Flip Saunders and Kevin McHale were teammates in college at Minnesota, they worked together with the Minnesota Timberwolves for 10 years when McHale became the team’s vice president and hired Saunders as his coach.
Then McHale had to fire Saunders, replaced him on the Timberwolves sideline and the two will meet as opposing coaches for the first time on Monday afternoon at Verizon Center.
“Just in practice, just in summer camps, with 12-year-olds,” Saunders said was the only previous time that the two had ever faced one another before.
On the surface, their respective current coaching situations should be similar. Houston (5-7) has the least amount of experience of any team in the NBA, with an average of 2.87 seasons per player, while the Wizards skew older thanks to Rashard Lewis, who is in his 14th year, and Mo Evans, who is in his ninth.
Behind Kyle Lowry (17.8 ppg, 9.3 apg, 6.9 rpg) and Kevin Martin (17.3 ppg), the Rockets have also won three of their last four games, including their first consecutive victories of the season over Sacramento and Portland, prior to coming to Washington. The Wizards have lost three straight by an average of 19.3 points.
“We go way back so I’m happy for Flip,” McHale said. “He’s had a great coaching career, and we got started together when he was coaching in Minnesota with the Timberwolves and so I’m really happy for him. He’s gone from there to Detroit with great success, and he’s come here so it’s always good to see someone that you’ve known since you’ve been just a youngster do well.”
Injury notes: Andray Blatche (right shoulder) was set to be a game-time decision but appears that he will attempt to play while Lewis (sore knees) is out.
