Wizards Look to Rebound After Opener

Jordan Says Cavaliers' Supremacy On the Boards Led to Loss in Cleveland

The Washington Wizards were clearly disappointed following Wednesday night's season-opening loss at Cleveland, but coaches and players took solace in the fact that it was only one game.

"We've got 81 more of these," guard Antonio Daniels said. "I know there was a lot of hype because it's the opener, national TV and everything, but all we can do is learn from it and move on."

Guard Gilbert Arenas, who had an uncharacteristic 2-for-12 shooting night en route to scoring seven points, shook off notions that the Wizards will have visions of the Cavaliers running through their heads when they host the Boston Celtics in their home opener tomorrow night at Verizon Center.

"Nah," Arenas said. "I thought the game was a little boring, not like our playoff series. We've got to make stops at the end. We ended the season the way our season started. We've got to make progress."

Arenas's performance was perplexing because he looked passive early on, turning down several open shots while preferring to set up teammates. When Arenas did attack, he found the lane clogged. He picked up a pair of offensive fouls to go along with a defensive foul that forced him to take a seat with 8 minutes 54 seconds remaining in the first half.

Arenas, who debuted his new Adidas sneaker, "Gil Zero," was scoreless in the first half. He did wind up with 11 assists for the game and kept the Wizards alive down the stretch by finding open teammates, particularly Caron Butler, who scored a team-high 23 points.

"It happens," Arenas said. "You're going to have ups and downs through the season. I did some good things out there. I had a lot of assists. The only turnovers I had were off a couple of questionable offensive fouls. If I would've had a chance to get a rhythm without sitting on the bench with the offensive fouls, it could've been a better game."

Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan pinned the loss on his team's failure to effectively rebound -- Cleveland held a 16-9 advantage in offensive rebounds -- and defended his decision to go with a small lineup that consisted of Arenas, Butler, Antawn Jamison, Jarvis Hayes and Antonio Daniels for a long stretch of the fourth quarter.

Jordan's decision to keep Etan Thomas on the bench in the final period was curious because Thomas was 7 of 7 from the field with 14 points and five rebounds heading into the quarter. Jordan used Brendan Haywood for a six-minute stretch of the final period, when he scored four points and failed to grab a rebound.

One factor in Jordan's strategy was Cleveland Coach Mike Brown's decision to go with his own small lineup. Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas played only 14 seconds in the fourth and Brown elected to use the more athletic Anderson Varejao in pick-and-roll situations to draw Washington's big men away from the basket. Both coaches employed the type of small-ball tactics used to great success by the Phoenix Suns.

"Frankly, I thought the small lineup helped us," Jordan said. "I thought we defended [LeBron] James well enough. I thought we did some good things defensively. We got some steals. I think we were down 11 and we went to the small lineup and went up by two. When we had the big guys in there, they would run pick-and-rolls and our big guys were on the perimeter anyway. All the time, you said our small and midsize guys have to rebound the ball better and we didn't do it."

Jordan was generally pleased with his team's defensive effort. Cleveland shot 47.4 percent and turned over the ball 16 times. However, the Cavaliers also hurt themselves by making only 15 of 30 free throw attempts.

"They made perimeter shots," Jordan said. "We wanted to protect the paint. I felt that for 3 1/2 quarters, we protected the paint. They got some drives down the last part of the fourth quarter, they got some layups and we didn't rebound the ball so we have to sustain that effort for 48 minutes."