Wizards at Rockets
THE STORY: The Randy Wittman era is off to a tremendous start in Washington. The Wizards sent Flip Saunders packing after two-plus years as head coach on Tuesday and replaced him with assistant Wittman on an interim basis. Wittman somehow not only got Washington to play defense in a 92-75 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats, but he got a mild compliment from starting forward Andray Blatche. “I can’t honestly say we needed a new voice,” Blatche said. “We just needed somebody to actually check us – like Wittman did.” Wittman appears to have the ear of his players at the moment and will be charged with bringing a young, talented group up the standings. The Wizards will be looking for their first road win when they visit the Houston Rockets on Friday. The Rockets had a seven-game winning streak snapped Wednesday but are 7-2 at home, where they average 99.6 points.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, CSW (Washington), FSH (Houston)
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (3-15): Wittman’s main responsibility will be to get the most out of players like Blatche, who responded with 17 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday. Saunders never got the Wizards to buy into a defensive philosophy, as the team allowed an average of 101.0 points in 2009-10, 104.7 in 2010-11 and 99.3 under Saunders this season. One of Washington’s worst defensive performances this season came in a 114-106 home loss to Houston on Jan. 16. The highlight of that game was JaVale McGee throwing an alley-oop to himself off the backboard and getting benched by Saunders.
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (10-8): Houston is nearly as defensively challenged as Washington, though it can usually make up for it on the offensive end. The Rockets scored 103.3 points during their seven-game winning streak but broke down on the perimeter defensively on Wednesday, when the Milwaukee Bucks buried 14 3-pointers. The perimeter is usually where Houston does its best work on defense, ranking seventh in the NBA while holding opponents to 31.5 percent from beyond the arc.
BUZZER BEATERS:
1. Wizards G John Wall scored a season-high 38 points in the Jan. 16 meeting.
2. Rockets G Kevin Martin has averaged 24.1 points in 11 career games against Washington – his second-best mark against any team.
3. Houston has taken eight of the last 10 in the series.