Blatche’s Breakout

The first 10 games of the season have already been a rollercoaster for this Wizards fan.

I started off predicting a whopping 55 wins. After the first game, I saw every wart I hoped not to see and retracted my prediction.

And when it became clear that Gilbert Arenas was not yet back to the player he was prior to his knee injury there was little hope that it could or would get better.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the arena as the Wizards have now won 5 straight after losing 5 straight. And the last two wins, the most impressive two wins, came without Arenas who is resting his sore knee.

The biggest factor has been the emergence of Andray Blatche and the sustained play of Brendan Haywood.

Throw in the leadership of Antonio Daniels, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler, some steady play from Darius Songaila and Deshawn Stevenson and add a dash of excitement from rookie Nick Young.

I’ve been waiting for Blatche to break out since his rookie season and last night, he most certainly had what would qualify as a breakout performance. 26 points on 12-14 fg, 8 rebs, 4 assists and a block. And he’s just scratching the surface of what he can do.

Even though Haywood left the Sixers game early with a sprained ankle, Haywood as been averaging a double-double on the season and playing with a newfound vigor.

And what’s driving the improvement is nothing more than confidence. Neither player has added any moves to their arsenal. Simply put, Eddie Jordan no longer benches either at the first sign of a mistake.

Hopefully, Eddie Jordan has seen the benefits of playing a bigger lineup and giving players confidence. Hopefully, he’ll run with that theme and give Nick Young and Domanic McGuire the same time to work through some of the rookie kinks so that they might become contributors later this season.

So the last few games have made my 55 win prediction look a little smarter. If the Wizards can continue this momentum and get Arenas back to close to the point where he was last season, the Wizards will be the Eastern Conference contenders I envisioned.