Eddie Jordan has made this point before, at times using different words, but following yet another loss full of mistakes by the Washington Wizards, their coach made his point very deliberately.
“We just aren’t g-o-o-d enough,” he said, spelling out the key word. “We are just not talented enough to win the game.”
And who could argue? Certainly no one among the 16,483 who watched the Wizards blow a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to the shorthanded New Jersey Nets last night and ultimately fall in overtime 103-99.
After all, the fans paid good money to see most of the Wizards stand around and watch Larry Hughes and Gilbert Arenas chuck up shots (combined they were 15-for-47 from the field) and scored 49 of the Wizards’ points.
That type of forced shooting resulted in the Wizards (23-52) having one assist in the second half and two in overtime.
“That’s it — we just aren’t good enough,” Jordan said.
What they most certainly are is a team that has fallen to 1-20 in the Atlantic Division, where only the Nets (43-31) are better than .500
Facing a New Jersey team that didn’t have guard Jason Kidd and lost fellow All-Star Kenyon Martin in the second quarter with a knee injury, the Wizards appeared on the verge of overcoming their horrible shooting (34 percent) and gaining an impressive if meaningless victory.
But Washington didn’t score a field goal in the final 4:05 of regulation. Add the two minutes that expired in overtime before Etan Thomas’ dunk, and that’s more than six minutes of offensive futility. Meanwhile, New Jersey, led by Richard Jefferson’s 28 points and 14 rebounds, took the lead for good 97-95 on his 20-footer.
New Jersey was able to rally despite 24 turnovers. However, when it mattered most — in the fourth quarter and overtime — the Nets turned the ball over only three times. Contrast that with the 14 the Wizards kicked away.
“We just didn’t make smart plays at the end of the game,” Arenas said. “They made shots, and we didn’t make our open shots.”
Told of Jordan’s assessment, Arenas, who saw the Wizards as a playoff team when he arrived, was optimistic.
“Guys are fighting,” Arenas said. “Guys are still young. When they get more experience …”
Lucious Harris added 24 points and seven assists for the Nets, who are likely to win the Atlantic Division and be the second seed in the Eastern Conference when the playoffs begin later this month.
With Kwame Brown sidelined by a sprained ankle, the Wizards thought they might get a firsthand look — for just the fourth time this season — at a lineup with Jerry Stackhouse, Hughes and Arenas. Of course, anyone who got to MCI a little late missed it. That’s because Stackhouse picked up two technical fouls with just more than three minutes left in the first quarter and was ejected.
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