The Washington Wizards' quest to continue the Orlando Magic's woes just got a nice boost, as both of Orlando's starting guards won't play. Jameer Nelson and Jason Richardson both won't be in the lineup on Wednesday night, per Joshua Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.

No Jason Richardson (knee) or Jameer Nelson (concussion) tonight for #Magic vs. #Wizards, per Stan Van Gundy.

— Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) February 1, 2012

Nelson left the Magic's game against the New Orleans Hornets on Friday and has not placed since. Richardson hurt his knee in the Magic's 74-69 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday. Chris Duhon and J.J. Redick will probably start in their places.

The Wizards should still tread carefully, though. It's true that the Magic are reeling and now have to play without their starting backcourt, but this is a team that has historically been a bad matchup for Washington. Dwight Howard is going to be a load no matter who starts alongside him.

WASHINGTON D.C. -- Andray Blatche will miss 3-5 weeks after suffering a strained left calf in the Washington Wizards' 102-99 win over the Charlotte Bobcats, coach Randy Wittman told the media on Monday prior to the team's game against the Chicago Bulls.

"He's probably looking at, after the doctors looked at an MRI, maybe 3-5 weeks with a strain," Wittman said. "He tweaked it pretty good in Charlotte, and obviously there's a lot of bleeding in there, which leads to the inflammation in the calf. We've got to get that out of there first, and then we'll have a better idea what we're looking at."

That now explains why Hamady Ndiaye was called up to the team. In the meantime, Jan Vesely will likely continue to start, and Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin will probably get more playing time.

"We're going to have to have other people continue to step up, as Vesely's done, as Book's done. Kevin's had some good stints. We just need to continue to do what we're doing," Wittman said. "I'm not too worried about who's going to provide the scoring. As long as we keep playing together the way we have, that'll take care of itself."

John Wall acknowledged that it's "tough to lose somebody like [Blatche]" and said they may need to change the offense a bit with Vesely or Booker in the lineup.

"We're not trying to put them in the same situation as Dray is where he's shooting a 19-foot jump shot," he said. "You try to get them closer to the basket where you penetrate and find guys at the free-throw line area where they feel more comfortable."

I asked Wall if not having Blatche's ability to shoot from the perimeter will hurt the Wizards' spacing, and Wall said it wouldn't.

"It's not going to hurt spacing because you roll them into space. Now, you don't have somebody popping for jump shots. You have somebody who can roll and you can find them with a pocket pass. It can be tough, but sometimes, it can be easy. You just have to go with the flow of the game."

Andray Blatche recently visited a specialist in New York to look at his ailing shoulder, which caused him to miss Wednesday's game against the Chicago Bulls. We don't know for sure what the doctor told him, but Blatche himself gave off a bad vibe with his latest tweet.

No good news from the shoulder doc smh

— andray blatche (@drayblatche) January 13, 2012

Blatche suffered the shoulder injury last year and it really never fully healed. Despite going to Miami to see a specialist this summer, he told me before the season that the shoulder was just 75 percent healed. During training camp, he amended that to 85 percent. Nevertheless, he played right through it, up until it started to bother him just before the game against Toronto. He had been placed on the second unit anyway regardless of injury.

In any event, we'll just have to see what "not good news" means.

The hits just keep coming for the Washington Wizards. They're the last winless team in the NBA, and now, they'll be without Ronny Turiaf for about a month and a half with a broken hand, which he suffered in Sunday's loss to the Celtics. Chris Miller of CSN Washington has the scoop:

The Washington Wizards bad start to the 2011-12 season just got worse.

On Monday night Comcast SportsNet learned that forward Ronny Turiaf will be sidelined 5-6 weeks with a broken hand.

That's a pretty big loss. Turiaf hasn't put up great offensive numbers, but he's done a really nice job moving his feet and he's probably one of the better screen-setters on the team. He provided a nice antidote to JaVale McGee when McGee struggled (which hasn't been too often).

Without him, Kevin Seraphin will get an opportunity to step up, but he hasn't really proven anything in games yet. Hope you're ready, Kevin.

UPDATE: Booker has a fractured foot, and will be in a walking boot and be reevaluated in six weeks.  Yikes.

Trevor Booker has been one of the bright spots in what has been a dismal season, but at this point, it looks like we've seen the last of him.  Flip Saunders said that Booker has a "crack" at the bottom of his right foot and will not play in the final nine games this year.

Via Michael Lee. 

Flip Saunders said Trevor Booker is likely done for the season after MRI revealed a crack below his right foot.     

Booker ends the year averaging 5.3 points and 3.9 rebounds in 16.4 minutes per game, but his advanced numbers (15.3 PER, 58.2 TS%, 13.4 REB%) look very good.  I'm not really sure why he got only 1,063 minutes this season, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.  Overall, he played quite well for a rookie and just needed more time to show it.  Maybe there was more of an injury concern that we all knew about. 

A couple quick injury updates before tomorrow's Wizards-Magic game (because it's our favorite topic!), via Michael Lee of the Washington Post.  

• Rashard Lewis will sit out again and get a head start on the rest he'll get at this weekend's All-Star Break.  That means he won't play in his return to Orlando.  The good news for him is he will be able to see the Magic continue to place him on billboards outside their arena.
• Nick Young sat out with a knee injury he apparently suffered against the Cavaliers, but he's going to try to play on Wednesday.  Hence, "probable."  At this point, there's no need for Young to practice if he isn't 100 percent healthy, so I'm cool with it all.  He's also pretty durable anyway.  Then again, with this team, you never know.

See, this is why you don't play guys who have knee problems a zillion minutes.  Rashard Lewis, who scored just three points in 28 minutes last night, told reporters after practice today that his right knee is in a lot of pain and surgery may need to happen, either in-season or after its over.  Via Craig Stouffer:

"Surgery is an option, just to clean it out, a scope, but it's not something that I want to do right now," said Lewis. "I think it'd be an option after the season, but we're going to see how it feels over these next couple of games leading up to the break, just to decide what we're going to do."

Lewis said he's been dealing with the issue since early in the season in Orlando, and it just keeps getting worse.  Yet the Wizards have been trotting him out there for 35.6 minutes per game, playing him over 40 minutes in a game six times in 25.  I get it: players play hurt, and it's not exclusively on the coach to have to do guess-work with his guys when they say they're doing okay.  But this isn't John Wall, a young rookie that needs to learn how to play through pain and is essential to the team's development.  This is Rashard Lewis, a veteran who has tons of mileage on him.  Not playing him may hurt, but it also gives other guys a chance to shine and prove they belong with this team's future.  I just don't see the upside of giving him all these minutes when he was in pain.

This feels like something that happens way too much with this organization, and I wish it would stop.

Unsurprisingly, Andray Blatche's sprained shoulder didn't really feel any better today than it did yesterday, when he had to leave the game against the Kings.  Blatche didn't participate in today's brief practice and is "day-to-day," which means he's probably unlikely to play against the Timberwolves, according to Michael Lee.

Blatche was hoping the shoulder would get better overnight, but it hasn't. 

After the game, Blatche said he was hoping that he would wake up and feel better. But as he headed out of the arena, Blatche said, "It was worse. I couldn't sleep at night. I couldn't lay comfortably. A lot of pain."    

It looks like Rashard Lewis will slide over to power forward, freeing up the small forward spot for Al Thornton.  It's a perfectly defensible way of altering the lineup.  Still, I'd rather see Lewis stay at small forward and start one of the other backup power forwards (okay, I really mean Trevor Booker).  We love versatility, but I'd rather see some consistency in positions and roles, even if Lewis is capable of playing at both spots. 

But I might just be acting silly right now.  Thoughts?  Who'd you put in the starting lineup for Blatche?