It seems like a pretty consistent trend in every sport that a team comes out of nowhere to stun the world.
This year the New York Giants did it in football, while Davidson surprised us all by making the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tourney. Even last year saw the Golden State Warriors shock the basketball world by knocking out the top seeded Mavericks in the most thrilling upset in recent NBA memory.
This season's NBA playoffs will be no different.
With all the talk about the East revolving around the Celtics and the Pistons, one team is finally getting healthy while closing in on home court advantage at the same time. That team is the Washington Wizards.
Now, quite frankly, this team deserves a whole lot of credit. Despite missing All-Star Gilbert Arenas for 67 games this year and fellow All-Star Caron Butler for 19, the Wizards never fell off.
In fact, they did the opposite. They kept winning, despite injuries to two very key players.
Now things are finally beginning to turn around for the Wizards. They are getting healthy, and that could really shake things up in the East.
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While everyone is going to focus on the return of Gilbert Arenas as the key to this team making a deep playoff run, they could very well overlook a huge factor.
I am not going to deny that Arenas will make a difference. His presence alone will change the way teams play the Wizards. Teams will have to give him his due attention. Otherwise, he will torch them.
However, they have to make sure not to sag off Butler or Antawn Jamison either, because each of them has the capability to have a big night as well.
The biggest difference maker for this team, though, will not be any of its stars. No, the biggest difference here will be the role players.
While some critics and analysts may say that the Arenas injury hurt this team, I have to disagree. The injury, if anything, was a blessing in disguise.
It gave players opportunities that they might not have gotten had this team been healthy all year.
If you sit and look at it, can you honestly say to yourself that Roger Mason, Jr. or Deshawn Stevenson would have gotten the same opportunities if Arenas had been healthy all year and if Butler didn't get hurt on a few occasions?
Would Andray Blatche or Brendan Haywood have a career year if everyone were healthy?
The one thing that the injuries did for this team? They gave everyone else confidence. It gave players that might not get that many opportunities more playing time, and in turn, they produced.
The injuries have also helped head coach Eddie Jordan. He now knows that come crunch time, he can depend on Mason, Jr. or Stevenson or Nick Young to come in and make plays.
He does not have to worry as much if Butler or Arenas get in early foul trouble because he knows that the guys he has on his bench can come and make plays and keep momentum rolling.
And that is why these Wizards will be a team that no one will want to face come playoff time. Not only are they finally getting healthy, but they are a team playing with confidence.
They have persevered through injuries to their two best players, while staying afloat in the playoff race. And now it is paying off.
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5 months ago
absolutely right. great article...slam, jam that's the reason I'm a bullets (oops wizards) fan.
5 months ago
Great article, I agree that the Wizards could make some noise during the playoffs. I'm praying to God that Orlando won't have to play them.
5 months ago
same opinion here! haywood is a good player, but i think if the wizards had another center the story would be different, we were seeing the team second or third in east. thats the weak piont of them
5 months ago
IM GOING TO JUST COME OUT AND SAY IT , WIZARDS 2007-2008 NBA CHAMPS !!!!!! WHAT ARE WE PLAYING FOR ?
5 months ago
Boo. Wizards don't make the 2nd round.
from 5 months ago
I'm not saying that they make the 2nd round or anything, I'm simply saying that they have the potential to make some noise. They've been solid all year and haven't even been healthy. Now that they're getting healthy, I really think they could very easily beat the Cavs in the first round and possibly give the Magic a headache.
5 months ago
There usually is a surprise upset in the playoffs but I don't know if the Wizards are physical enough down low to pull out one of those upsets. Haywood is okay but he isn't a difference maker, and he'll need to be against Howard and Ilgauskas if Washington wants to pull of an upset.
5 months ago
Thank You so much for a great article like....I just have to say that I actually think Eddie Jordan doesn't need to get any credit...I think any time you have get a coach to come and teach defense to a team you cannot give the coach any credit ....Edy Jordan should have been the one to get on the team to play defense instead of hiring another coach to do it ...This is not Football where you neeed a defensive coordinator....Iam not really happy about Coach Edy Jordan I dont think he is tough enogh on this people look at Byron Scott look where he took New Orleans to and before that New Jersey Nets it wasnt because he went and got a defensive coach NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! He did it himself with hard work and no "I want to be your friend coach......None of that...and I think Edy Jordan is just very lucky that the players he got on the bench are very good and when Arenas and Caron got hurt the other players were able to get time to play period
5 months ago
I really think the Wizards can go pretty far or "all the way" as we often times call it. I am a HUGE Wizards fan! No one is expecting what I am thinking will happen. We might just go the extra mile and make it "all the way". "Expect the unexpected." as Caron said about Gil. That just might be our quote of the season. GO WIZ!
5 months ago
I agree with every one here. The Wizards will shock a lot of people. Gil will use all of the slights that he has heard since his injury and use it as motivation. Gil is definitely the difference maker. Especially in the first round. He will either match or outscore Lebron's points, but the Cavs do not have anyone to match the output of Antawn and Butler. Gil and Lebron will negate eachothers points, but the scoring capabilities of the remaining big three will put the Wizards on top. GO WIZ!!!!!
4 months ago
I think the Wizards can definitely handle the Cavs. The Cavs have been struggling as of late and could possible even lose home court advantage through the first round to the Wizards. So I would give that match-up to the Wizards in 5 or 6 games. As far as the Pistons and Celtics and how the Wizards match-up with them, the Wizards have had impressive wins against the Pistons and is the only team to beat the Celtics 3 times. I think as the Wizards continue to get healthy, they will present match-up problems for both these teams. Eddy Jordan has already stated that he would like to have Arenas come off the bench as the 6th man. So if you think about it Arenas would be playing against the 2nd stringers of the opposing team, which is a big advantage for the Wizards. We all just have to wait and see just how much noise the Wizards can make on this playoff run. Hopefully they can make a deep run and shock everybody!
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