Three quick thoughts after the Wizards’ 97-89 loss at the New Jersey Nets:
Does a good second-half effort actually make up for a first half that prompted thoughts like, “There’s no way this team will ever win again as currently constructed,”? Yes, and no. After an utterly horrific performance before halftime – captured perfectly when Gilbert Arenas hit Trevor Booker in the back of the head with a pass – the Wizards finally got the match-ups they needed with Brook Lopez in foul trouble, and Kirk Hinrich (10 points, 6 assists, 4 steals) gave a huge lift with his energy on defense, but Washington never looked like it was in sync in the half court. Despite whittling a 23-point deficit completely, the Wizards couldn’t muster enough consistency on offense to ever regain the lead they lost at 5-4 in the first quarter. The upshot: six losses in a row, 0-13 on the road this season.
Arenas (19 points, 9 assists, 2 steals) finished with decent line but without a decent attitude. Among the Wizards who went missing was Arenas, who like the rest of the team, figured out to show up late, and he scored 15 points in the second half. But the game seemed to serve as a stark reminder of where he fits in the NBA pecking order – hello, Devin Harris (29 points), who was 14-for-17 from the line – and to distract the Wizards from their hard-charging comeback when they were down only one point by yapping his way into a technical foul was the opposite of a savvy, veteran move.
Despite the comeback, that felt a little bit like flirting with rock bottom. It’s no secret that the Wizards need John Wall and Andray Blatche, as well as Josh Howard and even Yi Jianlian. But the frustrating way that games are playing out isn’t changing no matter who seems to be healthy, with the Wizards getting crushed inside defensively, get so few easy baskets at the other end of the floor and having a huge inability to reliably get points when they need them down the stretch. There are bright spots, including Nick Young (22 points) and Booker (11 points, 9 rebounds) and even sporadic contributions from guys like Al Thornton (18 points) and to a lesser extent Hilton Armstrong. But JaVale McGee’s season has run into a brick wall, the outside shots aren’t falling for Arenas, and there’s no sign whatsoever of a winning mentality. Figuring out how to deal with those challenges is as pressing, or even more so, than getting Wall and Blatche back on the court.
