WIZARDS INSIDER
Veterans Relish Cat and Mouse
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Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Caron Butler relishes those moments when an opposing team assigns a rookie or relatively inexperienced player to defend him.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]"Your radar goes up immediately and it's like, 'There's a mouse in the house,' " Butler said. "You're going to disrespect me like that? A rookie? And then you get a little liberty, a chance to go at them and toy with them a little bit."
A few of Butler's young teammates can relate. Third-year forward-center Andray Blatche and rookies Nick Young and Dominic McGuire have all experienced some ups and downs while seeing limited action in the first three games.
In Friday's loss at Boston, Blatche was assigned to defend five-time all-star Paul Pierce early in the second quarter and Pierce ran off eight straight points.
And in the second quarter of Saturday's home-opening loss to Orlando, McGuire was matched up against Magic veteran Hedo Turkoglu. McGuire blocked Turkoglu's first shot attempt against him but was also whistled for a questionable foul call and then gave up a layup and dunk during a four-minute stint.
"You just have to be ready for it because you know they are going to be aggressive," McGuire said. "I got that first foul call and I know for a fact that it wasn't a foul, but that's how it is. Then I backed off and he kind of took advantage of that."
As he looks for opportunities to work his young players into a rotation, Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan said he is also aware of the inherent growing pains.
"Young guys are going to make mistakes, and that's just the nature of the business," Jordan said.
UP NEXT Tomorrow at Nets7:30 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, WTEM-980 Friday vs. Nuggets8 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, ESPN, WTEM-980 UP NEXT Tomorrow at Nets7:30 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, WTEM-980 Friday vs. Nuggets8 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, ESPN, WTEM-980
