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Eddie Jordan's Coach of the Month?

In what probably is the greatest single accomplishment of Eddie Jordan's coaching career, the fourth-year coach was named coach of the month for the month of December.

"Jordan guided the Wizards to a 12-4 (.750) record, 6-3 on the road, marking the first time since January 1977 that Washington won as many as 12 games in a single month. Highlights included a win over the Mavericks to snap a then NBA-season-high 12-game winning streak, a victory versus Miami to snap the Wizards' 12-game regular season losing streak to the Heat (12/15) and a win in Phoenix to end the Suns' franchise-record and NBA season-high 15-game winning streak (12/22)."

I'm not real sure how much coaching he did all month, so EJ should really thank Gilbert Arenas for giving him the award.  

The interesting thing is that the team only performed well when their bench was shortened.  Injuries to Michael Ruffin and Etan Thomas forced Jordan to play Brendan Haywood, a player Jordan's never really liked.  Naturally, the Wizards have their best month, and Jordan takes the credit.  This also happened last year; remember how the Wizards only took off after Jarvis Hayes' injury and Chucky Atkins' release?  

This is definitely a post for another time, because there's a lot to analyze if we want to tell whether the shortening of the bench is a real trend, but it's interesting that the Wizards are once again playing their best ball with a shorter bench.