Injuries to Blatche, Yi mean more minutes for Booker, Seraphin
It wasn’t so long ago that all the talk about Wizards rookies had to do with John Wall. A slew of injuries mean it’s no longer the case.
With Wall (right knee tendinitis) likely still out for Washington’s lone visit to New Jersey this season, along with both of the Wizards’ top two options at power forward — Andray Blatche (swollen left knee) and Yi Jianlian (right MCL sprain) — Washington’s other two first-round picks from June’s NBA Draft, Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin, are finding themselves in the spotlight.
But are they ready for it?
“It’s a good bit of pressure with our main guy going down and his backup going down,” said Booker, who is likely to make his second start of the year Thursday. “At the same time, other bigs got to step up. That’s what we’re here for. Because if anybody goes down, we’ve got to be ready.”
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| Wizards at Nets |
| Where » Prudential Center, Newark, N.J. |
| When » Thursday, 7 p.m. |
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Blatche was still limping when he exited Wizards practice on Wednesday, and Yi, who missed nine games earlier in the year with a hyperextended knee, said he expects to be out two to four weeks.
Booker’s game is still a work in progress, but he has turned into a reliable source of hustle off the bench over the last month — chasing down rebounds, making athletic defensive plays and sprinkling in a couple fast-break dunks. Seraphin has put his massive 275-pound frame to work in the paint even more sporadically.
But after both rookies played their best games of the season against the Los Angeles Lakers — combining for 31 points and 26 rebounds over two games — the confidence should be there to replicate those efforts on a nightly basis.
“Now I know I get more minutes,” Seraphin said. “Now I’ve got to improve. I’ve got to bring some things. I have to be good now.”
As much as Wizards coach Flip Saunders needs players like Booker and Seraphin to grow up faster than they might have otherwise, he needs better production from his backcourt even more. That means more scoring from veterans Kirk Hinrich and especially Gilbert Arenas, who has struggled with his consistency as Wall has bounced in and out of the lineup.
“[Arenas’] game has not really changed from the standpoint that we haven’t asked him to change,” Saunders said. “We’ve told him, ‘Other players will adjust to what you do.'”
