To say that Flip Saunders was fired up after the Wizards found a different yet familiar way to collapse tonight against Oklahoma City would put it way too lightly. The fact is, the entire organization is on notice, and Saunders has officially drawn a line in the sand. The argument could be that he knows he’s got the full backing of the Wizards front office and the freedom to lay into his team as he pleases. It also is an angry plea to the front office to make a change. Talk about ending the year with a bang. Who knows what this team might look like by the time it’s 2010.
You take it from here, Flip: “This team needs a mindset change. This team for the last five years has been known as one of the worst defensive teams in the league. until we make a commitment. We couldn’t stop anybody out there. We could take five guys in this room out here and we could have a chance. They took 46 [note: not sure about this number] uncontested shots. I’ve never seen that ever in a game. That team is playing a lot better, but that’s not the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Los Angeles Lakers or those teams yet.
“Until our guys decide that it hurts when teams score on you, we’ve got no chance. We’re kidding ourselves. We can say we’re two games out of whatever. But I’m hearing everything else. I didn’t come here to make the playoffs. I came here to win a championship. We need a total mindset change about how we’re going to do that. Until we have that, and that’s from everybody, staff and players and everybody is committed to that, we’re going to have games like this where we’re going to hang around, hang around and then when it comes times to make stops and if you don’t have an ability to do it, you’re going to lose games.
“Whether it’s lineup changes, it’s all up in the air now. Because I’m not – I’m frustrated, but I’m as frustrated as anybody. I feel bad for the people that came to the game and had to watch us play like this. We got a responsibility as professional athletes, as entertainers, to go out on the floor and perform at a high level, especially at home, in front of your home fans. The last game [against] Philadelphia, we had to take the starting lineup out in order to get juiced up.
“So, we’ll come back to practice in two days and spots will be open for whoever it is. Because if guys don’t like it, I’m fine, because that’s the way it’s going to be. I’m not going to sit there and stand there and look at that anymore. Through 30 games, you evaluate us through 30 games where you’re at, and right now, it ain’t getting done.”
I did manage to get one of the two questions in the postgame press conference, and I asked about the second quarter, during which the Wizards did erase an 11-point deficit.
“We pushed the ball up the floor, we played aggressive. We played some zone,” said Saunders. “We got back in the game. The zone got us back in the game, and then they scored a couple of times in the zone. Guys want to come out of the zone, play man to man — they can’t guard anybody. I can go out there on the floor and take anybody on the team, one-on-one, at 52 years old, and drive right around them. We’ve got to wake up. Don’t ever think it can’t get any worse, because it can. There’s no question it can. We got to have a sense of urgency.”
A sampling from the locker room to see if the message hit home:
Antawn Jamison: “It’s tough but somehitng has to change. Either I’m going to go crazy or – when I say it has to change, it has to change in here. There’s no need to make exsuses. I’m not saying we need to do anything drastic. But we have to change because it’s not the coaches. It’s not them putting this group together. It’s the guys who are in this locker room. The trust that we have in one another. The confidence we have. The energy that we bring. That’s what I’m saying when something got to change.”
Brendan Haywood: “Defense. It’s an attitude. It’s taking pride. I think sometimes we get mad about the wrong things. We get mad that the guy didn’t see you on offense or you didn’t get your shot. Well, get mad when your guy goes by you. Get mad when we’re not playing defense. That’s when we’ll grow as a team, when we, as a team, take pride in our defense. It’s one of those things, when hey, you give up a dunk in the fourth quarter to a high-level player like Kevin Durant, everybody is mad because we know he’s supposed to get fouled, and he’s supposed to get fouled hard. Nothing dirty, but he’s supposed to get fouled. That’s when we’ll grow as a team, when we take pride in getting stops, sealing off the paint, helping each other and playing as one on the offensive and defensive end.”
Caron Butler: “Usually, you’re not supposed to take your work home with you, not in our world. It’s been a rough month, seriously, losing sleep thinking about the opportunities that we’ve been given and had, and haven’t taken advantage of. And now we’re in a foxhole, sitting at 10-20, trying to claw our way back, scratch and kick and everything to get back to .500. it’s tough. It really is tough, and it’s frustrating, and you just gotta try to remain positive and get through all this. But it really is tough.”
Gilbert Arenas: “Right now we stink. And we’re showing it. You can sit here and talk about it every day every game every loss, but until we turn it around, we stink… The last two years we’ve got a loser mentality. We’re finding ways to lose basketball games. From forcing shots to turnovers, if you can think of it, we’re doing it.”
To top it off, an out-of-town reporter also came in search of finding out more about the Arenas gun investigation. Much to Wizards PR staff’s dismay, Arenas answered the questions:
“They started investigating two weeks ago,” said Areans. “You guys just found about it. They just wanted to know where I got them from and make sure they’re not dirty guns.”
Did Arenas show them to someone? “Yes, I showed them to someone, I showed them to team security when I handed them to them and said give them to the police. Yes, I took them out of this locker room. I had to take them out to get them out of here to give to security. You see they didn’t take the whole locker out of here.”
And the coup de grace, Gil being Gil: “Why did I have them? I like to rob banks. I’m a bank robber.”
Can’t wait for the new year.
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