Before the Wizards dismantled the Sixers 97-76 on Friday night, Doug Collins temporarily took off his head coach hat, replaced it with his analyst hat, and handicapped this current version of the Washington Wizards (Video courtesy of TAI’s Adam McGinnis):

Collins knows these Wizards are different, physical, hard-working, and the coach warned his team to be prepared for such. The Sixers responded by not showing up to play at all. Jrue Holiday took a pass from Andre Iguodala and scored on a layup to give the Sixers at 15-14 lead with 2:56 left in the first quarter, and that was the last lead Philadelphia would see. The Wizards went on a 9-0 run, led 23-15 after one quarter, 35-19 at the 8:10 mark of the second quarter, and 55-36 at halftime.

After the game, John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer asked Collins if he thought his team could turn the game around after intermission. The coach thought about it for half a second and succinctly responded with a one word:  ”No.”

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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Game 12 contributors: Adam McGinnis and Kyle Weidie with first-hand coverage and John Converse Townsend from watching on T.V.]

Score

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The Wizards weren’t necessarily really, really bad in their 103-90 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night, they were just normal bad. For one, don’t take credit away from the Sixers. Good team. For two, Washington seemed to earnestly try in small doses to pass the ball to each other. It’s just that usually when they did, the passes were not crisp, or the recipient couldn’t finish, or a number of other things that just don’t seem to go a bad team’s way happened — no help from the refs, plenty of missed shots from point-blank range, etc.

Philadelphia scored 27 points off 18 Washington turnovers, 21 of those points came in the first half off 13 turnovers (seven in the first quarter, six in the second). Andre Igoudala got points with ease for Philadelphia when needed, finishing with 23 on 9-16 FGs with five steals, five assists and seven rebounds. Igoudala also had teammates who filled in with help. Thaddeus Young chipped in a solid 18 points off the bench, Wizard killer Lou Williams had 24 points on 4-6 from deep.

The money quote from Flip Saunders after the game: “The first half we looked like ‘Space Jam’ where everyone lost all their talents and couldn’t do anything there for a while. But I told them, when you haven’t passed the ball very much, and you’ve been holding the ball and holding it, then all of a sudden, as a team, when you try to start doing it, it’s like guys aren’t ready.”

The difference being: Michael Jordan brought the ToonSquad back to a fictitious, animated victory in the 1996 movie. The Wizards, well, they are living real life and the only Jordan they have is Jordan Crawford. A 1-11 record is in the books… Lights Out Wizards. Read more »

[Jrue Holiday attempts to go behind-the-back to Andre Igoudala - photo: K. Weidie]

Doug Collins was originally scheduled to meet with the media at 5:45, so around 5:43, I left the main floor, and headed toward the Sixers locker room.  When I arrived, it was clear that his media session had been moved to 6pm, so I hung around and talked to some of the Sixers players while I waited.  Each time I walked in and out of the locker room, I saw Doug Collins chilling in the coach’s office, looking totally relaxed.

He had his feet up on the desk, he was watching a little ESPN, he was laughing with some of his assistant coaches; he looked the total opposite of what I imagined.  The words and phrases attached to Collins are “intense”, “annoying at times”, “hard on players”, and others I’m sure aren’t quite fit to print in this family(ish) blog.  On the flip side, the phrases attached to Collins the NBA analyst are “wise”, a “great talker”, and someone who knows a hell of a lot about the Xs and Os of basketball.

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Remember last year? I do. I blogged about it and all. In fact, I’ve been blogging about this Wizards team solid since October 2007. And what have I learned most? Curb your enthusiasm. Now, I’m not here to sell you a glass half-empty today that I purchased half-full yesterday. I do, as just about anyone involved with the Wizards, from within the organization to outside, from media to fans, have hope for a better future (thanks to, namely, John Wall and Ted Leonsis).

It’s just that being entrenched in D.C. sports and getting hype for what may lie ahead no longer go hand-and-hand, at least for me. I’m not sure if this feeling has existed within me the whole time, it’s just now I’m older, wiser. Or if the whole Gilbert Arenas gun ordeal last year (as the topping on other D.C. sports futility), which at one point had me contemplating ending this whole blog … briefly, has created a faintly apathetic feeling toward hope (or a hatred of false hope).

My point: Donovan McNabb comes to town and I shrugged my shoulders (and thanks to Mr. Irrelevant, I’ve also been cautioning people that we’ll likely see Rex Grossman start for a couple games). The Wizards land the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft (okay, that was bat-sh*t surprising), and take Mr. John Wall … more shoulder shrugging (sort of).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than thankful that I’ll get to cover Wall, but right now, he’s just a fresh-faced kid who happens to wear the jersey of the NBA team I’m close to.

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In anticipation of tonight’s Wizards game against the 76ers in Philadelphia, I exchanged some questions with Carey Smith of Philadunkia, the ESPN TrueHoop Network Sixers blog.

I answered a question from Carey about the Wizards’ struggles in general, and attempted to encapsulate the season’s problems in a nutshell. I also answered a question about Eddie Jordan and defense, which I spoke with the coach about when the Sixers played in D.C. on December 22nd.

Head over to Philadunkia to read my answers. Carey’s answers to my questions are below.

(TAI) — How is Elton Brand coming along? Has he overcome his slow start? Is he ultimately better coming off the bench?

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flickr/Keith Allison

If the Washington Wizards prefer to lie amongst the weeds and surprise everyone, a panel of 53 ESPN experts is trying to make that happen (despite the Wizards being voted by the same ESPN panel to have the biggest turnaround this upcoming season).

Tied with both Philadelphia and Toronto to achieve 39 wins, and finish seventh through ninth in the East (the averages actually break out to PHI – 39.4, WAS – 39.1, TOR – 39.0), the ESPN panel believes that the Wizards will be fighting just to make the playoffs.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix and The Wages of Wins Journal both seem to think the Wiz will be significantly better than sub-40 wins, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. Maybe some of the ESPN experts think the Wizards’ defense won’t be up to par, or that their frontcourt is too thin and they desperately need an upgrade. Of course, when Mike Prada of Bullets Forever wrote the two previously linked pieces, he had improving the team to compete for a championship in mind, not so they can solidify a playoff position. Still, both defense and frontcourt are valid areas of concern.

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You may think yesterday’s press conference introducing Fabricio Oberto was about closure … about finalizing the chapter on 2009 summertime movement … about alleviating the angst of Wizards fans hoping for a reliable big man to secure depth.

You’re wrong. Yesterday was all about Gilbert Arenas.

As soon as it was mentioned that coach Flip Saunders, who has been visiting almost all of the players on his team in their summertime locale, made a trip to Chicago to check on Arenas, zealous ears perked up.

Maybe media types assume fans are hungry for Agent Zero morsels since the all-star’s self-imposed moratorium on communication of any type. Or perhaps Arenas’ “so goes him so goes the team” importance is realized whereas any little bit of information about him needs to be magnified and manufactured into web hits.

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