Playing in Toronto is an easy reminder of how things were going in the playoffs last year. The Washington Wizards went to Canada and started a first-round sweep of the Toronto Raptors with two wins in front of manic Air Canada Center crowds. The Wizards had proven to be pliable, shelving their power-ball approach in favor 3-pointers and space.
Wednesday night’s visit to the New York of the North stirred more immediate recollections. The Wizards, a wobbling 14-15, put forth the evening as a microcosm of what began as a hopeful season. Against the Raptors, they played well, poor and in between. An expansive slate of injuries again left them short-handed. Yet, there was still so much opportunity even after a slow start.
“We can’t [start slow],” Wizards coach Randy Wittman told reporters. “That’s not who our identity is. Our identity when we play like that, we’re crap. We’re not a very good team. That’s been proven. That’s not maybe. ’Til we get to that for consistent play throughout the game, you’re going to have the ups and downs.”
That is all the Wizards can seem to find this season. A four-game winning streak was smacked by the recent back-to-back losses. The Los Angeles Clippers hammered the Wizards at Verizon Center on Monday before the Raptors held on Wednesday night.
Looking ahead, the news, much like the Wizards’ results, is good and bad. Thoroughly banged-up, the Wizards are in 11th place in the Eastern Conference, yet they are only five games out of second place and four away from being a top-five team. The coming schedule will provide them a chance to make a leap.
A vital run began Wednesday in Toronto. The loss to the Raptors started a stretch of seven consecutive games for Washington against Eastern Conference opponents who were ahead of the Wizards in the standings.
On Friday, the surprising Orlando Magic visit Washington. At 19-13, Orlando is using a young guard combination of its own — Elfrid Payton and Evan Fournier — to bolster the scoring of power forward Nikola Vucevic. Five players score in double figures for Orlando, a model the Wizards want to emulate.
Two days later, the Wizards will host the Miami Heat. The Heat is 18-13, good for seventh place in the squeezed Eastern Conference standings. Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are having throwback seasons.
The first visit from LeBron James and the Eastern Conference favorites, the Cleveland Cavaliers, is on Jan. 6. The Wizards remain the only team to win in Cleveland this season, a victory that bolsters their roller-coaster credentials. On Jan. 8, the Wizards will host Toronto, and trips to Orlando and the Chicago Bulls follow.
Wittman loathes talking about the future schedule. Before the recent four-game winning streak began, he batted away a question about the importance of the coming three games at home, and the beneficial fact that the Wizards would be playing eight of the next 10, at the time, at Verizon Center. He claimed not to know that was how the schedule presented itself.
What he does know, is that his team does not have the margin provided by excessive talent. It can’t play poor early in a game, then be fueled by desperation later in it. It can’t be a varied effort.
“We need everybody,” Wittman said.
Because of injuries and issues, they have not had that yet.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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