Four-game losing skid is his first since 2005
The Wizards’ early-season struggles have reacquainted head coach Flip Saunders with territory he has hasn’t visited often in his career and certainly wants to get away from as soon as possible.
During only one season in his previous six in the NBA has Saunders had to endure a four-game losing streak or longer. He never lost four games in a row during his three seasons in Detroit.
In fact, the last time he lost as many consecutive games as the Wizards (2-5) have in the last week was during the 2004-05 season in Minnesota, when the Timberwolves had two bad stretches. First, they dropped four games in a row, from Dec. 29 to Jan. 5. A month later, they topped themselves by losing six straight, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 8. Saunders later was fired.
With key injured starters Antawn Jamison and Mike Miller perhaps ready to rejoin the team at the end of the week, Washington is by no means under that kind of pressure. But Saunders can’t help but wonder how he got here so quickly.
“What you do is you work through it,” said Saunders. “Sometimes your wins and losses have a lot to do with the schedule. We’ve had a tough schedule. I’m not using that as an excuse, but we’ve played good teams. Three of the teams are probably top-five teams in the league.”
The Wizards will face another of those teams again on Tuesday, the Heat (5-1), who started Washington’s skid six days ago. Saunders spent Monday’s practice encouraging his team to move the ball more, making the extra pass to find the weak side and open shots that will help the Wizards improve from their current 22nd ranking in field goal percentage.
“He’s been unbelievable handling the situation,” said guard Randy Foye of Saunders. “Just talking guys through it, encouraging guys, letting guys know, just keep playing, working hard on defense, our offense is going to come. Defense wins championships, but we also have to score the ball.”
