It sure didn’t take long for the Wizards to sabotage any of the franchise’s positive representation by John Wall and JaVale McGee during All-Star weekend, losing again in a blowout, 113-96, to Indiana. Some thoughts:
Washington’s last three losses have been by an average of 22 points. Right now, the Wizards are getting worse, not better.
“We didn’t learn nothing from the first half of the season,” said Wall (15 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds), whose double-double was all but meaningless. “They basically just took the heart right out of us like San Antonio did.”
Washington got outworked on the glass in particular, including a 21-10 advantage for Indiana on the glass in the second quarter, and outhustled in general. After the Pacers’ reserves ran the Wizards ragged in the second quarter, their starters did the same in the third. And then the Wizards threw in the towel.
“They got some bullies on their team, and they played more harder getting rebounds, and we kind of shied away,” said Nick Young, who missed his first nine shots before finishing with a deceiving 16 points. “We just gotta get more angry, get more nasty out there.”
“Guys just didn’t bring no effort,” said Andray Blatche, who had 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists but was invisible after the first quarter. “They outworked us every possession. For a minute out there, it seemed like guys didn’t care after a while, like we just gave in to a team that we definitely much better than if we compete. But nobody brought heart tonight with them.”
Flip Saunders said from the moment that McGee was named to the dunk contest that it meant nothing to his development. Tuesday proved he was right.
Here’s what Saunders said prior to facing the Pacers: “What you hope happens, what we’ve said to him is that, ‘People now know who you are. Do you want to be known as a guy that’s a dunk guy or do you want to be known as a guy that can play? What you gotta do now is take the publicity that you’ve gotten, but now come with substance playing: rebound the basketball, block shots inside, key the defense and do things like that and you’ll be known also as a guy that can not just jump and dunk but a guy that has some substance playing.’”
Here’s what he said afterward: “He struggled at Orlando. He’s got to play against big centers and be a force and not just be in a situation where they either score or he fouls them. He’s got to limit their touches and limit the things they do. It’s a growing process, and he gets frustrated. But that’s part of his process. He’s got to just keep on working to try and get better and work on angles. He gets frustrated when he gets in foul trouble, and then he gets less aggressive and it becomes even more difficult for him.”
The players are begging for Saunders to lead them out of their current funk.
“Coach did a great job of getting us back in here yesterday and making us practice really hard, getting us back in shape,” said Wall. “But it’s just not coming with no effort. Against Cleveland, we knew we didn’t want to lose that game so we fought hard. In this game, we didn’t fight at all.”
Whether or not his job is on the line over the next 27 games, Flip has an opportunity to make adjustments and try to ignite some kind of spark out of his roster. It’s not a job for Wall, who is a rookie. It’s not a job for Rashard Lewis, who isn’t fully healthy. It isn’t a job for Josh Howard, who hasn’t played for most of the season. It certainly isn’t the job of Blatche or Young, who won’t shoulder that kind of burden on a better team.
“Flip is a great coach,” said Blatche. “I just want him to be a coach and say what’s on his mind, just do his job. Whatever he say, don’t worry about hurting nobody’s feelings. If it takes hurting somebody’s feelings, that’s what he’s got to do.”
Saunders introduced the idea of potential changes to his lineup. The next step is to actually make them.
“Do some of our starters, and I don’t know that, do they feel right now that they’re entitled to play 30-35 minutes no matter how they’re playing?” he said. “They’re not going to develop that way. They do have to have a sense of urgency.”
The long weekend turned out only to be a respite enough from the headache that is their current season. If players momentarily seemed refreshed on Monday, the stark reality came rushing back against the Pacers, and the sense of dread and desperation was evident in the locker room afterward.
“We really gotta pick it up,” said Young. “We gotta end this year off good. We can’t – the last two home games, we was down by almost 30 each time. We just gotta come out and play harder. We gotta fight out there, and that’s something that we lacking.”
“It’s just time for guys to play, stop looking to point the finger and just look at yourself, basically holding yourself accountable,” said Howard.
“Until we give effort as a whole team,” said Wall, “sprinting back on defense, helping each other out like other teams do, and rebounding the ball, the same stuff going to keep happening until the end of the season.”
Nobody wants that to happen.
