 |
 |
|
| 29-30 | 39-23 | |
| Verizon Center | ||
| 7:00 PM | ||
| Sun Sports | ||
| Probable starters: | ||
| Antonio Daniels | PG | Jameer Nelson |
| D. Stevenson | SG | Maurice Evans |
| Darius Songaila | SF | Hedo Turkoglu |
| Antawn Jamison | PF | Rashard Lewis |
| B. Haywood | C | Dwight Howard |
| Season series: | ||
| 3 Nov 2007: Magic 94, Wizards 82 | ||
The Wizards seem to have recovered from an awful early-February stretch. After losing their first seven games last month, the Wiz have won five of their past eight, including two over the formidable New Orleans Hornets. It gets better for them, though: the team's medical staff cleared Gilbert Arenas for practice yesterday, although there's still no word as to when he'll return. Caron Butler is still out with a hip injury, but I doubt he'll miss too much time.
The point is the Wizards are better than their record indicates, and we can't take them lightly. Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood are each having their finest professional seasons, and former Magic guard DeShawn Stevenson has come up big lately as well, hitting a game-winning triple in one game against the Hornets last week (HT: Odenized). Reserve forward Andray Blatche, a seven-footer, presents matchup problems for us as well.
That said, our frontcourt of Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, and Dwight Howard has been nigh-unstoppable lately, and the Wizards are a poor defensive team; they rank 22nd in defensive efficiency and 23rd in effective field goal percentage defense. If we come out focused enough, we may be able to drop 110 on them, even though they prefer to play at a slow pace.
Check out Bullets Forever for your Wizards fix. UPDATE: Here's their game thread. Tipoff's at 7:00. Go Magic.