Murphy's Law Hits the Wizards

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse. When losses in consecutive nights to the Charlotte Bobcats isn't even your top concern, you've got some real issues. Tonight, in losing to the 'Cats, Wiz star Gilbert Arenas injured his left knee in a collision with Charlotte's Gerald Wallace. He's having an MRI on Thursday to measure the damage, but let's not kid ourselves - you hear knee injury, and you don't think day-to-day.

Not that it's likely to matter at this point as far as Washington's chances in the playoffs go. When Caron Butler was lost, for all intensive purposes, for the season last weekend, the Wizards' season went down with it. Butler may not be the team's best player - it's Arenas - but he is the heart of the team, the glue in the Wizards' triumvirate of Arenas, Butler, and Antawn Jamison that holds it all together.

What's troubling for me is how quickly the season flipped on its head for Washington. At the All-Star break, this team was flying high. There was an MVP candidate in Arenas, an All-Star Game coach in Eddie Jordan, and a division title seemed like a formality. But the Wizards have shown an inability to play consistent ball if they are missing any of their three stars. On a team that doesn't play defense, you need all the offense you can get, and a duo of high-scorers isn't enough to win. Now, a team that once had the best record in the Eastern Conference is barely above .500 at 39-35, and an first-round exit in the playoffs seems more certain with each passing day. In the playoffs, the Wizards are likely to draw either Toronto, who they have had a ton of trouble with this year, or more likely, Miami, which has owned Washington seemingly since time immemorial.

Hopefully Arenas' MRI doesn't turn up disastrous damage, but even if that's not the case, don't expect to see Washington get past the first round for a second consecutive year.

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Where's Gaudet when you need him?

After ten years of winning the regular season or the tournament, the Duke Blue Devils have finally finished a season without an ACC championship. This is also the first time sine 1997 that Duke has not won a single game in the ACC Tournament.

Finishing the season at 8-8 in the conference, losing in the first round of the ACC tournament, and having no real inside or outside threat, it is hard to believe that this team is still ranked 21 in the country according to both major polls.

They've lost 7 of their last 11, and somehow this team is a lock for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. With numbers like that, this team looks destined for the NIT, but with a name like that, they're one of the top teams in the country.

Besides winning the National Championship (highly unlikely) or winning the NIT Championship (even more unlikely), there's only one thing that can salvage this year's season: Steve Wojciechowski manning up and taking the losses on his personal record like Pete Gaudet did in '95. Coach K doesn't need this season on his record, and I'm sure he doesn't want it, no matter what he says ten years from now. Besides, unlike Gaudet, it'll be easy to put the losses on Wojo since he is the only man with a harder last name to spell than Coach K himself.

And speaking of manning up, I think Mike Krzyzewski should do his duty to NBA's to-be MVP, Gilbert Arenas. No, I don't mean put him on the USA team, that would be too decent for the Weasel Coach K. (If you're not going to put Allen Iverson on the team, the only All-Star who was willing, proud, and honored to play in the last Olympics and who expressed clear interest of returning, then you clearly have no soul.) No, no. I mean scheduling that game between the 2007 Blue Devils and the one-man team of Agent Zero. Hey, I bet he'd win that game with one hand.

Glibert Arenas Gets the All-Star Nod

Wizards point guard and mid-season MVP candidate Gilbert Arenas came from behind to pass Vince Carter and eke out a spot as an Eastern Conference All-Star Game starter.

I should be thrilled that we have a legitimate star in town for the first time since the Stone Age. (And no, I don't count Michael Jordan. He was as much a true Washington Wizard as much as I am 7 feet tall. And yes, I realize I just used the phrase "true Washington Wizard." Yuck.) But I can't help but say that I'm a little disappointed he got the starting All-Star spot. Why do you ask?

Well, a little bit because that could have been about the 359th slight, real or perceived, that he would have used as motivation to raise his game to an even higher level.

But mostly, I would have liked to have seen how he would have tried to get back at the people who left him off the starting squad in favor of Carter. What would he have done? Take on 4 Nets fans and a random Raptors fan in a pickup game to make them pay for their sin?

Maybe that could be the first game of a doubleheader. Game 2: Gilbert vs. the 2006-07 Duke Blue Devils. First to 85 points wins.

OK, Maybe the Eastern Conference isn't That Bad

But the Atlantic Division still sucks.

Who would've thunk it? There is a pulse among the collective bodies of Eastern Conference teams. Unlike several weeks ago, when you could count the number of East teams with .500 records on one hand, we now have 7 better than .500 squads, which would make a legitmate playoff grouping.

Actually, the Central Division is the most balanced division in the NBA, with 3 bona fide conference champion contenders in the mix (Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago), along with a couple of solid playoff-caliber teams (Indiana, Milwaukee).

And you've got perhaps the hottest player (borderline pyromaniac based on his Hibachi comments) in the NBA in Gilbert Arenas. Very astute observation on ESPN.com making the comparison that the Wiz are the Eastern Conference's version of the Phoenix Suns - mile-a-minute offense, no defense.



The Western Conference on the whole is still obviously superior to anyone with a pair of eyes, but the East has suprised us before (see Detroit's upset of the Lakers in the 2004 Finals), maybe it could happen again.

Arenas Goes Wild in Hideous Uniform

In case you missed it, Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas went for 60 in an overtime victory against the Lakers last night, a franchise record. That's the good news. The bad news is that the performance was marred by the atrocious uniform he had to do it in:

Oh man, that's like looking at the sun - if you stare at it for more than a few seconds, you might go blind.