[Editor's Note: Rashad Mobley has reported on the Wizards with media credentials since the 2008-09 season for Hoops Addict. He occasionally contributes to Truth About It.net, providing excellent analysis and a different perspective from his up-close coverage of the team.]

Less than 24 hours after he arrived in Washington D.C., newly-acquired Washington Wizards forward Al Thornton held court in front of the locker previously occupied by DeShawn Stevenson.  He had just led his team in scoring with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting, and the Wizards defeated the playoff-bound Denver Nuggets.  Under normal circumstances, the members of the media would be focusing on how he was able to score so easily, or how hectic things had been for him recently.

But that wasn’t completely the case.

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Believe it or not, in the clip you are about to see, Charles Barkley doesn’t even talk about the trade that Mark Cuban just fleeced the Wizards for. Although, he surely will trash the move at some point.

In going down their All-Decade NBA lists and highlights, the TNT crew of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley couldn’t resist mentioning a specific sensitive moment in the Wizards’ failed history … The Michael Ruffin Ball Toss.

Ruffin’s infamous gaffe, the one where he tossed the ball in the air with around three-seconds left only to see Mo Peterson of the Toronto Raptors catch, shoot, and make a crazy buzzer beater to tie the game (the Wizards would go on to lose in overtime), wasn’t officially apart of any All-Decade list, but the guys could help but mention it.

“The second dumbest basketball play I’ve ever seen,” said Kenny Smith.

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Flip Saunders was not happy after Friday night’s loss against Toronto. “I’m more disappointed in this game than any game we’ve had,” he said. Can’t blame him.

It must have pained Coach even more to say, “That was a typical regular season game of non-playoff teams … playing the way we played. We took 29-three point shots. You don’t take 29 … you know, we’re shooting 32% from three and we take that many threes?”

But the threes aren’t something I especially noticed, aside from Jamison’s off-night 1-7, and they’re not exactly what Flip wanted to concentrate on in his post-game press conference.

Was it Gilbert Arenas’ missed layup (or Andray Blatche’s missed tips) that would have tied the game, possibly sending it into a second overtime? Nope.

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Matching up post-game locker room quotes with corresponding facial expressions.

Caron Butler

When asked about the shot Hedo Turkoglu hit with 8.1 second left in overtime, putting Toronto up for good at 109-107 …

“Turkish Jordan.

You know, it’s tough. It was a tough shot. Tried to make him take a difficult shot, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Brendan Haywood

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{keys to win vs. raptors}

Active Hands

… especially from Jamison and Butler, the latter racked up three steals. As a team, the Wizards had 10 steals (their second highest total of the season), and held the Raptors to only two. Against the Suns, the Wiz had 12 steals, but they also had 17 turnovers. The team only turned the ball over 10 times last night.

Pushing Tempo

… even after the Raptors made shots, the Wizards pushed the ball up the court without deliberation, giving the recently stagnant offense more time to get something done.

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Caught the second half of the Wizards game via the Internet after shrugging my shoulders at yet another Redskins loss. Looking for Jim Zorn’s missing timeouts? The DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg has some theories.

But what did I learn about the Wizards? Well, I can’t wait until Gilbert Arenas gets 100% comfortable with his offensive balance and ability to distribute … and is able to display it for a full game. He looked great in the third quarter. Made my day.

The turnovers, however, are a slight concern. So far this preseason, Arenas is averaging 6.3 turnovers per 36 minutes, which shatters his 3.2 TO/36 in 05-06 when he led the NBA in total turnovers with 297.

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Just over three minutes left in a close game, Wizards up by one point against an almost equally bad team, the thought crossed my mind….do I hope they lose?

I knew the Clippers and Kings, two of the other top three worst teams in the league, were playing each other last night. It would be “nice” to have better chances in the draft.

But just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, it left. All along, I’ve been against “tanking” or even hoping for more losses just for the possibility of maybe having a better shot at the top pick/Blake Griffin. It just doesn’t seem like good basketball karma, not like it matters with the Curse O’ Les Boulez anyway. But still, we’re talking principles…..principalities.

So eff the lottery it was, I was pulling for my Wizards to win, because that’s what fans do. And a win is what I thought we were getting when Juan Dixon squirmed for a layup with 47 seconds left, putting the Wiz up 96-90.

But nothing ever comes easy. Two straight Raptor threes later, the few of us on the Bullets Forever game thread were screaming for the ghosts of Anthony Parker, Michael Ruffin and Mo Peterson to be exercised.

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This Wizards lost again and all that…..surprise, surprise. Your web hits are below.

“We met the opposition and it was us.”
-Ed Tapscott

[Wizards Game 34 Blog vs. Toronto Raptors: Groundhog Day Continues - Bullets Forever]

[Wizards Outlet]
Another game, another slow start, and more inability to climb out of it because you’re physically and mentally spent from just trying to get even again. That is the position the Washington Wizards again found themselves in tonight.

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The Washington Wizards play the Toronto Raptors tonight….two franchises that have caused a great deal of disappointment for their fans this season. So, in anticipation of the game, I hooked up with Scott from RaptorBlog.com for a quick Q&A session. Read on….

1) The Raptors seem on the verge of making a run for the playoffs….what do they need to do for this to really happen?

I don’t know where you get the idea that the Raptors are “on the verge of making a run for the playoffs”. This team is seriously flawed. Their offense is average, their defense is subpar, their rebounding is atrocious and their bench is shallow. It’s possible that they could make a surge toward the seventh or eighth seed so that they can get stomped by the Celtics or Cavs like narcs at a biker rally, but I can’t fathom why that would be something to shoot for. This team needs to rebuild and get off the treadmill of .500 seasons and first round playoff losses.

2) The Jermaine O’Neal experiment…..verdict? The Basketball Jones podcast seems to think that J.O. is a hindrance to the Raptor offense. What say you?
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Yes, it was not pretty the last time DC took a visit to Toronto. Game 44 against the Raptors was the worst loss of the season for the Wizards….to date. 122-83 was the final. The Raps were up 10-0 in the game before I knew it; from there, they didn’t look back, aided by a 21-5 2nd quarter run.

In the previous Wizards game (#43) against the Raptors, which happened to be at home in DC the night before the above game, we were treated to this quote by Steve Buckhantz, except much louder: “Noooo!!!! It’s not possible!!!!!”

Why? Well, just watch below:

Hey, at least the Wiz won that one, thus, preventing horrible, horrible nightmares about the Raptors for the rest of my life. This clip expands on the reasoning.

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