In lieu of shootaround this morning after a late arrival home last night from Toronto, the Wizards opted for an afternoon practice/shootaround/walkthrough ahead of facing the Los Angeles Clippers this evening.
Asked how much of the session was practice and how much was walkthrough, interim coach Randy Wittman said, “None of your business.”
And then he started in with the smoking analogy, again.
“I’ve got to try to take every moment I can and teach,” Wittman said. “Last night was last night. It’s not who we’ve been the five previous games. I told our guys, in your personal life, think of the worst habit you have. We didn’t do it for two weeks, and then all of a sudden we fell off the wagon, put that cigarette in our mouth and took a puff of it. We were back on the cigarettes, and I told them I’m pulling that cigarette out tonight. We gotta get back to fighting our old demons and habits.”
In talking about the 106-89 defeat against the Raptors, who the Wizards will face again on Monday, Wittman called his team “soft,” and attribute that won’t help against the matchless motor of Blake Griffin and the Clippers, who are looking to bounce back themselves following a 112-91 demolition at the hands of the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, a defeat that ended a season-best four wins in a row. Tonight is the first a six-game road trip for the Clippers, and it marks the first return to Verizon Center for Caron Butler since he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks two years ago.
To help get some of that toughness and energy back, Wittman is moving Trevor Booker back into the starting lineup for the first time in 11 games, replacing Jan Vesely. Booker started five games in a row last month.
“If we’re going to make a mistake, you’ve got to go out there and do it all out, and with aggression rather than not,” Wittman said. “We’re going to try to do that. Whether it works or not, that’s not really the main focus. The main focus is getting back this team their identity of who I thought they were the five previous games.”
