Earlier today, Wizards head coach Flip Saunders pointed out that the last time his team got an opponent coming off a massive blowout loss, it was Toronto, which ended up outlasting Washington in overtime the night after a 31-point defeat in Atlanta.
The Heat lost by 39 to Charlotte on Wednesday.
So there you have it. In addition, the Wizards also need the win to get a season split with their Southeast Division foe. The Heat wilted in the teams’ last meeting in Miami, where Dwyane Wade was held to 18 points while Nick Young scored a season-high 22. What are the chances that happens again?
Anyway, among the topics covered by Flip prior to the game:
No. 1 Does Antawn Jamison deserve to be an All-Star?
Yes, we covered that, but Saunders was asked how seriously he takes his vote: “I think it’s more serious than the fan vote. I’ve always said to players that got selected by the coaches, that’s almost more rewarding because you’re getting selected by people that have watched a ton of film of you, they’ve seen you play, they played against you. They probably know your strengths and weaknesses better than anybody else, and if you get selected in that situation, they’re showing the respect they have for you.”
No. 2 What about Brendan Haywood? Another potential coaches’ pick?
“He just doesn’t have the stats,” said Saunders. “It’s the same thing. It’s the impact. It’d be a different story if we had a lot more wins and everything else.”
No. 3 Can Mike Miller make more of an impact?
“When you get a guard that’s shooting over 50 percent from the field and from the three [officially, his stats are 60.9 percent overall and 64.3 percent from three. No, seriously], you’re not shooting enough,” said Flip. “You gotta take more shots and miss more shots. Where he is, you can’t be shooting that high a percentage. I think that he plays the right way, and he wants to play the right way. He’s still trying to get into a rhythm.”
No. 4 Should Miller handle the ball more?
“Sometimes when he overhandles it, he jumps up in the air and gets four turnovers in ten minutes so you gotta keep him in a situation where he can be successful.”
No. 5. How’s Flip getting along with Haywood?
“Brendan has a high basketball IQ. We got into a situation in the last game, with 28 seconds, he thought we should’ve fouled. He’s walking on the floor saying to foul, and I’m saying, listen, we’re going to make a defensive stop. He ends up taking the charge with seven seconds to go, and after the game he says, you were right. That’s all part of the process.”
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