INDIANAPOLIS — While Washington’s defense couldn’t be any worse if coach Eddie Jordan threw out a lineup that included Peter John Ramos, Andray Blatche and Awvee Storey, the Wizards maintain the offense has been the cause.
“We can’t let the way we play offensively dictate how we play at the defensive end, but that’s what we’re doing,” said Antawn Jamison, the last player dressed in a desolate Conseco Fieldhouse locker room after the Wizards absorbed their latest — and worst — beating of the season Thursday night, a 111-87 defeat by the Indiana Pacers.
The Wizards (8-9) blew a 16-point lead against the struggling Pacers, who were down two starters. The loss sent Washington to its eighth loss in 11 games heading into tonight’s home game against the Chicago Bulls.
Despite notching his 11th double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds, Jamison was not happy as he talked longingly of the early part of the season, when the Wizards looked like a much-improved defensive club.
“In the first few games of the season when the offense wasn’t there, we went to our defense, and that is how we won games,” he said of the team’s 5-1 start. “Tonight it wasn’t going the way we wanted it to go offensively, and what did we do? We didn’t defend. We stopped talking, stopped communicating. We stopped everything.”
The Wizards believe they are a better team than they have shown in recent games, and with wins over Detroit and San Antonio, it’s easy to believe them.
But then there are the recent spate of games the Wizards might look back on at the end of the season and wonder, “What if?”
“We don’t want to look back on this stretch and be able to pick out games we should have won that kept us out of the playoffs,” Jamison said about the team’s inconsistency.
For instance, Bernie Bickerstaff and his coaching staff are doing a good job at pointing the Charlotte Bobcats in the right direction, but an aspiring playoff team probably shouldn’t follow a double-overtime win over Detroit on Nov. 25 with an 18-point loss the next day against the Bobcats.
Then, on Dec. 2, the Milwaukee Bucks came into MCI Center without the NBA’s most improved player last season, Bobby Simmons. Instead of taking advantage of that absence, the Wizards let reserve Maurice Williams — a player so humble he thanked Washington reporters for coming by his locker stall afterward — score a career-high 35 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer.
And even though the Pacers are better than both the Bobcats and the Bucks, they have underachieved this season. Thursday night, the Pacers were without forward Ron Artest and starting point guard Jamaal Tinsley.
Still, Indiana had no problem with Washington.
After the Wizards gained a 16-point lead and got Jermaine O’Neal into foul trouble, the Pacers adjusted by playing O’Neal in the high post midway though the second quarter, starting the Wizards’ downfall.
Much of that collapse — which saw the Wizards go from leading by 16 in the second to trailing by 29 late in the fourth — was because O’Neal played like the All-Star he is on a 25-point, 10-rebound night.
Stephen Jackson scored a season-high 30 points for the Pacers. Plus, former Maryland guard Sarunas Jasikevicius, making just his fourth start, impersonated Jason Kidd with 12 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and no turnovers. And reserve guard Fred Jones was 7-for-7 from the field with 17 points and five assists.
A continuation of games like that could hurt, especially since the Wizards have a trip out west looming at the end of next week, and they have important upcoming games with the Bulls, Miami and New Jersey.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.