’t falling for me.”
1. Haywood: “You’re playing against the Boston Celtics, so you’re not going to get a lot of calls. KG’s [Kevin Garnett] going to set illegal screens; they’re not going to be called. That’s just part of the game. You’re going to go to the basket, and if it’s not basically just a straight-up WWF body slam, you’re not getting the call. We’ve got to play through it and still find a way to get the win.”
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