A new item in the Wizards locker room was introduced last week along with the slew of new faces: a bin full of ice water for Al Thornton’s feet.
Thornton had been doing plenty of soaking, too, even before he moved into the starting lineup after Josh Howard went down with a season-ending knee injury. But even after coming off his first double-double with Wizards (16 points, 11 rebounds) on Wednesday against Memphis, Thornton still spent an extra half-hour after Thursday’s practice putting up shots as he works himself into a bigger role than he anticipated when he came to Washington from the Los Angeles Clippers in a three-team, trade deadline deal with Cleveland.
“It’s just caused some more responsibility and for me to be a leader,” said Thornton of losing Howard. “It’s something that I’m not used to. I’ve been playing major minutes my first two years with the Clippers so I just got to get back into it, playing 30-35 minutes a game.”
Thornton averaged more than 37 minutes last season, along with 16.8 points and 5.2 rebounds, but that had sagged to 27 minutes, 10.7 points and 3.8 rebounds with the Clips this season. Since the new year, Thornton had been down to under 19 minutes per game.
He’s averaged 31.5 minutes, 16.0 points and 6 boards in his first four games with the Wizards.
“It’s a really good opportunity,” said Thornton. “With my former team I wasn’t playing that much, and to come here and just to be out there and have the opportunity to go out there and play for a good coach and for an unselfish team, I’m just willing to compete and play hard. I’m just happy and excited to be here.”
Still, Wizards head coach Flip Saunders was hoping to use him as a sixth man.
“It forces us, everyone has to change their role a little bit now, and so what happens now is we don’t have as much pop off the bench,” said Saunders. “It hurts because you try to be as aggressive as you want to be but guys are playing three or four more extra minutes, and it wears them down.”
Lack of depth when players get into foul trouble also becomes an issue, but Saunders is hoping to get more out of newly-signed Mike Harris in the Wizards next game.
As for Thornton, he likes the identity of the Wizards now, a scrappy, high-energy team built on effort rather than offensive precision.
“I feel like with the new guys, [offense is] going to come with time,” said Thornton. “The thing that you can control right now, in the early stages, is how hard you play, how tough you play defense, what energy you can bring. The chemistry of the offense, that’s going to come. I think that’s going to take time.”
He thinks it’ll take just one more back-to-back for him to return to tip-top shape, too. Either way, he’s not holding back.
“I only know one way,” said Thornton.
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