The story remains the same at Wizards practice, where there’s still a shortage of forwards, including Andray Blatche (shoulder) and Rashard Lewis – who is returning from Houston after getting a second opinion on his right knee – and on the wing, where Nick Young (knee) will likely play despite being banged up and Cartier Martin (knee) will likely be out again tomorrow vs. the Clippers.
But the bigs who remained worked hard at the end of practice, going through a rotation drill inside to contest shots drives from assistant coaches. Yi Jianlian ended up with a bloody lip after drawing a charge from assistant coach Wes Unseld, Jr., but it remains to be seen if that will translate into more playing time over the final 19 games of the season.
“He’s had a rough year,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “He played so well in training camp. Then he got hurt, and he just hasn’t been able to get into a rhythm. By the time he was able to come back after about his third injury, we had Rashard and so he was on the outside looking in, and Book [Trevor Booker] has played well. The minutes he had were kind of taken away because of somebody else taking advantage.”
Yi, who still gets plenty of attention from the Chinese press contingent whether or not he plays 15 minutes or 15 seconds, said he’s ready to play whatever time he gets.
“I’ve been working hard,” said Yi. “I think it’s for the future and for the rest of the season. As a young player, you have to work hard every day, no matter that we’re far away from playoffs and maybe last place for this season. But you still gotta give it up, working hard for next season.”
If Yi plays, he could find himself matched up against Blake Griffin at the four, but JaVale McGee made it clear he wouldn’t end up with the task of defending the guy who beat him in last month’s dunk contest, that he has another goal for the remainder of the year.
“I’m just trying to be consistent and at least end the season averaging a double-double, 10 and 10,” said McGee.
After three days of practice that Saunders had forecast to be a training camp-type environment with all positions open, Flip didn’t quite predict changes in his lineup on Saturday.
“I think the guys who have been starters,” said Saunders, “the last couple days were a little bit of a wake-up call for them because they found themselves on the outside looking in a little bit. But today those guys in particular, really stepped it up so they reacted to that situation in a positive way.”
In the end of practice huddle, Saunders reminded his short-handed team of the need to arrive early, especially when hurt, that those who show up just before practice starts and say they’re hurt would be subject to a $5,000 fine.
“What happens a lot of times is some guys slide in and so it’s just a matter of trying to remind guys that part of what they need to do is to make sure they get here in time,” said Saunders. “Part of it is, usually, you might have one or two guys that are hurt. But when you have six or seven guys, you have to make sure they get here early because those guys have got to spend a lot of time with them to make sure they get ready for practice. It’s just more of a reminding of guys to make sure they’re here.
“We’ve played hard,” said Saunders. “Not we’ve got to make sure we carry that through. I think we’ve had some guys that have improved over the three days, understanding what we want to do. We’ve had a lot of different groups together. We’ll just have to see if we can carry that through.”
Saunders also told all those involved with practice to say a prayer for those in Japan after the terrible earthquake and tsunami, that some people close to Wizards trainer Koichi Sato were affected.
