After Thorough Beating, Team Given Day Off

Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan gave his team the day off yesterday, but the rest was more about his team's psyche than about tired legs.

Playing at home on one day's rest as part of a four-game homestand, the Wizards were handed their most decisive defeat of the season Wednesday night, a 110-83 loss to the San Antonio Spurs that dropped Washington to 1-3 without injured forward Antawn Jamison.

Jamison, who is expected to be out another two to five weeks with a sprained left knee, may not have made much of a difference because the Spurs handled the Wizards in just about every way imaginable.

The Wizards came out flat and pretty much stayed that way. The offensive execution was choppy against the defensive-minded Spurs, and as a result, the Wizards shot 32.6 percent while totaling only 11 assists. The Spurs totaled 11 assists in the first quarter alone while building a 17-point lead.

"It's not about the guys that are hurt -- it's about the guys that aren't hurt," Jordan said. "It's about the guys that are available to play. There is no excuse about not having Antawn or not running the offense because Antawn is not there. We've said it before: We've got to do things we have to do. We have to defend better and we have to execute better. We didn't do either."

The Wizards showed resolve in a 104-99 home win over the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 30 after Jamison went down just six minutes into the game, but they have been beaten badly in three of four games since. They allowed 119 points in a loss at Toronto, were torched for 118 in a home loss to the Lakers and were picked apart by the Spurs on Wednesday night.

The Wizards have been beaten by an average of 17.7 points in the three losses while looking little like the team that jetted to the top of the Eastern Conference standings by going 22-9 during December and January.

Jamison was perhaps the hottest player on the team when he went down, and Jordan has yet to find a replacement for him, a fact that was not lost on Spurs forward-center Tim Duncan.

"It's a huge loss for them," Duncan said. "With his size and ability to stretch the floor and being an all-pro-type player, you can see it has hurt them."

Shooting for the Top

Arenas will get a chance to add to his reputation as a clutch shooter during All-Star Weekend when he participates in the three-point shootout on Feb. 17 in Las Vegas.

Last year, Arenas finished second to Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki. Arenas has made 37.3 percent of his three-point shots this season.

Arenas and Nowitzki will be joined by Cleveland guard Damon Jones, Memphis forward Mike Miller, Miami forward Jason Kapono and Nowitzki's Dallas teammate, guard Jason Terry.

Arenas said the event requires a different type of preparation. Players must grab balls off of a rack as they work their way around the court, and that seems to favor shooters with a quicker, more compact stroke like Arenas.

Getting shots up never has been a problem for Arenas, who ranks last among this season's participants in three-point percentage but first in attempts.

"I've been out there practicing, getting shots up for a while," Arenas said. "I'll be ready."

Blacked Out on Sunday

Sunday's game against Portland, a 1 p.m. tip-off, will not be televised because ABC holds exclusive rights to games played during the afternoon time slots. The network selected San Antonio at Miami as its 1 p.m. game and the Lakers at Cleveland as its 3:30 p.m. game.