Nobody will be happier to find the preseason end compared to the Washington Wizards; if it had gone on any longer, they would have run out of healthy bodies entirely.
Together with Martell Webster already on the shelf after his third back surgery in four seasons, the harms just kept coming.
Bradley Beal fractured his wrist, Glen Rice Jr. wrapped his ankle, Kris Humphries ripped open his arm on the rim (since when are those things sharp?) , requiring surgery to fix the gash. John Wall was restricted with knee tendinitis.
The Wizards’ oldest participant was able to live the exhibition record unscathed. Paul Pierce, place to start at small forward for the Wiz, provided some veteran perspective on the parade to the coach’s table, per Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post:”It has been tough. It’s been hard. We have not had a full squad the majority of the preseason. The key is understanding it is a long season. The crucial thing is to get healthy.”
If the collective swelling recedes and the stitches hold, Washington can still make good on the lofty expectations it set last season. Forty-four wins got people believing in D.C., and now the Wizards confront a world in which anything less than a top-four seed will constitute a disappointment.
Demands like that are as refreshing as they are daunting, especially for a company with little success in its recent past. At 33-1, the Wiz are not totally out of the tournament film, but they’re still a notch beneath the East’s elite.
Garry