Hayes Leaves Some Familiar Faces Behind

TORONTO, Oct. 25 -- A strange feeling shot through Jarvis Hayes on Wednesday night when he looked across the court during the national anthem and saw the Washington Wizards lined up, standing at attention.

"I was like, 'I'm supposed to be over there,' " said Hayes, who signed with the Detroit Pistons over the summer after four seasons as a Wizard. "I mean, last year at this time, I was over there with those guys, so that's when it really hit me. It was like, yeah, I'm really a Piston now."

After chatting with former teammates and coaches before the game, Hayes helped beat the Wizards by scoring 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting in just under 24 minutes. The performance capped a strong preseason for Hayes, who has played shooting guard and small forward and will likely see that role increase because rookie first-round pick Rodney Stuckey, a shooting guard, suffered a broken left hand during Wednesday's game.

Hayes, who averaged 7.2 points on 41 percent shooting for the Wizards last season, said he is feeling more confident because he is two years removed from knee injuries that forced him to miss large chunks of the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.

"Last year, I felt healthy but I still wasn't all the way back because I didn't have that confidence, I didn't have that comfortable feeling," said Hayes, who averaged a team-high 13.6 points and shot 44.4 percent from three-point range in eight preseason games.

"Physically I was there. Other than a little tendinitis, I felt fine physically but I was still thinking about it. In the back of my mind, I was still a little hesitant, especially in the post or when I would take the ball to the basket. Now, I'm just playing my game and it feels great."

Hayes became an unrestricted free agent over the summer when the Wizards declined to extend him a qualifying offer. While working his way back from the knee injuries, Hayes was wildly inconsistent with his shooting and he was part of the least productive bench unit in the league.

With large salaries already committed to the core of Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Antonio Daniels and Darius Songaila, the Wizards drafted guard Nick Young and re-signed starting shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson, reserve shooting guard Roger Mason Jr. and third-year forward-center Andray Blatche.

Coach Eddie Jordan is clearly intrigued by the offensive talents of Young, the team's highest draft selection (16th overall) since then-president of basketball operations Michael Jordan selected Hayes with the 10th pick in 2003.

Eddie Jordan tweaked his rotation Wednesday by inserting Young into the game late in the first quarter in a lineup that also included Arenas, Butler, Jamison and Blatche.

Young finished with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting with seven rebounds and turned in one of the most spectacular plays of the preseason when he floated under the basket and banked in a reverse layup while drawing a foul.

"I wanted to get Nick a certain amount of minutes, somewhere in between 20 and 25, and in order to do that, I wanted to get him in early," Jordan said. "Roger's played pretty well and normally he and Antonio are the first two guards off the bench but this is the preseason and it's a time to look at some things. Nick has made some headway."

Jordan is pleased with Stevenson's defense but would like to see more offensive production.

Stevenson is averaging 3.5 points on 24 percent shooting in six preseason games.

"It's early and we're not making a whole lot of judgments right now, but DeShawn has not played at a high level and we want to compete at that spot," Jordan said. "We want to see what's going to happen there. I'm not pushing any quick solution buttons but it's the NBA way. DeShawn is working hard and doing things defensively and that's his holding card but we'd like to get a little bit more from that spot."

Wizards N ote: Arenas sat out Thursday's practice to rest and will be a game-time decision for Friday's preseason finale against Toronto. Rookie forward Oleksiy Pecherov (right quadriceps bruise) practiced and may play.