Category: Washington Wizards Blog

Wizards head coach Eddie Jordan at practice today:

On tomorrow’s game: “I am looking forward to tomorrow’s game to see how disciplined we will be in the first five or six minutes. We need to have a good tempo, manage the game properly, and try to get good looks. We can make adjustments after that.”

On the Utah Jazz: “We have one of the best executing teams in the league coming in. They are very physical and are one of the best coached teams in the league. They are one of the best teams in the West. They may not have the glamour like some of the others, but they get the job done. They are very good.”

On Dominic McGuire: “He is beginning to do what he does best. He isn’t getting out of the realm of his strengths. He comes off the bench and gives us good energy. He is going to get offensive rebounds, run the floor, get deflections and tip-ins, and defend well. He is a good sized athlete that we like to have on this team. Every good team in the league has this sort of guy. He can probably cover three or four positions.”

On Caron Butler: “We are going to see him in shootaround tomorrow. We’ll go about an hour, run the offense and get into a four or five minute segment of live action. We’ll see how he reacts after that.”

On Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison possibly being named All-Stars tonight: “I hope. I don’t know. I would think Caron (Butler) is a shoe-in and Antawn (Jamison) has a very good chance. Anything can happen though. I am hoping they both make it.”

On the team: “It is a combination of both good front office and good coaching. We are picking and developing the players well. Ernie (Grunfeld) has done an excellent job of acquiring guys such as Antawn (Jamison), Gilbert (Arenas) and Caron (Butler). I think our coaching staff has done a good job putting them in situations where they can be highly successful and develop them at the same time. It is a combination of the entire organization doing a good job. That is what this league is all about.”

Antawn Jamison enters play today as one of just two players in the Eastern Conference averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. The other — Orlando’s Dwight Howard — will start for the Eastern Conference in next month’s NBA All-Star game. In the last ten years, only two players have averaged at least 20 points and 10 rebounds for a team with a winning record at the midpoint of the season and not been in the All-Star game; Carlos Boozer (22.2 ppg, 12.0 rpg) for the 27-14 Utah Jazz in 2006-07, and Chris Webber (22.8 ppg, 10.3 rpg) for the 30-11 Sacramento Kings in 2002-03 — both of whom were selected as All-Stars by the coaches, but did not play in the All-Star game due to injury.

Washington Wizards center Brendan Haywood on his improved free throw shooting: “For me it has been about getting my elbow up. It’s about locking my elbow in, extending it and getting it so that my follow through has nowhere to go but straight and long. When I do that I am going to miss short and long, not all over the place like when my elbow kicks out. Even when I miss I know how to correct it, whereas in previous years when I was having a bad stretch I was just hoping and wishing.”

Haywood on assistant coach Dave Hopla: “I definitely think he’s helped me out a lot. He met with me in Charlotte and we have continued to work everyday. Even in games he’s always talking about different things as far as balance and getting my elbow up. He will even tell me if I had a bad make because he knows that you need to have consistency when you are working with bad habits like I had before.”

The Washington Wizards are playing terrific basketball lately. Here’s what Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison have to say about it:

Antawn Jamison on the team’s improved defense: “The majority of it has been the mindset.  We were tired of being talked about as a bad defensive team.  Certain individuals, including myself, were not getting it done on defense.  I think we got fed up with it.  We want to do everything possible to make it work. Sometimes we didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do, but we did it.  We bought into the system.  We were struggling with it those first few games, but we continued to believe in it and eventually we did a complete 180.  That’s the gratifying thing about it…to know you believed in it from day one, you bought into what the coaching staff was trying to do, and now to see the rewards from it.  You are starting to see what kind of team we can be, defensively.”

Antawn Jamison on Caron Butler: “I don’t see him just starting to do it…he has been doing it.  A lot of people wonder where this is coming from, but the guy has been doing this since he got here.  Caron is not doing anything different.  He isn’t surprising me, or the rest of his teammates, or the coaching staff at all.  Caron has been doing this since day one.  I’m glad he is getting the recognition he deserves.”

Antawn Jamison on the team’s attitude: “We are having fun.  Defensively we are in sync.  Offensively, we are great.  Right now we feel like, no matter who we play, if we come out and get in plays that we have practiced, we put ourselves in a good position to win games.  I think this team has had more fun than we have had in a long time.  We have a good amount of confidence.  We still have a lot of room for improvement.  We realize that you can’t get too high when things are going your way and you can’t get too low when they are not.  Right now things are going in the direction we want them to go in, but we still have a long ways to go.  We still have the second half of the season to play and hopefully we can get some key guys back and take it from there.”

Caron Butler on the keys to tomorrow’s game against Cleveland: “We need to continue to play good basketball.  We need to protect the paint and go out there with a lot of energy.  Those are the keys to our success: to protect the paint, to make defensive stops, and to get out on transition to create some good offense for us.  Whenever we hold teams to under 90 points is usually when we have a great opportunity to win.  We have to go out and supply a lot of pressure tomorrow night.”

Caron Butler on the team’s defense: “If we aren’t making shots, we need to get stops.  Our defense has been our offense lately.  If we aren’t getting into the flow of our half court offense, somehow we are attacking the paint and getting out on the floor in transition.  Good defense has been the key to our success.”

Caron Butler on LeBron James: “LeBron is a great player.  He knows how to make the supporting cast around him better, and that is what great players do.  He is doing a good job of that.  He is a great facilitator.  He knows when to pick and choose, when to support, and when to be aggressive.  We need to apply pressure.  We aren’t going to stop him, but we need to make things real difficult for him.”

Caron Butler on the Wizards’ recent ‘big’ wins: “We don’t have anything to lose.  Everyone keeps telling us we shouldn’t be beating these people.  We know what the perception is, so we just go out and play loose.  We get fired up and we win games and prove those doubters wrong.”

InsideHoops.com was in Madison Square Garden Tuesday as the Knicks hosted the Washington Wizards. Before the game, Antawn Jamison talked about how the Wizards have regrouped during the 28 games since Gilbert Arenas last played. During that stretch, Washington has astounded naysayers by posting a 17-11 record, and now trail before the Orlando Magic by just 1 1/2 games in the Southeast Division.

“Now that Gilbert is not with us, Caron [Butler] has kept this team together -the leader that he is, and the All-Star that he is. It was a beautiful performance by him last night [against the Celtics, in the second of their home-and home series]. Not too many guys could’ve done that. Every opportunity, every situation, he has found a way to get it done. And, he’s having fun, also.

“Caron’s a vocal guy, and tough-minded- and he has got everyone’s attention. We had an opportunity to win a game, and he didn’t want us to give anything less than 100% on the court.

“When Gilbert, Caron and myself [are on the floor], we try to rely on our offense, and not our defense, to win games. We’ll come down the court, and take some quick shots. Play an up-tempo style of basketball. Without Gilbert, we can’t do that.

“We know we must have quality possessions, and take quality shots. And have our opponents play a little more defensively than normal. In the past, it was [all about] our offense. Now, we’re relying more on our defense. That has been the biggest difference.

“We’re in a very unique situation. We have two other guys, besides Gilbert, who have been to All-Star games [Butler and himself], guys with playoff experience, and one guy has won a [championship] ring [Antonio Daniels]. We have a good set of veterans who can tackle these challenges. The thing has helped us is that when we were without Gilbert and Caron during the playoffs last season, a lot of guys, who wouldn’t have normally played, did. So, when [Gilbert] went down again [he is recovering from left knee surgery] -and we know he’s gonna be out for a while- it gave some guys an opportunity to show people what they can do.

“But, we are still a quality team, and [can make a difference] in the conference.”

With 33 rebounds over Washington’s last two games, Antawn Jamison has boosted his rebounding average to a career-high 10.9 rebounds per game. Also averaging 21.3 points per game, Jamison joins Orlando’s Dwight Howard as the only two players in the Eastern Conference that average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. Additionally, with 23 double-doubles to date this season, Jamison has more double-doubles than any other forward in the Eastern Conference, and ranks 6th overall in the NBA.

Caron Butler enters play having connected on his last 33 free throw attempts. Butler last missed a free throw on December 28th in New Jersey. In that game, Butler missed his first free throw — a technical — but connected on his final three foul shot attempts in that game. He has since made 30 more consecutive free throws over the last seven games, brining his streak to 33 consecutive free throws made. On the season, Butler is 136-of-152 from the charity stripe; a career-high .895 clip.