‘Wizards’
courtesy of ‘erin m’
Lead Item: At 16-50, the Wizards sit in 14th place in the Eastern conference, two full games off the pace of the 13th slotted Toronto Raptors. They’ve lost nine of ten, five in a row and were shellacked in the last week by the Clippers, the Western Conference cellar dwellers and perennial losers. The Clippers have been a punchline of not just basketball franchises, but pretty much universally across all the major sports. I’m pretty sure MLS teams used to mock them. Yet, as Bryan Harvey at The Faster Times noted, the intersection in the last week between the Clippers and Wizards is notable for the direction the teams are headed:
“The difference being that the Clippers at least have a direction in which they are heading–Blake Griffin gives them that–while the Wizards, with the exception of John Wall, appear fully content being adrift in the NBA cosmos; atoms and molecules that don’t amount to anything–they are what they are. And they seem fine with that.”
The Wizards need to win 10 of their remaining 16 to match last year’s horrendous record, and if it wasn’t for the implosion that is the Cleveland Cavaliers, they would be looking up at absolutely everybody in the Association.
Nowhere to go but up, Mr. Leonsis.
The rest of the Ticker…after the jump.
‘United vs Revolution 12’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’
The Sports Ticker: DC United season gets going on Saturday evening against the Columbus Crew, and while the Charlie Davies storyline is probably going to be the most prominent this year, the team also is looking to rebound on that disappointing 2010 campaign. Look for a full preview from the We Love DC sports team tomorrow…the Caps are still going streaking, putting up their ninth straight win in the first of a six-game road trip that began last night in Montreal; they are only one point off of the Eastern Conference leading Flyers, but the Caps have played two more games. Think that match-up in Philly next Tuesday is going to be a little hot?…If you missed Tom’s coverage from Spring Training, go back and flip through some sights and sounds from last week at Space Coast stadium here, here, here and here…I love the Washington Post’s cover for March Madness, read more about the inspiration on the Post’s sweet new Tumblr, @Innovations.
Final Number: 0 – The number of times that a 16-seed has beaten a 1-seed in the round of 64 in the NCAA tournament. Pittsburgh, one of this year’s top seeds, will face the Bulldogs of UNC-Asheville at one of the games held at Verizon Center this weekend. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the futility of the 16-seed will likely continue.
