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Open Thread and Contest: Game 76

By Mike Prada

Regular Season Game 76
Wizards (39-36) at Nets (35-40)
Continental Airlines Arena
7:30 PM
CSN

Previous Results:
Nets 105, Wizards 93.
Nets 113, Wizards 101.

These next two games loom incredibly large for the Wizards, as they have a home-and-home with the Nets starting with tonight's game.

There is still an outside chance that New Jersey can catch the Wizards for the sixth seed. They sit four games back with seven to play, but if New Jersey wins both of these games, suddenly the Wizards probably need to beat Chicago, Orlando, or Indiana in order to hold off the Nets. It's still an unlikely scenario, but you never know.

New Jersey has had the Wizards' number this year, winning both games in the series. We probably all remember the infamous Vince Carter shot to force overtime back in November, which probably wouldn't have happened without the new synthetic ball. In the last game, without Caron Butler, the Wizards were never really in the contest.

Expect to see a lot of the young reserves tonight, as Ivan Carter says in today's blog.

What happens tonight is anyone's guess but I guarantee this: there is no way Eddie Jordan can ask his starters to carry the minutes they did last night. When you look at a stat sheet and see that Antonio Daniels, who leads the league in assist-to-turnover ratio, has seven turnovers, you know fatigue is kicking in. He can't play 44 minutes again tonight and it's probably not a good idea for DeShawn Stevenson to go 42 minutes either. After the game Jordan said guys like Roger Mason Jr., Mike Hall and Donell Taylor will get burn tonight. He really has no choice.
The good news for the future is that Andray Blatche has been cleared to play, and will return for Tuesday's game against these same Nets. His presence will hopefully inject new life into the Wizards attack, and they could really use him defensively. Tonight, however, he won't go once again.

Nets blogs: Hooplah Nation, Nets Daily.

Your lines for tonight:

Wizards at Nets: Nets by 9.
Over/Under on Thomas/Daniels' assists/rebounds per 40 (this is a change): 18.5.

This is an open game thread, so debate who sucks more. Jason Collins or Michael Ruffin.