Wizards Guard Against a Letdown

ATLANTA, April 6 -- The Wizards have taken down some of the top teams in the NBA this season, but the real reason they are 39-35 and solidly in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with eight games remaining is that have beaten teams like Friday night's opponent: the Atlanta Hawks.

The Wizards have won three previous games against the Hawks (23-51), who are ensured of missing the playoffs for the seventh straight season. In addition to completing a season sweep of Atlanta, the Wizards can pick up some momentum heading into Saturday's game against the Miami Heat at Verizon Center.

Miami owns a 15-game winning streak over the Wizards, and that dominance has included victories in all three meetings this season.

While they have been dominated by the Heat, the Wizards are 11-3 against the East's four bottom-feeders: the Hawks, the Charlotte Bobcats, the New York Knicks and the Toronto Raptors. Washington also took the season series with the Boston Celtics (3-1) with a 108-91 win Wednesday night.

After Friday night, Washington's final seven opponents will be either in the playoffs already or still in contention for the postseason.

However, that doesn't mean Coach Eddie Jordan will allow his players to look past the Hawks, who are coming off a 101-99 last-second home victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves Wednesday night.

Jordan, who is on the verge of leading the Wizards to consecutive postseason appearances for the first time since the 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons, won't even allow himself to say "playoffs."

Instead, Jordan refers to the "P word" before turning the focus back to the moment at hand. Following Thursday's practice, he was concerned only with Friday's game against the Hawks, who have had home victories against the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons.

"It's funny when you look at stats and you say, well, this team has this record so you should beat them," Jordan said. "But coaches don't look at it that way and players don't look at it that way. We look at it as, how is that team playing at the time? How are they performing at this point in the season?"

Jared Jeffries said players who were part of last season's 45-37 team are determined to avoid the kind of poor late-season stretch that almost cost the Wizards the fifth seed and a favorable first-round playoff matchup with the Chicago Bulls.

After opening last April with a road win over the lottery-bound Orlando Magic, the Wizards lost five straight and needed a four-game winning streak to hold onto fifth place.

"We were on the verge of losing our spot in the playoffs and people were saying: 'See, it's the same old Wizards; they're falling apart, they're going to fall into that eighth spot,' but we turned it around," said Jeffries, who has played everything from shooting guard to center in recent games. "We were able to come back and play better and I think we learned from that for this year." The Wizards hold a 2 1/2 -game lead over the sixth-place Milwaukee Bucks, who play at Memphis on Friday night. With wins in six of their final eight games, the Wizards would match last season's 45-win total, and if they play with the kind of focus they displayed down the stretch of Wednesday's win in Boston, they could reach that mark.

The Wizards blew open a close game by holding the Celtics without a field goal over the game's final 7 minutes 27 seconds, and by executing their offense. Gilbert Arenas led the way by scoring 13 of his game-high 38 points in the fourth quarter, but he also received plenty of help.

Whether it's been Etan Thomas providing a physical presence at center since he was made a starter last week, Antonio Daniels aggressively attacking the rim, Billy Thomas coming off the bench to hit a few jump shots or Jeffries swooping in to save a basket -- as he did in blocking what appeared to be an easy layup by Wally Szczerbiak on Wednesday night -- different players have helped in crucial situations.

The Wizards' sense of urgency was obvious to Boston Coach Doc Rivers.

"They are getting ready to play for something," he said. "And we are not."