Awful start is resulting in a losing mentality The Wizards’ franchise-worst start to the season has begun to take its toll on the locker room.
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Even before Saturday’s 103-90 defeat to Philadelphia extended Washington’s misery to 11 losses in the season’s first 12 games, Wizards players weren’t handling the losing well.
Andray Blatche joked that he had no idea what was going on with his offensive game, and Nick Young said he was swearing off the nickname of “Swagy P” in favor of his given name.
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| When » Monday, 2 p.m. |
| Where » Verizon Center |
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“It’s tough,” Young said afterward despite scoring a season-high 27 points against the 76ers. “It’s real tough. I ain’t going to lie. I had to talk to my parents and stuff last night. It’s hard. But it’s basketball. Game I love. This is the game everybody wanted to do when they was kids, so we have to find something.”
Finding a source of motivation to persevere despite glaring limitations — including an NBA-worst scoring differential of more than 12 points fewer than their opponents — has become the Wizards’ toughest task on a nightly basis.
John Wall was visibly morose as he was introduced last in Saturday’s starting lineups, forecasting the seven turnovers he would commit before halftime and dragging down nearly all of his teammates in the process.
“We gotta feed off him,” Wizards forward Rashard Lewis said. “He’s the guy that leads us, this team, almost like the captain of the boat, and we have to feed off of him. He has to get everybody involved in the game as well as getting himself involved in the game. He’s still a young player, learning how to play the game, but at the same time, he’s the floor general.”
Lewis was only 1-for-10 from the field himself, while Wall, after sitting on the bench for the final three minutes before halftime, turned things around and finished one assist and one rebound away from a triple double.
“I just relaxed and played basketball,” said Wall, who had 19 points.
“He played a lot better,” Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. “That was the best half of basketball he’s played with us so far, distributing the ball, scoring, being aggressive. As I told him afterward, we need that from him for 48 [minutes].”
The Wizards also hope that an extended period at Verizon Center, one of two five-game homestands during the compressed season, will allow them to get settled and find a rhythm. Saunders isn’t taking it easy on his players, holding practice Sunday after four games in five days. The Wizards’ travel day in between two back-to-backs has been the only day they haven’t practiced since the season started.
“We gotta lift each other up,” Lewis said. “We gotta have confidence within each other and go out there and try to win games, knowing that we have a home stretch coming up. Hopefully, we can get a couple wins playing at home and give our fans something to cheer about.”
