Another dismal loss

Not much can be said about this loss. The Wizards committed more turnovers (18) than assists (16), they pulled down only seven offensive rebounds. Meanwhile, the Hawks had 20 offensive rebounds and 28 assists. Lost in the wreckage was a solid performance by JaVale McGee, who tied career highs with 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Javaris Crittenton, who in addition to scoring seven points, tied a career high with seven assists. Antawn Jamison again expressed frustration with many of the young players on the team for their failure to "play smart basketball." But he did praise the improvement's McGee is showing. "I'm starting to like his energy, I'm starting to like what he's doing out there on both ends of the floor, because that's what we need," Jamison said. "I told him tonight, 'I need you to rebound for me' and he stepped up and did an excellent job. Now, we just need to find a way to get him to stop the pick-and-roll action and if we can do that, he can continue to help us the rest of this season and then add some growth to it. But I definitely like the way he's beign active, attacking the rim, not giving up, changing shots in the paint. He's going to be alright. He's long, he effects the paint and once he realizes how much he can effect the paint, he's going to be even better." In other Wizards news, Gilbert Arenas, DeShawn Stevenson, Andray Blatche and Etan Thomas were not with the team tonight. Earlier today, however, I came across an interesting nugget -- and one that could provide some hope and encouragement for Wizards fans. According to an insider with legit knowledge of the situation, regardless of whatever mixed messages Arenas is sending about whether or not he's coming back, and despite the "no official time table" line that's given whenever a question is asked about Arenas and Haywood's returns, the Wizards expect to get both players back for roughly the final 15 games of the season. The plan is to limit both players to roughly 15 minutes a night and hold them out of any back-to-backs. The Wizards believe that such a final stretch run with the whole gang back together again will go a long way to getting the players back into a flow of playing with each other and also lay a foundation for next season. So, hang in there Wizards faithful.