Bullets Forever, a Washington Wizards community

You could tell that the Wizards were ready to get out of town at the start of the fourth quarter, when they were down 20 points and interim Coach Ed Tapscott sent in a lineup of Javaris Crittenton, Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee, Dominic McGuire and Nick Young.

Of course, Crittenton and McGuire were the starting backcourt last night, but Tapscott left Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison on the bench and never thought about asking either to enter the game, even after the young guys got within 14 points with 8:42 remaining. 'It just didn't seem that we had what we needed to make a run,' Tapscott said.

We played a hard game [Tuesday] night in [a loss to] Utah, we traveled the day before, and we're in game [69]," Wizards interim coach Ed Tapscott said. "You don't like to use that as an excuse, but it's a reality. We just ran out of gas."

The NBA has had six coaching changes since the start of the season. What gains can a bad team expect to make by firing a coach?

Mannix: I asked a few NBA front-office officials this same question and they all had the same answer: You have to look at it in a case-by-case basis. So, let's do that.

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Washington: The Wizards (believe it or not) have yet to abandon their hopes of making the playoffs. Ed Tapscott told me that he and GM Ernie Grunfeld are hoping that by making defense a priority, the Wizards will be able to salvage the season.