» NBA Basketball » Wizards Can't Find Their Offense, All Star Break Might Be The Cure as Wizards Drop Worst Game of the Season to Trailblazers, 94-73
Wizards Can't Find Their Offense, All Star Break Might Be The Cure as Wizards Drop Worst Game of the Season to Trailblazers, 94-73
Story by: Erin zollars
Posted February 11, 2007
Photos by: Sol tucker
Washington, DC--
Seems that Gilbert Arenas might want to stop making promises about scoring a certain amount of points, because tonight his promise of scoring 50 points left fans booing him and the Wizards off the court scoring just 9 points.
It's easy to lose focus when you're just drilling us that if we make a mistake we're going to be coming out," said Arenas, who missed all eight of his three-point attempts while being outplayed by Portland point guard Jarrett Jack. "Truthfully, that's how you lose concentration. You lose focus because you're scared to actually play basketball. His standpoint is that since we lost Antawn, we have to pick it up somewhere else and that's defense."
The loss today just adds to the drama the Wizards have endured over the past week, when Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood had their incident in practice and now their fourth loss in five games without Antawn Jamison. Arenas blames the woes on the way Eddie Jordan has been coaching the team.
"When you tell a team: 'Hey, we don't have Antawn anymore. We can't outscore people. You've proven that we can't outscore people anymore. We have to go out there and stop people,' for a scoring team, it kind of takes that air out of you," Arenas said of what the Wizards have been hearing lately from coach Eddie Jordan. "We're who we are. We're a high-scoring team. We're a running team. That's what we do. We're a high-scoring caliber team."
Arenas had trouble with Trailblazers starting guard Jarett Jack, who along with fellow starter LaMarcus Aldridge scored 18 points each. Jack seemed to take offense to the comments by Arenas, as he made a direct comment on the 50 point effort Arenas felt like he was going to have this afternoon against one of the NBA's woes in Portland.
"Thats like a dude saying he's going to punch you in your face," said Jarrett Jack, who guarded Arenas for most of the game. "With a guy like him, Kobe or LeBron, the easy way to guard him is don't let him get the ball back when he passes it. We did a good job of trying to deny him when he was one pass away, and my big guys did a great job of helping me whenever he got by me."
Portland reserve guard Juan Dixon had 14 points on 7-for-11 shooting with four steals and three assists in 27 minutes for Portland, which has won two straight and has equaled thier win total from all of last season.
Jarrett Jack Took Arenas' Comments
Personal Today and Helped the Wizards to One of their Most Embarassing Games all Season Long