MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 26 -- After the Washington Wizards suffered their most lopsided loss of the season, 109-74 against the Minnesota Timberwolves Sunday night, they sounded like a team at a crossroads. The bravado and enthusiasm of a unit that is off to the franchise's best start in 10 seasons was replaced by the grim reality that the Wizards (14-11) have lost two in a row and five of their past seven games.
Coach Eddie Jordan expressed disappointment that his team "lost some discipline." Point guard Gilbert Arenas spoke of a team stuck in neutral. Forward Antawn Jamison, who usually talks of brushing aside losses once he leaves the locker room, said the mistakes of this game probably need to be examined further.
Wizards guard Larry Hughes, left, goes up for the rebound as Minnesota's Sam Cassell tries to knock it away.
(Andy King - AP)
|
|
_____ Who's the Man? _____
Note: This is an unscientific survey of washingtonpost.com readers.
| | |
|
"Nights like tonight should not have happened at all," Jamison said after he scored a season-low eight points. "We've been taking a lot of steps back lately. We just need to collect ourselves and get back to the style of basketball that we're accustomed to. Tonight, I don't even recognize the team that was out there. Defensively, we didn't do what we needed to do. Rebounding-wise, we weren't as physical. And offensively -- I don't know what that was."
Arenas (21 points) and guard Larry Hughes (13) were the only players to score in double figures for the Wizards, who shot 39 percent (30 of 78) and were outrebounded 49-38. They matched their season low in points scored -- 27 fewer than their regular season average of 101.4 -- and had 13 fewer assists than the Timberwolves (17-30), as well as 13 more turnovers (20-7).
The sloppy ballhandling was evident from the beginning, when Hughes tried to find Arenas for an outlet pass in the first quarter. The ball hit Arenas in the backside and rolled backward almost 40 feet out of bounds as Hughes skidded on the floor after it.
"We threw the ball away way too many times," Jordan said. "There were times we didn't get back on defense. I'm not blaming one person. It was a team effort, or lack thereof."
The Timberwolves (16-10) beat the Wizards for a seventh straight game and recorded their third-largest victory in franchise history. It was the worst lost for the Wizards since the New Jersey Nets beat them, 111-67, on Jan. 16, 2002.
The Wizards hadn't played since they lost in Sacramento last Tuesday and didn't practice on Christmas, but they weren't using any excuses for the lackluster performance. "We're professionals. We can't blame it on the holiday season," Arenas said. "We didn't play hard. We didn't help each other. We didn't do nothing out there right."
The Wizards will try to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season and erase the memories of this night when they host the expansion Charlotte Bobcats on Monday night at MCI Center. "We won't erase it if we play like that," Jordan said. "I'm disappointed in the way we played. There are no excuses. I thought we lost some discipline. That's what I'm most disappointed in. We lost our composure. We lost our poise."
The Wizards trailed just 42-34 when Hughes sank a high floater over Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett with 1 minute 35 seconds to go in the second quarter. The Timberwolves outscored the Wizards, 67-40, the rest of the game.
Forward Wally Szczerbiak led the Timberwolves with 23 points and point guard Sam Cassell had 22. Garnett, the reigning league most valuable player, scored 10 of his 18 points in the third quarter and put the Wizards to rest in a 30-second span in the period. Garnett added 12 rebounds and came two assists shy of a triple-double.
Garnett also had four blocked shots -- including a vicious rejection of Anthony Peeler in the second quarter, the first time they crossed paths since Peeler elbowed Garnett in the face in the Western Conference semifinals -- and helped hold Jamison to just 4-of-10 shooting. It was the first time Jamison failed to score in double figures since March 30, 2004, when he was a reserve for the Dallas Mavericks.
"This is one of those games that you have to look at and see where you went wrong," Jamison said. "You can't take anything positive out of a game like this. It's frustrating because we've done a lot as far as taking that stride and doing the right things. Now, we've got to find a way to get over it. We've got to stop the bleeding before it really gets deep."
