By Ivan Carter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 12, 2007; E01
Gilbert Arenas fell far short of his promised 50 points yesterday, scoring just nine in the Washington Wizards' 94-73 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers at Verizon Center, then took a swipe at Coach Eddie Jordan, implying that his emphasis on playing better defense in the absence of injured forward Antawn Jamison contributed to the team's worst offensive performance of the season.
The Wizards were booed off their home court after scoring a season low, turning over the ball 19 times and hitting just 1 of 15 three-point attempts en route to their fourth loss in five games.
"It's easy to lose focus when you're just drilling us that if we make a mistake we're going to be coming out," said Arenas, who missed all eight of his three-point attempts while being outplayed by Portland point guard Jarrett Jack. "Truthfully, that's how you lose concentration. You lose focus because you're scared to actually play basketball. His standpoint is that since we lost Antawn, we have to pick it up somewhere else and that's defense."
Jordan remained in his office for several minutes after the game and when he emerged, it was clear that he wasn't pleased with his team's performance or with Arenas's attempt to find a correlation between Jordan's emphasis on defense and yesterday's loss, which was primarily the result of poor offensive execution and lousy shooting.
"My reaction to that?" Jordan said. "That I emphasize defense? No reaction. Next question."
Later, Jordan added: "You guys approach me with what Gil said about defense. I don't know why you ask me that. It's stupid. Plain stupid. The whole idea of us asking them to play defense better. Is that a problem? It's ludicrous."
The exchange between Jordan and Arenas through the media was only the latest odd twist to what has otherwise been a successful season.
Already struggling without Jamison, who is expected to be out until early March with a sprained left knee, the team was presented another distraction Friday when centers Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood traded punches, an incident that led to a two-game suspension for Thomas.
The Wizards are 1-4 without Jamison and Jordan said he is searching for the right lineup combinations to snap his team out of its funk. With guard Jarvis Hayes in a prolonged shooting slump, Jordan replaced him in the starting lineup with raw second-year forward Andray Blatche, who provided little impact (eight points, six rebounds, four turnovers).
Jordan used 10 players in the first quarter and also doled out heavy minutes to forward Darius Songaila (four points, one rebound) and Michael Ruffin, who didn't score but pulled down five rebounds in his first action since missing 37 games with a sprained foot.
The Wizards made all 18 of their free throw attempts but that's the only thing they did well. They lacked energy early, threw sloppy passes, did not get back on defense, failed to consistently box out and generally played with a lack continuity. Forward Caron Butler (10 points and one rebound) called the loss "an embarrassment" and Jordan didn't disagree.
"First of all, we didn't have the leadership out there that we needed with Antawn out," Jordan said. "And no one else has stepped up into a leadership role. And frankly, we didn't have enough talent out there on the floor. Darius not being ready conditioning-wise and being in a rhythm, knowing what we do. Andray being young. Michael being limited the way he is and just coming back for his first game. We just didn't get major production and we didn't make shots."
Arenas struggled as much as anyone, missing 12 of his 15 shots and failing to score at least 10 points for only the third time this season. He missed his first three shots and picked up a charge in the first quarter.
Asked whether he would continue to predict high-scoring games, Arenas turned sarcastic: "I guess I have to start predicting that I'll get 10 steals."
Arenas, who at one point was coaxed away from reporters by Jamison, wasn't finished.
"First period of the game we had what, 11 players go in?" Arenas said. "I've never seen that before. We get taken out for any mistake we make on defense. At the end of the day, it's hard to play like that. You figure to get beat. It's the NBA. Players are going to beat you, players are going to get offensive rebounds on you, players are going to make great plays. If you get penalized for it, you're out there playing like a robot."
Right now, the Wizards aren't playing anything like the team that went 22-9 during December and January, shooting to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
The team next plays Wednesday night at Philadelphia and then gets five days off for the all-star break. Jordan, Arenas and Butler will represent the Wizards but the sun and fun of an all-star weekend in Las Vegas never seemed so far away yesterday.
"It's just not the right time," Arenas said. "We're focusing on the wrong things right now. We should focus on what got us here. That's all I'm trying to say."
