Between a 1:15 deadline and a Wizards practice that lasted until 1:30, here’s how my first attempt at checking in on the Wizards went (see below). I’ll check in with more later — although here’s one tidbit. Assistant coach Sam Cassell just happened to be carrying Tim Donaghy’s book out of practice with him — it must be a page-turner, and I wonder if he was reading on the treadmill perhaps? or in between drills…
More soon:
Things get no easier for the Wizards following their third and latest multiple-game losing streak. How about facing arguably the best team in the NBA one-quarter of the way into the season? A year removed from winning their 17th NBA championship, the Boston Celtics (17-4) have started the season on a tear, and come into Washington having won eight in a row overall and nine out of ten road games.
“We’re just trying to get on the right foot, period,” said forward Antawn Jamison said after practice on Tuesday. “Boston’s the next opponent, but the most important thing for us is worrying about what we’re doing: execution, worrying about what has happened the last few games defensively, fine-tuning that and trying to get the energy and morale up from the last couple days.”
The Wizards (7-12) followed Monday’s day off with two lengthy practices to help prepare for what will also be their third nationally televised game of the season, but need to keep some energy in reserve for Boston, against whom they hope to push the ball and improve on just 11.9 fast break points per game.
“We talked to Gil [Arenas] about, we want him to be aggressive with the ball, whether it’s scoring or distributing,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “But we cannot walk the ball up the court. That’s something we’ve really been trying to work on, from the beginning of training camp, if there is a miss, we shouldn’t be in any sort of set play.”
Instead, Saunders usually finds himself frantically waving his arms. But the Wizards have still settled far too much for lower percentage jump shots instead of dictating the game with aggressive moves that lead to easier buckets.
“Right now, we’re trying to get a better thrust with the ball and trying to get more open floor opportunities,” said Saunders. “As well as we’re rebounding at times, teams are shooting 44 percent against us. We should get more open floor opportunities and we’re not taking advantage of that, and we’ve got to continue to work on being able to execute down the stretch.”
