After four games this week, the Wizards will essentially reach the quarter pole of the 2009-10 season. Injuries, new coach, new system, whatever, the Wizards’ record with 19 of 82 games completed will tell them exactly who they are.
“It’s going to test us, push us to the edge, mentally and physically,” said guard Randy Foye. “Coach, he pushed us today but we didn’t go as long. But I just think with this week coming up, with these back to backs, we just gotta be prepared because that second night of the back to back, our team has a history of not winning those games. We’ve got be ready, more mentally than anything.”
But unless Washington can pull it together for the dreaded set that begins tomorrow in Toronto, returns to D.C. on Wednesday vs. Milwaukee, followed by Toronto again Friday and at Detroit next Sunday, the current record of 5-10 already says it all.
“I think you’ll know where you’re at,” said head coach Flip Saunders when asked about the 20-game benchmark that has been touted ever since the Wizards dropped below .500 in the fifth game of the year. “I feel that we’re getting close to understanding how we have to play in order to win. It’s just a matter of being able to stick with it.”
Although Saunders took some of the blame for Washington’s ugly loss on Saturday that ended an encouraging two-game winning streak, he was harder on his players after Monday’s practice.
“I think at times, I’d think you’d say we are immature competitors, that when things start going a little bit bad, we don’t have the stick-to-it-iveness to stay with what we’re doing,” he said. “You look at our film [against Charlotte], there’s no question we were a step slow. Whether it was we played five games in eight days or whatever, you hope at that point, as I told our players, you hope that you when you go to your bench, they can give you the energy that you need. No one really had energy the last game we played.”
More on the back-to-backs, too: “We’ve never had success really in the back-to-backs, like people have said, and that usually is a sign. Mature teams have the ability to win because they know what it takes, the professionalism that’s needed, and that when you lose a game, it’s got to hurt you, and you have to bounce back.”
In the Raptors, at least, the Wizards will face a team that has the second worst defense in the NBA, one that allows more than 109 points per game. If Washington can’t get it going against them…
“I think tomorrow will initially let us know how well we rebound from losses like the other night,” said forward Antawn Jamison. “I just think four or five victories in a row will ease things around here, especially in the locker room.”
So much for one game at a time.
The best quotes today had to do with Gilbert Arenas and his continued struggles. I’ll explore them more at length in tomorrow’s print edition. But for for now, here’s Jamison, explaining how he can’t tell Arenas how to play: “It’s like I tell him, don’t listen to anybody, just do you. That’s like somebody telling me, ‘Cross people up like Allen Iverson.’ I don’t do that. That’s going to be a turnover, and we’re going the other way. I don’t do that. Two or three dribbles and it’s going up. So it’s just one of those things, you’ve got to believe in yourself and be patient and let what you do come to you on the basketball court.”
