Nick Young’s late arrival back in Washington means instead of defending the starting shooting guard position that propelled him to leading the Wizards with 16.4 points per game last year, he’ll start the year having to play behind Jordan Crawford.
“We’re going to bring him along,” Wizards head coach Flip Saunders said. “We’re not starting him tonight. We’ll bring him off the bench, just so he can get active. We don’t want to put him in situation where he has to play too many minutes and get tired or broken down.”
The rest of the Wizards’ starters: John Wall, Rashard Lewis, Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee.
Saunders confirmed that Jan Vesely (hip) will be inactive along with Hamady Ndiaye.
The Nets’ starters: Deron Williams, Anthony Morrow, Damion James, Kris Humphries and Johan Petro. Rookie Jordan Williams (Maryland) and Brook Lopez (broken foot) are New Jerseys’ two inactive players.
Wall gets the assignment of handling New Jersey’s all-star point guard.
“He’s much more prepared than he was a year ago, just understanding what it is going into every game,” Saunders said. “But Deron, especially, he’s probably going to be more aggressive [with Lopez injured] and try to control the game even more so that’s going to be a challenge for John defensively, he can’t just let Deron control the tempo of the game.”
