After a detour earlier today to South Africa, it’s back to the hardwood with the Wizards for the third time in four nights. Despite the potential fatigue factor, this probably should go down afterward as one of those games were Gilbert Arenas will owe assistant coach Sam Cassell one hundred bucks if the Wizards lose. Last week, this didn’t seem like appropriate conversation, but things have changed.
The last time the Wizards started the season 7-10 was in 2006-07. They went 20-7 over the next 27 games, and had best record in Eastern Conferenc by Jan. 30.
What else? Toronto has dropped five in a row — and held a team meeting this morning to talk about how their plight — while the Wizards have won four of five, including beating the Raptors north of the border three nights ago. In that game, Arenas and Earl Boykins found their groove in the fourth quarter, Antawn Jamison was huge with 30 points and 12 rebounds, and Brendan Haywood was awful at the line, where he went 1 for 8. We’ll see if Haywood can make a free throw, what he’s got in store defensively this time around against Chris Bosh, and whether Boykins comes out of the bull pen once more.
