Andray Blatche is back in the Wizards starting lineup tonight as Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder charge into town with the best record in the NBA.
In part because of his sprained right shoulder and because of how poorly he and Rashard Lewis had been as starters, Blatche hasn’t been in the starting lineup for the last five games, missing the three in the middle due to his shoulder.
Blatche bounced back with 11 points and a season-high 12 rebounds in Monday’s 114-106 loss to the Houston Rockets. He’s averaging 11.7 points and 7.7 rebounds for the season, down from 16.8 points and 8.2 rebounds he averaged last season.
“I thought he had a good energy game,” Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. “I thought he gave us sustained energy for the time that he was on the floor.”
Saunders is moving Trevor Booker back to the bench, with the second-year forward struggling mightily in his last two games, shooting 4-for-16 from the floor. Both Booker and rookie Chris Singleton are expected to take turns guarding Durant.
“When we put Booker in the starting lineup, he’s gone through a sense where he’s had to play against so many big guys that it’s worn him down a bit, playing as many minutes as he has,” Saunders said. “So we’re going to bring him off to play against Durant and bring him off to play against the other people at either [forward] spot.”
As for Durant, the D.C. native was unfailingly kind when asked about the situation that the recently improving John Wall and the Wizards find themselves in, endorsing his hometown both as a potential destination city for NBA superstars and then the Wizards themselves as they’re currently built.
“I was just talking to one of my guys this morning. I said big-time guys should come here,” Durant said. “It’s the nation’s capital, a nice market, and fans are very loyal here. I don’t see why guys wouldn’t come here. They always do a great job of molding young players into good players, and they starting here with the Wizards, with this young group. I don’t see why not. But for myself, I’m glad I’m in Oklahoma City.”
Durant was asked if Wall’s situation, without any other star-type player here in Washington, was different from the one he faced during his first two years in Seattle and Oklahoma City, where he got to build alongside Jeff Green, then Russell Westbrook.
“He has some guys here,” Durant said. “He has JaVale [McGee], He has Andray Blatche, Jordan Crawford. They got a nice young core here, man, so I think it’s all about being patient and knowing, if you working hard every single day, things are going to change soon. They have a great group of guys here that look like they enjoy playing with each other. It’s just a matter of time before everything starts to click. It was the same scenario with us. I didn’t know what was going to happen. After the first year, I was losing 62 games, and in the second losing 59, coming back your confidence is shot a little bit, not knowing what is going to happen. But if you stay positive and stay confident, then things will change.”
Speaking of McGee, Saunders hopes his young center can put the off-the-backboard dunk fiasco behind him.
“As I told him, it’s a learning experience,’” Saunders said. “For him, he learned. I believe this, I don’t think he did it in a malicious way.”
