I’m right with you in saying the Wizards are a team in disarray, but to follow that with, “much like the Bobcats” negates every bit of progress the team has made in the past week since Jackson has joined us. We are no longer a team figuring out what to do. I believe we are a team that knows what to do and is still struggling with consistency. Our first 3 quarters against the Cavs and our horrifying 4th in that same game bear this out.

The key to the game tonight is going to be the matchup between Caron and Wallace. Caron has been specifically called out by his teammates this week and despite the “we’re making nice in the locker room” comments he’s made, the man has something to prove tonight. If Wallace isn’t too banged up from last night Caron is no match for him and Crash should own the dude tonight.

The Wizards tend to be a selfish group of players that focus so much on individual offense that coming up against a tenacious defense like the Bobcats display should be very frustrating for them. If the Felines show some savvy in the first half we should be able to exploit the Wizards problems on almost every level.

This is one of those games we should win handily. Normally I’d be concerned about the home/away back to back exhaustion rearing its head, but the Wizards are playing a back to back as well so fatigue should affect them in the late stages too. I’m expecting the 4th quarter to be pretty ugly to watch. Larry Brown’s usage of the bench of late should give us an edge in the fatigue sweepstakes however, because Washington has only been using 8 or 9 players per game and the starters are getting a lot of minutes.

I’m expecting a fairly easy Cats win tonight although I’m a little concerned because of our habit of falling apart the game after we upset a “contender” team like Cleveland.
If we play even close to the level we’ve displayed in the past 5 games however, Washington is in for a difficult and long evening.