The text messages come across often, friendly trash-talking from former teammates; ones who just happen to be trailing his team by half a game. Sometimes, as in thecase of Dwyane Wade, they send warnings, reminding others of his imminent return.
“I hear from everybody,” Wizards forward Caron Butler said, smiling and slightly shaking his head.
Which is to be expected when 12 games remain and teams are jockeying for playoff seeding. The Wizards can’t do anything until April 11 about Butler’s former team, Miami, which has made the Southeast Division race a tight one. But they can take care of one team, at least temporarily, when they host Toronto (39-32) tonight.
The Wizards trail the Raptors by half a game for the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. The game is big for one reason: If the Raptors win, they take the season series, 3-1, which could be an important tiebreaker.
“It’ll be real intense,” Butler said, “like a playoff game.”
The main thing for Washington (38-32) is to at least remain in the top four, giving the Wizards first-round home court advantage.
“I feel comfortable with us having home court in the first round,” Wizards forward Antawn Jamison said. “We have the attitude to have that happen and it would definitely be a plus. We want to make sure that happens. …We play well at home.”
The difference? Washington is 26-9 at home and 12-23 on the road.
The East is jumbled in the middle, with second-seeded Cleveland in danger of dropping to sixth if it gets passed by Chicago. If the Wizards can’t hold off Miami, they would likely fall to sixth.
It’s enough to cause headaches. Players often run through the scenarios starting around now. But not everyone monitors it closely.
“It’s kind of hard, but I don’t pay attention to that stuff,” Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson said. “Gilbert [Arenas] pays attention to see who’s winning and losing. That’s not me. We can’t worry about any teams; we have to worry about ourselves.”
