Will the Wizards Be the Fifth Seed, or the First Team Out?

Seventy-eight games down, four to go, and the Wizards still don't seem to grasp the big picture. Someone needs to explicitly tell Gilbert Arenas and his teammates -- Coach Eddie Jordan, anyone -- that this is not merely about making the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in 18 years as an organization.

Long view, that's a nice accomplishment. But this is a chance to earn time on the national stage as early as next weekend.

By virtue of securing the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Wizards become LeBron James's first postseason opponent. Just being on the same court with Bron-Bron in late April or early May is worth residual glitter, the kind the old Cavaliers basked in before you-know-who shot them down. (Just ask Wilbon.)

Before the Wizards lose another game, they should co-opt a Cleveland-or-bust mentality -- because the first-round playoff alternatives are bleak.

They are getting knocked out in five games by Detroit or Miami, going six or seven grueling games with New Jersey before an infinitesimal television audience, or a request from Brendan Haywood to his Cancun concierge:

"My man! Uh . . . you got TNT in the rooms?"

Seventy-eight down, four to go, and it has come to this maddening end. The Wizards have lost four straight, including a thriller in Milwaukee on Wednesday in which Arenas had the ball in his hands with the game on the line . . . and had it taken from him. They went from the cusp of clinching a playoff berth Monday in Philadelphia to desperately needing a game in Chicago tonight against the Bulls. It's less than a week before the regular season ends and, astonishingly, just two games separate the No. 5 seed Wizards from playoff elimination.

That's right, early vacation. Back to the lottery. If the Wizards don't win at least one or two of their last four games, they could be out.

"I haven't been that dire yet because they've been playing hard," Jordan said by telephone from Chicago yesterday afternoon. "Gil's beat up. Brendan's got a sore thumb. Etan [Thomas] got a bad back. Twelve of our last 16 games are on the road. Between the schedule and the injuries, it all caught up with us. I hate to say that, but we're at a point of severe adversity."

Jordan also knows something else about his team that enables the coach to have a life and not ruminate about the losses. It is what it is -- a beat-up, one-superstar, .500 club that handles adversity like a champ and prosperity like a chump.

Starting 5-1, the Wizards never have been more than four games over .500 all season.

"We've yet to get to where we manage the game when we have a lead, putting someone away when we have them down six or 10," Jordan said. "It's disappointing, especially when you see a team like New Jersey do that. But that's Jason Kidd. That's a will, a desire. And you got to have sharks. You got to taste the blood and attack.