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What a difference one day makes. The Washington Wizards are back in sixth in the Eastern Conference, after defeating the Orlando Magic on Friday, and the now-seventh seed Charlotte Bobcats lost to the Boston Celtics. On top of that, check this out, the Wizards are now 21-19 on the road, and have therefore guaranteed themselves a winning record while in enemy territory. Even the Indiana Pacers haven't guaranteed themselves that just yet!
There isn't much time to celebrate since there's another game to play Saturday night against the Milwaukee Bucks so let's get right to it.
Where and when? 7 p.m. at Verizon Center.
Any traffic concerns because of other teams and/or events? Yes. The Cherry Blossom Festival is going on today with many events around town. The parade was earlier this morning but there will be events all around downtown. So leave extra early. Also, the 11th Street Bridge access ramp to I-695 is closed so if you use that route to get to the game, it could complicate things when you combine that with the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Otherwise, nada since the Nationals are on the road in Atlanta.
Who's out? The Wizards don't have anyone out due to injury, but expect Glen Rice to be in street clothes. For Milwaukee different story. Ersan Ilyasova, Nate Wolters, and Carlos Defino are out due to injury. O.J. Mayo and Ekpe Udoh are questionable. And Larry Sanders is serving a five game-suspension due to failing the NBA's drug testing policy.
We know the Bucks aren't good. What are they good at? Brandon Knight has been averaging a career high in scoring this season, and Ramon Sessions, who was traded midseason from the Bobcats to this team before the trade deadline has been scoring the ball at a very efficient clip since playing for the Bucks.
What are the Bucks bad at? Staying healthy. They would not be a 15 win team at this point with a healthy roster, even if they aren't a playoff team.
Are the Bobcats playing? Yes. They host the Philadelphia 76ers at 7 p.m. and are also on the second game of a back-to-back. And expect them to have the upper hand to win this one.
Who wins? All I will say that this game is still in essence a playoff game, so the Wizards had better win this one in order to secure their playoff seeding. And with a win tonight, the Wizards will guarantee themselves a winning regular season record for the first time since the 2007-2008 season, when they last made the NBA Playoffs.