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Haywood Will Miss Four to Six Months
Instead of following up a career-best season, Wizards center Brendan Haywood will be out with a torn ligament in his wrist.
(By Jesse D. Garrabrant -- Nbae/getty Images)
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Haywood started 80 of 82 games last season while posting career highs in scoring (10.6 points per game), rebounding (7.2), blocked shots (1.7), free throw shooting percentage (73.5 percent) and minutes played (27.9).
Haywood will be missed most at the defensive end. The 7-foot, 263-pounder is not only a shot-blocking presence who matches up well against big men such as Boston's Kevin Garnett, Toronto's Chris Bosh and Orlando's Dwight Howard, he also set the team's defense from his position underneath the basket.
"He's really big for us back there in terms of communicating to the other guys about what is going on and where we need to be, so that's going to be missed," Jamison said. "We're going to have to find a way for other guys to fill that role."
The absence of Haywood could also mean a ramped-up developmental process for McGee, the raw but athletic first-round pick out of Nevada. McGee had a strong training camp and was solid Tuesday night with seven points, three rebounds and a block in 12 minutes.
The rookie was even better Wednesday as he keyed a fourth-quarter push with several impressive plays, including a blocked shot, a pair of dunks and a long jump shot he banked in from the top of the key.
McGee, who went against Grizzlies rookie Marc Gasol for much of the game, finished with a team-high 20 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks in 27 minutes.
"He's been improving day by day," Jordan said of McGee. "I thought he had a presence of confidence, he was aggressive and went for blocks. He didn't mind the physical contact and he didn't back away, and those are all of the sort of off-the-stat-sheet qualities we look at."
Blatche started at Jamison's power forward spot Wednesday night in a lineup that included Thomas, Antonio Daniels, DeShawn Stevenson and Dominic McGuire and finished with 14 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds in 25 minutes.
Caron Butler was available but sat out to rest after playing 24 minutes Tuesday night. He will be in the lineup Friday night when the Wizards host Detroit in their lone home preseason game.
Though disappointed like the rest of his teammates over the injury news, Butler talked optimistically about the upcoming season.
"You have to look at it like this: Antawn is going to be fine, he's going to be back for the opener," Butler said. "Brendan had an unfortunate injury so that means that the young guys are going to have to do it. Andray's playing great so far, we have Etan back at the five and Darius can help us there. We're going to get Gilbert back in the middle of the season so we're going to be fine. Help will be on the way. It's up to us to start off great and create some momentum so we can get through this."
Wizards Note: The key difference between the sloppy 108-82 loss in Dallas and Wednesday's victory was that the Wizards took better care of the ball. After turning it over 23 times Tuesday, miscues that led to 28 Dallas points, Washington turned it over only 16 times, leading to 17 Memphis points.
