Wizards Lose Preseason Opener And Possibly Much More
At the end of training camp, Washington Wizards head coach Eddie Jordan said that his primary goal was to keep to his team healthy through the preseason so they would be at full force when the season started with the exception of Gilbert Arenas. Just four minutes into their 108-82 preseason loss to to the Dallas Mavericks that goal was already in jeopardy.
Midway through the the first quarter, two-time All-Star forward Antawn Jamison injured his knee and had to be helped off the floor. The initial diagnosis was that his knee was sprained, and after the game the Wizards’ team spokesman announced that had changed that to a strain. More details about Jamison’s knee will be given in the coming days.
Coming into the preseason opener against the Mavericks, the Wizards were already dealing with the possibility of losing Brendan Haywood for a significant amount of time. Haywood did not make the trip to Dallas with the team, so that he could seek a second opinion on the wrist he injured during training camp last week. Haywood told Comcast SportsNet in Washington DC, that surgery is definitely an option, and if it comes to that, he could miss 4 to 6 months.
Guards Nick Young and Juan Dixon made the trip to Dallas, but sat out because of injuries. Young sat out with a sore knee, and Dixon rested his sore calf. Arenas, who continues to rehab his knee, also made the trip and was on the bench.
On the court, the Wizards started strong, despite Jamison’s injury and jumped out to a 28-27 first quarter lead. They were then outscored during the second quarter, 28-12, and they were never able to close the gap from there. The Wizards were led by Andray Blatche who scored 18 points and grabbed 5 rebounds and Oleksiy Pecherov who had 12 points and 7 rebounds. The Mavericks were led by Dirk Nowitzki and Brandon Bass who both scored 17 points.
The Wizards next preseason game is on Wednesday night in Memphis, where they will face the Grizzlies.
This article was written by:
Rashad Mobley - who has written 69 posts on Hoops Addict.
Rashad Mobley graduated with a B.S. in English Education, from Hampton University in Hampton, VA in 1996. He is a government consultant for the Department of Justice in Washington D.C., where he currently resides. Rashad is will be covering the Washington Wizards for HoopsAddict.com during the upcoming NBA season.
Comments
By D.L. Chandler on October 8th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Excellent work! I’ll be subscribing to the feed.
By frank jones on October 8th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
get rid of the trainer,and coach nick young have played 8 years of basketball and have never been hurt those coaches want to change nick into a pet bull when clearly young is a couger he is smooth he dont play out of control like other player do, leave young alone