Note: I’ll be chatting/answering questions on ESPN’s Sunday Dime Live during tonight’s Wizards-Celtics game. Join me for the start at 8 pm eastern, keep scrolling for more on the Wiz.

The Wizards play the Celtics tonight … on ESPN. “Great.” Words like “bloodbath” have already been thrown around. The WaPost’s Michael Lee is baffled that the game continued to be on the national television schedule after the dismantling of the team, including Josh Howard’s knee injury. But Boston is a big ticket market, so probably still worth including on the NBA Sunday slate. The only other game that will be going on at the same time will be the Thunder and Kings, which starts at 9 pm eastern. I’m sure people would love to see Kevin Durant and Tyreke Evans, but again, it’s Boston.

So Wizards fans, I guess you have to choke down the embarrassment of the forthcoming unwanted national attention and how the pundits will likely be talking bad about the franchise you love. And if you’re a Wizards fan watching the game at this point, you do have a true love for the team.

I have two hopes: 1) that Hubie Brown is calling the game, and 2) a moral victory.

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A local scribe brought his two young boys to Friday night’s Wizards game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Both in the age range of four to six I would guess. Probably should have asked, but I was too curious about the dire appearance of their situation.

Plopped down on the floor against the cold white wall, limbs askew, the hoods of their coats over heads. The parts of their faces I could see looked to be some of the saddest in the building at the moment. Not as bad as their puppy just dying, but worse than being dragged to the ballet or church. The Verizon Center seemed like the last place in the world they wanted to be.

Other media members, those whose job is mainly to cover the Washington Wizards, joked, “You two look like how I’ve felt all season.” This comment, mind you, was made by two separate reporters independent of each other. Their situation had become an inherent punchline out of necessity. And this scene took place before the game even started.

“Gotta laugh to keep from crying,” said Caron Butler at one point earlier this year. He would later laugh all the way to Dallas. Others have had to stick with the same coping ability back here in the District.

“Don’t ever think it can’t get any worse, because it can,” is another quote from Flip Saunders after a late December home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. It certainly did get much, much worse with guns and trades and perhaps culminating with Josh Howard’s season-ending knee injury as the steam arising from the cow pie, or in other words, the icing on the cake.

I wouldn’t classify Friday’s 102-74 loss to the Bucks, after just having lost to the same team in Milwaukee 100-87 two days earlier, as a continued digression. Those who know better knew there would be days like this with the current squad. It was, however, the worst effort since the trades, and piggy-backs upon what was perhaps the most boring home game of the year. It was Date Night at the Phone Booth, one can only imagine how many disappointed happy endings the piss-poor basketball game led to. Toward the end, the boo-birds were flying higher in the Verizon Center than they had all season. Hard to imagine them not killing any love birds in the process.

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Hey! James Singleton made the Game Time cover!

Wonder if this is a first for his NBA career.

Ok, almost the same drill as when these two teams played on Wednesday.
My three keys (for what they are worth):

1. The Wizards need to match Milwaukee’s intensity on defense. Good luck.
2. Flip Saunders’ squad is not an offensive juggernaut, clearly, and that’s why they need to take care of the ball.
3. Please, someone score of the bench. Dare I say this is a breakout night for Nick Young? (only to be, perhaps, followed by more stretches of futility)

In other news …

The Wizards are pushing for their season ticket holders to renew their plans. They’ve already put out a letter from Flip Saunders. Tonight, most of the Verizon Center personnel are wearing t-shirts telling plan holders where they can renew. Read more »

Some people have a poker face.
Flip Saunders has a turnover face.

As previously mentioned in the last screen shot post of Wednesday’s Wizards-Bucks game, Washington had the same amount of turnovers in the third quarter as they did points. And that common number would be 12. For the heck of it, let’s chronicle each turnover (and a couple of other things) in screen shots and words.

It’s cold in Milwaukee. These turnovers are colder.

TURNOVER #1 – 10:04 >> You can’t see Randy Foye in his picture, but he is right behind the defender in the white circle.

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Ok, a screen shot post. I don’t do these often enough,  here goes …

First, a disclaimer: Sometimes an opponent makes good, (relatively)unstoppable plays, and sometimes the defense isn’t up to snuff. Since defense wins championships, these screen shot posts tend to concentrate on the correctable defensive plays. So, sorry NBA millionaires if you are criticized and nitpicked too often. That just how it goes.

Because of the 8 pm start time, and then Duke-Maryland, I could only muster myself to re-watch the first half of last night’s Wizards-Bucks game, one where the Wiz lost 100-87. I’ll likely try to watch and chronicle the second half tonight, but I’m sure that a third quarter where, I believe, the Wizards had the same amount of turnovers as points (12), will be especially “fun” to watch. And yes, I realize this re-watching of Wizards defeats makes me seem a tad insane.

The Bucks are the Bucks. They are a playoff team, in the Eastern Conference … where sixth place is equivalent to “on the outside looking in” in the West. Still, no one thought the Wizards would really win last night. But they fought hard. They sorta tried. And as expected with this still young team, they more so got in their own way of winning than the other team. Although, do give Milwaukee credit.

{1st Quarter}

11:19 >> On the first play, Andray Blatche, bless his heart, acted like and NFL wide-receiver, perhaps Braylon Edwards. When the pass was coming he turned to make a move, and not when the pass was arriving. The ball was fumbled away — turnover #1 of 21, which was, of course, blamed on the passer, Mike Miller, in the stat book. This is one of the rare occasions where it isn’t always the passer’s fault.

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Ups and downs, lefts and rights, ins and outs. This has been a season of mixed results for Randy Foye. He’s gone from being a featured complimentary role player, to unchallenged starter after the suspension of Gilbert Arenas, to veteran on a mix-mashed team of youthful newcomers. The one constant surrounding Foye’s first season with the Wizards has been change.

If Andray Blatche is the longest tenured, active Wizard, that would make Randy fourth on the chart behind Nick Young and JaVale McGee. Foye is 20 months older than the former, 51 months older than the latter, and has played over 10-percent more minutes this season than the two combined. Randy started the year as the ninth oldest guy on the roster.

Ask anyone about Randy Foye the player and they will probably say something along the lines of, “Well, not really a point guard, not really a shooting guard,” and then politely follow with, “He’d make a nice combo guard off the bench for some team, perhaps playing alongside another play-maker.” This is probably the role envisioned for him from last June’s trade and into October’s training camp. PlayFoye alongside Gilbert Arenas or Mike Miller and watch the magic happen. The magic didn’t happen.

Randy’s early-on issues were only partially a result of his deficiencies as a player. He was trying to fit into a new system next to new teammates, who in turn, were trying to do the same themselves.

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I wanted to title this post, “Gilbert Arenas says he’d have ‘no problem’ playing for the Washington Wizards again,” which is the first line of the AP story (well, it’s really a blurb), that surfaced about Arenas this afternoon.

The title of the AP story? Well, that depends on if you go to Google News or ESPN.

“Arenas shrugs off sentencing nerves,” says one.

“Arenas not nervous about sentence,” says the other.

Ah, same ol’ Gil … or at least the one who is often portrayed in the media. Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky. Agent Alfred E. Neuman. Read more »

Andray Blatche. Andray Blatche. Andray ‘Freaking’ Blatche. The guy is doing the damn thing. By now you’ve heard all about his performance and astounding numbers since the All-Star break. And after Sunday’s game against the Nets, there was a full-on Blatche explosion around the ‘net. But I’ll get to all that was said in a second. First, an interesting quote from one specific link, a report about ‘Dray by Michael Lee on Wizards Insider:

Saunders said that he has been impressed with Blatche’s demeanor and approach since the Wizards traded away Brendan Haywood, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler.

“I tried to harp on him from day one, about professionalism and preparing yourself to be successful, and that starts, not when you step in the gym, but prior to that. And that’s lifting weights, taking care of your body, preparing your body, understanding scouting reports and knowing what they are going to do to you,” Saunders said. “I think prior, when we had Caron and Antawn, he never really took that to heart. ‘It really doesn’t matter what I do.’ When those guys left, I think he understood. All of a sudden he’s lifting more. He’s quiet in the locker room. And all of a sudden his game has coincided with improving with that. He’s understanding that as you prepare, you prepare to win and you prepare to lose and he’s preparing himself to be successful.”

One thing I was remiss in not mentioning in Sunday’s post about Blatche was observations of his recent locker room behavior. He hasn’t flipped a complete 180, because it’s not like he was a bad character or anything like that before.

When Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison were around, Blatche often ducked out early, even avoiding reporters when he had a good game. Now, not so much. He has been present as the main spokesman for the team. Just like on the court, Andray has stepped up his game in front of the media to a noticeable degree.

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{A post-game locker-room scene from the night of January 2, 2010}

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The media feeding frenzy at the Verizon Center has dwindled to a faintly glowing ember. Since Gilbert Arenas was banished, there have been press flare ups here and there, such as when former team icons are removed from the franchise’s edifice and shipped out of town, bringing in fresh new faces. But otherwise, it’s usually just the regulars these days.

But when Arenas was around, two noteworthy instances of media circus come to mind: 1) the Wizards’ first game of 2010, the night of January 2nd against the San Antonio Spurs, i.e., the first game after initial stories of a two-man Gun-Gate were revealed; and 2) practice on January 4th, the day the team left for a game in Philadelphia, where finger guns occurred. That Tuesday’s Sixers game would end up being Arenas’ last in a Wizards uniform (to-date). So, that would make Monday afternoon’s practice Gil’s last one in the arena that used to go nuts for him.

That day, the media came looking for Agent Zero, yearning for any morsel of sensationalistic news they could find, I believe they would call them answers. And while January fourth’s practice probably wasn’t as gonzo as the practice on New Year’s Day (which I missed), it nonetheless provided entertaining fodder in it’s own way.

That day, Mike James took one for the team, becoming the first member of the Wizards, amongst those who were dodging the camera lights, voice recorders and notepads at all costs, to throw his own chum into the shark-infested waters. Others did end up speaking, Caron Butler was later accosted in a side hallway, and Randy Foye spoke with a few reporters after most had given up and left. But James took the first shot for the team. His teammates, including Arenas, were partially able to dodge the unwanted attention because of Mike’s distraction, whether it was an intentional act on his part or not.

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