Game at Bobcats is last before All-Star break
The NBA season has been as merciless on Washington as the ferocious 2009-10 winter.
But as a second significant snowstorm in less than a week bears down on the District, the Wizards (17-32) will get a break after facing the Bobcats (24-25) on Tuesday night. Flip Saunders & Co. get eight days to recharge while All-Star Weekend goes on without them in Dallas.
“If you can get away from the game for a minute, spend time with your loved ones, who love you no matter what,” said Wizards forward Caron Butler, “then you can come back to work and find out what’s going to happen.”
Butler knows his future with the Wizards remains in question with 11 days remaining before the Feb. 18 trade deadline. But he still helped deliver the team’s latest victory, with 29 of 31 points in the second half of a 92-91 comeback victory over the Magic on Friday, including the game-winner with less than a second remaining.
“We said to ourselves, ‘Why come in here playing on your heels? Go out there and just let it go,'” said guard Randy Foye.
Perhaps that’s all there is left for Butler to do.
“[I’m] trying to get more aggressive, seeing the floor a little bit better, picking and choosing my spots a bit better, and not waiting, just reacting, not thinking too much out there, just playing basketball,” he said.
The Wizards remained in Orlando due to the snow at home. The mini break could be important, because things won’t get any easier for them after All-Star Weekend.
Washington already had 31 games scheduled over the final 57 days of the regular season before last weekend’s game against Atlanta was rescheduled for March 11 following its weather-related postponement.
The rescheduled game eliminates one of just three remaining 3-day breaks between games over the final two months and will force the Wizards to play a brutal stretch on three consecutive nights: at home against Atlanta, on the road at Detroit and then back home again to face Orlando.
