Practice Intensity Is Ratcheted Up a Bit

ATLANTA, April 6 -- Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan barely utters the word "playoffs," but that hasn't prevented him from tweaking his practices so that they have a postseason feel.

Following a lively but short workout Thursday on the practice court at Philips Arena, Jordan said he has started to adjust the way he structures each session.

"We're having a limited number of practices, so our practices are not going to be focused on drills, conditioning, individual skill development and things like that, things you do during the regular season," Jordan said.

"They are going to be more like playoff practices. What does the opponent do? Let's go live against a scout team and run the things they run. We'll put a team in white and a team in black, try to take things away in practice live and really pay attention to detail when it comes to our offensive execution. And then we're adding some things to our offense, tweaking some things."

Jordan and his staff won't have much time to see their team in practice anyway. Between Friday's game against the Hawks and the April 19 season finale at Detroit, the Wizards will cram eight games into 13 days.

The final stretch also includes a pair of dreaded back-to-back sets, Friday against the Hawks followed by Saturday night's home game against the Miami Heat, and the final two games of the season, April 18 against the Milwaukee Bucks at Verizon Center followed by the next night's game at Detroit.

The Wizards are 8-8 in the second game of back-to-back action this season.