Rashard Lewis and Wizards coach Flip Saunders both denied a report by CSNWashington.com that Lewis refused to play in Washington’s 93-72 loss to Minnesota on Sunday over an argument with Wizards assistant coach Sam Cassell.
Lewis was listed out for the game with a sore right knee did not appear on the Wizards bench during the game, where he was replaced by rookie Chris Singleton, who made his first NBA start.
“No argument,” Lewis said. “No argument at all. I don’t know what’s going on, maybe because we haven’t won a game yet somebody’s trying to make up stories or I guess point the finger at somebody.”
Lewis, in his 14th year, has struggled this season and said both of his knees have been giving him trouble. His scoring average of 8.7 points per game is below double digits for the first time since his second year in the league in 1999-2000, which was also the last time he averaged his current 4.1 rebounds per contest. He’s hit only four of 18 attempts from 3-point range (22.2 percent), his lowest percentage from distance since he was a rookie.
“Even if I did get into an argument with Sam, I still would play regardless of what the argument was about,” said Lewis, who missed much of the back end of last season with tendinitis in his knees and had platelet-rich plasma treatment during the offseason.
“There’s a lot of stuff that comes out when things are going bad,” said Saunders, whose team extended its franchise-worst start to 0-8 with the loss to the Timberwolves. “It seems like a lot of things come out all of a sudden, and I think a lot of times people maybe read too much into situations.”
Lewis said he wasn’t on the sideline because he didn’t have a sport coat, which is required by the NBA dress code, and remained in the locker room, where he watched the game and underwent treatment.
“Everybody knows Sam,” Lewis said. “Sam’s a loud talker, regardless of what he’s talking about. If he’s talking to you in a friendly manner, he’s just a loud talker. I don’t know. Somebody must have took it and thought that me and Sam were arguing. Maybe we was just talking. I know at one point, he was talking about how he was playing with the Clippers and I played in Seattle and he busted up [Minnesota Timberwolves point guard] Luke Ridnour and was bragging and talking noise. Maybe somebody took it out of [context, that] we was arguing, when he was talking about how he killed us when he was playing for the Clippers and I played for the Sonics. I have no idea what’s going on.”
