CHICAGO — Wizards owner Abe Pollin sat behind the Washington bench at United Center beaming with pride, happy to be in attendance last night at his team’s first playoff game in eight seasons.
Did the league’s senior owner ever think he would be back in this position?
“I think it’s fantastic, it’s very exciting and I’m very proud of my team,” said Pollin, who sat with a contingent from Washington Sports & Entertainment. “We’ve got some guys who are struggling a little bit but I’m sure they are going to come around. As for us getting back here, they call me the nutty optimist and I’ve always known we’d get back to the playoffs and here I am.”
After the 103-94 loss, the Wizards opted to fly home last night rather than stay in Chicago. The Wizards will practice today and tomorrow at MCI Center. Game2 is Wednesday night in Chicago.
Some of the players voiced disappointment over flying home, getting in after midnight and then practicing. However, coach Eddie Jordan said he believed he was making the right decision.
“Just too many days between games,” Jordan said. “If we played on Tuesday we’d stay. I did my homework and the result was to fly back.”
Good to be home
Just how important would it have been for the Wizards to have usurped the homecourt advantage from the Bulls last night?
Very.
The Bulls’ franchise has won all 28 series in which it has had homecourt advantage. Of course, there is nobody on this roster named Michael Jordan. Most of those higher seedings were achieved with No.23 wearing the Bulls’ red and black.
Ever-shrinking bench
Eddie Jordan is not going to spend much time worrying about anybody bellyaching over playing time during this series. He said that in all likelihood he’s going to go with a short bench.
“I’m going to play the guys that will step up and show their talent level and guys who I can trust in this sort of atmosphere,” he said.
Wizards short-handed, too
Eddie Jordan already has grown weary of all the talk here about the injuries to Bulls starters Luol Deng and Eddy Curry. In the post-game press conference, a reporter asked Jordan about the Wizards’ Jarvis Hayes, who hasn’t played in more than a month because of a fractured kneecap.
“I keep hearing about Eddy Curry and Luol Deng. I never heard about Jarvis Hayes being hurt,” said Jordan, obviously annoyed. “He was a starter for us. He was averaging 10 points a game, a pretty good player. We’re missing Jarvis Hayes so let everybody know that.”
Taking a stand
The Wizards’ reserves spent a good portion of the fourth quarter on their feet, prompting some seated in the expensive seats to holler, “Sit down!”
Mutombo imitation
During a Bulls rally early in the fourth quarter, 7-foot-1 reserve Tyson Chandler blocked a layup attempt by Kwame Brown and then shook his finger in the same manner that Dikembe Mutombo does when he rejects a shot.
Kryptonite in the house
Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, mostly courteous while being grilled about his shooting woes, did try to deflect some of the attention away from himself.
“We missed shots and that’s what happens. I was watching the SuperSonics game the other night and [Mike] Bibby struggled. You can’t be Superman every night,” said Arenas, referring to the Sacramento guard going 1-for-16 in the Kings’ 87-82 loss to Seattle in Game1 of their series.
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