Eddie Jordan's got his bunch in an offensive spell

Opponent File
Washington Wizards
The Sonics play at the MCI Center in Washington, DC. Their 2004 - 2005 record was 45 - 37 (second in the South East). Here's the Washington Wizards roster.

Local Papers:
Washington Post | Wizards
Team Pages:
CNNSI.com | Wizards
ESPN.com | Wizards
FoxSports | Wizards
NBA.com | Wizards
Sportsline.com | Wizards

Head Coach: Eddie Jordan.
2005 Draft: F Andrae Blatche (#48), South Kent Prep Conn.
New Players: G Antonio Daniels (Free Agent); F Caron Butler (Trade with Lakers); G Chucky Atkins (Trade with Lakers); C Calvin Booth (Free Agent).
Season Goal: Follow the latest bright NBA star (Arenas) into the middle rounds of the playoffs, and hopefully beyond.
Record vs. Nets: 0 - 0

Other Opponent Files

Washington Wizards (5 - 3) - Saturday, November 19, 2005, 7:30PM EST - Continental Airlines Arena
Casting Spells
Year two of the Jordan (that's in Eddie, not Michael) regime is off to a fine start, with the Wizards clicking on all offensive cylinders thanks to hot play by G Gilbert Arenas. The Wiz are averaging over 100 points per contest, riding Arenas and fellow scorers F Antawn Jamison, G Caron Butler and C Brendan Haywood. The four are combining to average 75 points per game, as Arenas himself is 4th in the league in scoring (behind AI, Kobe, and LeBron) at 27.8 ppg.

That's the good news. The bad news? Well, the team has lost 2 straight games behind superhuman performances by LeBron and KG, so they're likely to be magical against the still defensively-challenged Nets. And the Nets want to get a win before heading out to the Left Coast on Sunday for a 5 game trip. Can the Nets find some new found defensive powers to freeze out the Wiz? Or will the Wiz levitate to another high-scoring win?
- Joe

Washington Wizards Cheat Sheet
The Story From Washington:
We not huge fans of throwing dirt around, but do you think the Wizards are glad to be rid of F/C Kwame Brown, who was traded to LA for Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins? Here's Brown's take on the whole incident in the playoffs last season in which Brown was pulled from the game by coach Eddie Jordan under what he says was Arenas' direction: "The thing is, the whole thing stems from Gilbert telling them not to put me in the game. I didn't come to practice because I was going to be a distraction. I was going to slap the [expletive] out of him," Brown said. "I'll admit it, what I did was wrong -- not showing up was wrong -- but I ain't saying what I would've done if I showed up would've been right. Being that I didn't show up I didn't put my hands on nobody. How a teammate, a supposed friend, would go to a coach and tell him don't put me in a game, I would've done something seriously wrong to him."

Arenas' retort: "That's the coach's decision. I'm not the coach. I'm not the GM," Arenas said. "If he feels I have that much pull that I could pull him in and out of the game, then I guess he would blame me. If that's his excuse for missing practices -- to blame me -- then I'm strong enough to take the responsibility. But I never told Coach to put him out the game."

Pain Game: F Antawn Jamison (ankle) should play tonight.

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