Washington has no answers again in Detroit... at least none that would appear to add up to any instant solutions.

Michael Jordan vents his many frustrations to referee Ron Garretson.


by Fred Schiebel, Head Writer

ATLANTA - It was another horrendous scene that has become all too familiar. Once more the Wizards ended up being embarrassed and humiliated for the fourth game in a row, losing 98-76 in front of a Detroit crowd and national television audience that was there to see something special.

It was, in a sense.  No team bathed in this much limelight has ever had to deal with it while struggling in this kind of epic proportion. A pessimist might say this could very well be the most losingest team ever by season's end, a car crash only made sickeningly watchable because of their famous driver.

In the midst of the bloodbath however, there were signs that this pattern will not last all year.

Michael Jordan looked his best yet, if only for a half.  He finished with only 16 points, 12 of those coming before the break. Turnovers were not an issue for him  at all, finally. He only committed one, and that lone mistake occurred in garbage time. He also had four steals and two blocks, looking like much more of like his defensive presence of old. In some respects.

He opened the game hitting his first shot, a fifteen foot baseline jumper, then not much later grabbed an offensive rebound for another two points. MJ: 2-2. Rest of Wizards: 0-6.

Dismaying everyone even more, Richard Hamilton once again appeared to not have brought his eyeballs onto the court. He missed all three of his shots in the opening period. Backup Courtney Alexander was not much better, going 1 for 4. Tyronn Lue, who got the start for Chris Whitney, replaced old inepitude with fresh ineptitude, going 1 for 6.

There was still some early electricity. Jordan broke free down the lane for a pass and dunked the ball, (his first official jam since his return) to the delight of the Piston fans, getting fouled on the way up. The play seemed to ignite Washington, and from  there they cut the Piston growing lead down to 15-14. With the game actually close for once,  Collins then took out Jordan for an early rest.

Final score for the period: Pistons 24, Wizards 16.

Seeing the slippage, Jordan checked in at the start of the second, hitting a fadeaway then a jumper on the wings. He even blocked his younger, much more athletic matchup's (Corliss Williamson) shot, although Williamson was then able to pick up the ball after the swat and easily lay it in.

The Wizards display of their potential continued to grow from  there. As they battled a dogged Detroit defense to whittle the lead down to three, Tyronn Lue checked back in. Confidence unscathed, he hit a three pointer, then drove the lane to get to the line, then hit another jumper, scoring seven straight points.

The score at the half, 44-43. And the Wizards were.... winning?

Lue did not cool off at halftime. He returned blazing, scoring six straight points for Washington as Jordan missed his first two jumpers. But with only only one Wizard making shots, the Pistons retook the lead by four. Michael Curry then hit a corner three as Jordan pressured too hard for the steal, increasing the deficit to seven, 57-50. The lead soon doubled, and Washington had to scrap to be only ten down by the quarter's end. Lue had 15 points in the third alone. Jordan did not score, only attempting three shots of his own, looking fatigued, like a 38 year old on the second game of his first back-to-back in almost four years probably should.

From  there it was the same ol' ending. The Pistons rebuilt the lead up to 14, upping it to 16, 18, 21. With three and a half minutes to go a Jon Barry three killed all leftover specks of hope, and Washington checked all its starters out, save Lue, who finished with a career high 27 points.

Corliss Williamson collected 19 points and 12 rebounds in only 22 minutes of play. Despite Jordan's off-night, Piston star guard Jerry Stackhouse did not end up outplaying him..  Stackhouse finished with 17 points, hitting only eight of 23 of his field goal attempts.

The Wizards that have been lost continued to be. Former starting point guard Chris Whitney (replaced by Lue before the game) did not fare any better coming off the pine, against missing all seven of his shots. Backup Courtney Alexander went 2 of 11 from the field, combining with fellow shooting guard Richard Hamilton for a outlandishly grotesque 4 of 23 mark.

"I don't know what it is," Hamilton said. "It's not like I want to miss. All I can do is keep putting it up."

Head coach Doug Collins emerged for the press conference with his hair wet, as if he had taken off his suit and jumped in the showers with his team. Despite struggling to find the words as much as his team  struggled to find shots, he found some answers that made some sense.

"This team  has a lot of new pieces, a new system... add onto that so many of our players are very young, I guess with that combination it would almost be reasonable to expect things to not go so great right away. Sometimes transitions take awhile, even for veteran squads."

He went on to defend what many called Jordan's lackluster game:

"Michael's not been able to get the proper amount of rest, for a player of any age. He stays in first and third quarters longer than he should because the score starts getting out of hand, and he's been coming back earlier in the fourth as well to make a final run before it all slips away. Those extra minutes take a toll."

Jordan, although still dour, appeared to be in a better frame of mind after the latest big loss. "Obviously I don't go into games expecting to lose, but in a sense this isn't as detrimental because I thought Detroit would be better than they were last year, and they're 3-1. This wasn't like losing to the teams we've been losing to.

"That being said, no team  is going to perform  like this for very long without there being consequences."

A chill ran through the locker room as as he said this.  His words made every bit of sense, but tone is everything.  Or perhaps it was purely knowing who was speaking them.

If it's pressure that's keeping the young Wizards from being all that they can be, beware.  It just got racheted up.