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Wizards players go all out on Halloween

Paul Pierce and Martell Webster impressively dress up for Halloween. Plus, the Wizards look to reverse last season's abysmal home record and Bradley Beal talks to Rolling Stone.

By Ryan Gracia

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Via @PaulPierce34

1. Wizards go hard on Halloween

Paul Pierce saved the day in the Wizards' previous game, but turns out that's just a normal day on the job for Captain America. Marcin Gortat was loving Pierce's Halloween costume after practice yesterday. I do, too.

Pierce wasn't the only Wizards to share his Halloween disguise on social media. An injured Martell Webster found time to post his scary makeover as he freaked out his kids in this short video (and probably most of the viewers of it, too).

Happy Halloween

A video posted by Martell Webster (@martellwebster) on 

2. Wizards need to protect home court this season

We certainly remember the struggles last season's team had on the Verizon Center home floor. They split their 44 wins and 38 losses evenly between home and away games. That led to the most road wins in the Eastern Conference (22), but the fewest home wins among all playoff teams (22). They will be looking to improve upon the home record this season.

"First of all, we've got to focus," Gortat said. "We've got focus on the game. We can't focus on all the friends and family around. We can't take anything for granted just because we're playing in front of our own fans, in front of our crowd. We have to make sure we're going to perform the same way we perform on the road. We got to learn to play at home and win the games at home. To be a good team and have a run in the playoffs, we have to make sure we have to win games at home."

That has to start tonight against in their home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks.

3. Bradley Beal talks to Rolling Stone

The young budding star spoke with Rolling Stone about his current injury and how he and the team can cope during his absence. He also explained the type of team the Wizards want to be throughout the season.

"We have a target on our back. We've shown that we can play games. It's up to us to accept that challenge and deal with it. We don't want to just be good, we want to be great," he says. "That's gonna take time and effort and patience and hard work. It's cliché, but we know what it's gonna take to get there. It's just up to us to go out there and get it done."

4. What to do with all the big men?

Apparently, just keep them on a carousel unsure of when their moment to play big minutes will be. Unless you're Gortat or Nene, of course.

"When you have six bigs, unless you're going to play a couple of them at shooting guard, that's the way it's going to be," Wittman said. "Guys have to stay ready. That's my main focus. You never know. Kevin didn't play in the first half and I put him in in the second half. Kris played in the first half and didn't get in in the second. DeJuan didn't play. That's going to be a scenario throughout the year. You just have to be ready. ...The good thing is I can move on to another guy."

Gortat and Nene each played more than 33 minutes in the team's win against the Orlando Magic on Thursday, but certainly that won't continue throughout the season. DeJuan Blair shouldn't expect to receive DNP-CD's all season long. Those could be passed on to Kevin Seraphin more often, or potentially even Drew Gooden III here and there. Kris Humphries is expected to play more than the three minutes he got against the Magic as well once he begins to feel more comfortable dealing with his post-surgery pinky numbness. Eventually, Wittman should be able to get this thing figured out without the two starters logging such heavy minutes.

5. Wizards face Bucks in home opener

That's right, folks. The Wizards play their first game this season in the phone booth tonight. Tip off is at 7 p.m. Comcast SportsNet has the coverage of tonight's game starting at 6:30 p.m. The game can also be heard on 99.1 WNEW.

Plus, for more in-depth coverage on the team's first win of the season, click here.

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