Core rotation players performing well of late
Heading into the season’s halfway point, Flip Saunders doesn’t look around the Wizards’ locker room and see a roster full of guys who can’t get a road win no matter how hard they try.
OK, so maybe he does. But the Wizards coach also sees himself doing the same thing he has all season: shepherding a group of young players who are still learning on multiple levels — about increased playing time, about increased demands and accountability and about how to play with each other.
| UP NEXT |
| Suns at Wizards |
| When » Friday, 7 p.m. |
| Where » Verizon Center |
| TV/Radio » Comcast SportsNet/106.7 FM |
| WIZARDS NOTE |
| Injured right knee is bothering Lewis |
| Rashard Lewis, who missed all five of his 3-point attempts against the Bucks, said he’s been hobbled by tendinitis in his right knee, a condition he’s battled since arriving from Orlando via trade in December. “I know I’ll be able to play tomorrow, but I don’t how I’ll feel on a back-to-back,” Lewis said. “That’s when it’s really at its worst. I know we have a lot of games coming up, and that’s why I’m trying to just fight with how it’s going to feel.” |
Nick Young, averaging 22.3 points a game in January, has put himself into the conversation for the NBA’s most improved player, as has JaVale McGee, who is second in the NBA with 2.62 blocks a game. Andray Blatche (16.5 ppg, 8.4 rpg) continues to put up career-best numbers, and John Wall (15.3 ppg, 9.3 apg) is on pace to become just the fourth NBA rookie to hand out at least nine assists a game.
“Our main core, they’re making progress,” Saunders said. “They’re getting better. It’s just a matter of those guys staying together, playing together and then finishing games when we’ve had the opportunity — what we’ve been able to do at home and try to understand that you gotta stay with the system and not veer away just when things go bad.”
Things continue to be terrible away from Verizon Center, where the Wizards (12-28) dropped to 0-20 with Wednesday’s loss at injury-ravaged Milwaukee, which had come into the game having lost three in a row and eight of 10.
The next portion of Washington’s schedule, a grueling stretch of five back-to-back, two-game sets in a row, will show Saunders how far his team still has to go. It starts Friday against the resurgent Suns (19-21), who’ve won four in a row, before Boston (32-9) brings its second-best record in the NBA to town Saturday.
Steve Nash, who has averaged 19.0 points and 13.8 assists during Phoenix’s winning streak, was 8-for-8 from the floor and 3-for-3 at the line when the Suns hosted the Wizards in December.
“John has had a tough go here, who he’s had to match up with here lately, and all the guys are playing well that he’s matched up,” Saunders said. “Nash destroyed him last time.”
