John Wall on the Wizards: ‘It Could Get Ugly This Whole Season’

The Washington Wizards missed 12 straight shots to start the game against Orlando last night, leading to a loss that punctuated the worst start in franchise history, and everyone on the team is sad (including the owner, who blogged about the ongoing debacle.) From the WaPo: “If there was any wonder why the Wizards entered the game ranking last in the NBA in scoring and offensive efficiency, the first five minutes was an classic example of how poorly they have looked on that end of the floor all season. The shot selection was suspect, the ball movement was non-existent, except for some questionable passes. ‘It’s like everybody blanks out,’ John Wall said after the Wizards lost, 103-85, at Amway Center and set a new franchise record by opening the season with six losses. ‘Everybody going for their own. And we don’t have anybody on our team that can just go get his own bucket whenever. You see everybody being selfish on the offensive end and on the defensive end, we’re not trusting each other … If we don’t find a way to play together and win games, it could get ugly this whole season.’ […] ‘You can’t even judge where we’re at,’ Coach Flip Saunders said. ‘We’re getting off to such bad starts. You’re 0-12 to start the game, it sucks the energy out of you. You fall behind so much, you can’t see where you’re at. What happens is, when things go bad, everyone thinks they are going to do it themselves.’ The energy level of the Wizards appeared to get deducted with each miss, as players lowered their heads and wanted to just fast-forward to the conclusion. The body language on the floor was beyond terrible. ‘Nobody came to compete. To me, we didn’t even come out playing hard,’ [Rashard] Lewis said in his embarrassing return to Orlando. ‘I know that Orlando Magic team. And to me, they played pretty well, but they didn’t play nearly as hard as they should have. The game was easy for them tonight. We went through the motions and nobody competed.’ The Wizards shot a season-low 36.6 percent, taking their field goal percentage down to 39.2 percent for the season. The New Jersey Nets are the only other team in the league is shooting below 40 percent. ‘Right now, we playing as individuals and we got to change it ASAP,’ Jordan Crawford said.”