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All the Wizards need are A Few Good Men

By Jake Whitacre

Box Score
Game Flow
Post Recap
Times Recap
Third Quarter Collapse Recap

Highest plus/minus: Roger Mason (+10)
Lowest plus/minus: Antawn Jamison (-20)

For the first time since 1992, the Wizards have started off the season 0-3.  In 1992, the big movie was A Few Good Men so for the recap, let's use some quotes from the movie.

"You don't need a patch on your arm to have honor."

A favorite past time of Wizards fans has been ragging on Brendan Haywood for his inconsistent play over the years.  But if we're going to criticize him when he doesn't live up to expectations, we have to give him due recognition when he exceeds them.  Admit it, if anyone had told you that Haywood would go for 10 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 blocks against Dwight Howard, you would've laughed.  Here's what Ben Q. Rock of Third Quarter Collapse had to say about Haywood tonight:

Dwight Howard had good numbers (17 points, 15 rebounds, 3 blocked shots) but he was actually outplayed by Washington's Brendan Haywood, who matched his career-high with 16 rebounds, 8 of them coming on the offensive glass. Haywood also swatted 5 shots, including an early Howard hook. If you were completely new to NBA basketball and were told that one of the starting centers tonight was an All-Star headed for superstardom, you would have guessed it was Haywood. He played out of his mind, and I applaud his effort.

To this point, Haywood has been the only player that's playing at the level necessary for this team to improve on last year and for that I applaud him, let's hope he can keep this up once the rest team gets on track.  Speaking of which...

"I know you don't have a good excuse, so I won't force you to come up with a bad one."

Do you realize the Wizards had a stretch where they missed 22 three pointers?  The last two against Indiana, all sixteen against Boston, and the first four against Orlando.  Once Roger Mason finally broke the streak near the end of the first quarter, the Wizards got hot for a moment as they hit their next 3 from beyond the arc.  After that, more of the same as the Wizards only hit 2 of their final 15 shots from beyond the arc.

"I run my unit how I run my unit. You want to investigate me, roll the dice and take your chances. I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4000 Cubans who are trained to kill me, so don't think for one second that you can come down here, flash a badge, and make me nervous."

It's been said a lot in the last few days that an offensive-minded team that can't make shots doesn't stand a chance of winning.  In the same way, an offensive-minded coach that can't get his  team to score doesn't stand much of a chance of keeping his job.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's time to fire Eddie Jordan.  Every team has a bad stretch, and the Wizards now get 4 days off to get things straightened out.  Jordan will need to use all of that time to get the offense clicking before they have another stretch of 3 games in 4 days against the Nets, Nuggets, and Hawks.

The truth is that the Wizards are not a contender right now.  They're facing that truth right now. The question is, can they handle it?