By Ivan Carter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 1, 2006; E01
After Washington snapped a four-game losing streak with a one-point win over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night, the general feeling inside the Wizards' locker room was one of relief.
"We'll take the win because we needed it, but we still haven't played the kind of basketball we're capable of playing," said forward Caron Butler, who is on pace to post career highs in scoring (17.8 ppg), rebounds (8.2) and shooting percentage (46.1). "You haven't seen that yet but it's there, it's in us. We just have to put it together."
The Wizards, who are 5-9 entering tonight's game against the Charlotte Bobcats at Verizon Center, can point to several reasons why they are four games below .500 and sitting in fourth place in the Southeast Division. The main culprits are the streaky performances of Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison; generally sloppy play on the road, which has resulted in a 0-7 record away from Verizon Center; and a lack of consistent scoring punch from the bench.
The road woes have been the biggest issue. The contrast between Washington's play at home and away has been as glaring as the clashing gold tops and black shorts the team wore against Cleveland on Nov. 18.
In seven home games, the Wizards have shot 47 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from three-point range, averaged 21.9 assists and posted 109.7 points. In seven road contests, the Wizards have shot 39.7 percent, 23.8 percent from three-point range, and averaged 14.7 assists and 87.4 points.
To understand how drastic that drop-off is, it's worth noting that the Los Angeles Clippers, the league's only other winless road team at 0-6, are shooting only three percentage points lower and averaging seven fewer points on the road than in Los Angeles.
When last week's three-game road trip ended with an ugly 95-80 loss in Memphis, Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan sounded like a coach who was grasping for ways to get his team out of its funk. The trip also included losses at Dallas and Houston.
"We all have responsibilities and my job is to get us out of it," Jordan said. "We tried different things as the week went along, and I've got to find some other ways. That's what I have to do."
The surest solution would be for Arenas to play the way he did during his three best games of the season, in which he scored 40 points or more in home wins over Boston, Indiana and Cleveland.
In Washington's five wins, Arenas averaged 35.8 points and 6.8 assists while shooting 53.7 percent from the field and 55.3 percent from three-point range. In the nine losses, Arenas averaged 20.4 points and 6.3 assists, shooting 29.9 percent from the field and 28.8 percent from three-point range.
Meanwhile, Jamison has shot 50.6 percent from the field in five wins and 39.7 percent in nine losses.
Their inconsistency and a bench that has been outscored in 11 out of 14 games go a long way toward explaining the Wizards' rough start. The team has put together only two complete games this season: the 26-point win over Indiana on Nov. 8 and the 12-point win over Cleveland on Nov. 18.
"We've got to find a way to get on a roll no matter where we play," Jamison said. "There's a reason why it's an up-and-down season, but what makes this tough is that we're kind of in a rut so early in the season, especially on the road. But we're a veteran group and we'll bounce back. You just hope that the way things are going, it doesn't come back to bite us late in the season."
Unlike last season, when Jordan shook up his lineup by making Butler a starter after a 9-14 start and later dropped malcontent Chucky Atkins from the team, the coach hasn't considered making drastic changes.
Jordan has basically stuck to an eight-man rotation, one that should grow once injured forward Darius Songaila returns from his Nov. 2 back surgery. There is no timetable for Songaila's return; but the team is hopeful that the 6-foot-9 forward, who was expected to add shooting touch and rebounding to the front line, will be able to contribute during the second half of the season.
"You know, we're a resilient group and I see a lot of positive emotions from our guys after games and during shoot-arounds," Jordan said. "I feel a lot of positive emotion and that's what you have to hold on to. That's what you want to see when things are going bad for you."
Jordan continues to emphasize ball movement and avoiding turnovers on offense and protecting the lane and not giving up easy dunks and layups on defense.
The Wizards are allowing 101.9 points after allowing 99.8 last season, but Jordan has been generally satisfied with the defense overall, especially the presence provided by centers Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood. He believes his team will get rolling once it irons out some offensive issues, particularly on the road.
"Those crucial skirmishes we've got to win, whether it's that three- or four-minute spurt in Dallas or that four- or five-minute spurt in Houston, we have to win those spurts," Jordan said. "And then there are some things we would like to improve. We would like to improve our spacing so we can get more quality looks, we don't want to turn it over and then we just have to make shots. We haven't made shots in some crucial situations."
Arenas said it's too early to think about the fact that the Wizards have squandered a chance to create a cushion between themselves and other Eastern Conference teams that have struggled, such as Miami, New Jersey, Chicago and Milwaukee.
"We can't worry about anyone else right now," Arenas said. "We have to concentrate on ourselves. We're not playing great basketball that we're capable of playing so we have to get our stuff right and not worry about what everybody else is doing."
