I just tried to quickly – as in about 120 seconds – go through the Wizards’ 2010-11 schedule, and it was pretty easy to come up with a 41-41 record based on nothing but gut instincts. Was it hopeful? Probably. Can and will they achieve it? Who knows.
But at the very least, a more deliberate look at the schedule definitely doesn’t feel as backloaded as last season’s brutal March in which Washington played 11 of 17 games on the road – and lost a franchise record 16 in a row.
This season the Wizards will play a stretch of 7 out of 8 at home over the final days of February and start of March, and then embark on a similar road swing that includes their longest stretch away from home – 5 games – from Mar. 22-28.
To go backwards, though, the Wizards will open at home later than every team in the NBA, not hosting their first game until 2010 NBA Draft No. 2 overall pick Evan Turner and former Washington head coach Doug Collins come to Verizon Center on Nov. 2. The question is, can Washington get to that game without already being 0-2, since they start at Orlando and at Atlanta?
Make whatever joke you want about the Cleveland visit on Nov. 6, for a game that won’t include LeBron James or DeShawn Stevenson but will be Antawn Jamison‘s first game back in D.C. since getting traded to the Cavaliers in February. The Caron Butler–Brendan Haywood-Stevenson return with Dallas happens on Feb. 26. Kevin Durant arrives with Oklahoma City on March 14.
James will roll into town with Dywane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Mike Miller on Dec. 18 – a sweet Saturday night showdown right in the middle of a month that will be full of games to watch. The Wizards are on the West Coast the first week of the month for a three-game road swing that hits Phoenix (Dec. 5) and the Los Angeles Lakers (Dec. 7). The Lakers follow the Wizards back across the country the following week, hitting D.C. on Dec. 14. The month finishes out with an afternoon game at Indiana (3 p.m.) on New Year’s Eve – one of only three games the Wizards will play that start before 6 p.m. The other two are on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 17) vs. Utah (1 p.m.) and Sunday, Mar. 20 vs. New Jersey.
The Wizards have 21 back-to-backs. Here’s how they break down: home-away (8), away-home (5), away-away (6), and home-home (2). Six of the first eight games are also against playoff teams – that group includes Cleveland.
In the end, it still seems like there’s digging required to find a stretch that could be killer. Even without the disasters that happened last season, the schedule was never favorable to Washington. This year it seems indifferent. That’s got to be an advantage.
