How long has it been since the Wizards played a meaningful game, a contest when their position the standings was actually at stake? Without getting too specific in researching past playoff permutations, the answer might be the first game of last year. Or the first couple of games two years ago, perhaps when Washington had a 2-1 record after a home-opening win over the same New Jersey team that will come into Verizon Center tonight?
The Wizards lost the next six games, and nothing has been the since, with the overwhelming majority of Flip Saunders’ first two years as coach in Washington spent with his team in contention only for the lottery, especially the latter parts of both of those seasons.
Even if the Wizards are still rebuilding in Flip’s third year, they start with the same record as everyone else (well, except for the 10 teams that played yesterday): 0-0. Right now, the Wizards are competitive with every other team in the league. And Saunders wants to know as badly as anyone else whether his team can maintain that status.
“I’m excited to watch them, to see how our guys react,” Saunders said. “I’m like everybody else. I’m excited to see when you put a lot of people in here and there’s a lot of excitement, how we do react, how we do carry over from practice to game situations, and can we play with energy and intelligence at the same time, and not just play with energy and a lack of intelligence. I’ll be as anxious as everybody else to see how they perform, but I definitely feel a lot better now than I felt after the first game against Philadelphia.”
No place to go but up, eh?
“It’s a fresh start,” Nick Young said. “Everybody got 66 games, and we gotta make the best of the situation. Everybody was in the lockout. Hopefully, our guys worked out, and we just gotta go out there and show it.”
Facing a Nets team that suffered a huge blow in losing Brook Lopez to a broken foot last week – bringing in Mehmet Okur from Utah as his replacement – that just re-signed Kris Humphries, that is mired in a cloud of uncertainty over the future of Deron Williams, the opportunity is there for Washington to start on the right foot. Rookie and former Maryland forward Jordan Williams is not expected to play, and former Wizard DeShawn Stevenson is expected to see limited minutes.
Saunders sat down with each of his players in recent days to lay out their roles and his expectations.
“He did that, and I think it was important,” Wizards guard Roger Mason Jr. said. “Obviously, those are the things that are done behind closed doors, but I think everyone has a good understanding of their role, what we expect, and what your teammates expect out of you. It’s more so about what the guy next to you can do and knowing what he’s going to bring, day in and day out.”
Perhaps it’s that trust that still led Saunders to hedge just a bit on what he and others will actually see this season when it starts in just a few hours.
“You can talk about it, and now we just have to go out and do it, which is always a process, especially early in the year, when you have a shortened exhibition season and guys haven’t had a lot of time,” he said. “It’s going to be a work in progress, especially these first couple weeks.”
