Wizards Think Teams Should Be Scared Of Them In Playoffs

The Wizards are doing their best to get used to the fact that their second best player, Caron Butler, is out the rest of the year with a broken hand. If that means showing some false bravado in the face of this devastating news, then so be it. Antawn Jamison is of the opinion that the Wizards will still be a dangerous team come playoff time:

"I'll tell you one thing, there are a lot of teams that don't want to see us in the playoffs. So, you know, the naysayers can write us off and say we are done, or we don't have a chance to contend. But seven games against this team -- I'm not worried. We're going to fight hard; we're going to fight to the end."

There may be a lot of teams that "don't want to see" Washington in the playoffs, the only problem is that none of them will actually make the playoffs. The way the standings are right now, Washington would have home court advantage in the first round over the Chicago Bulls. Sorry Antawn, but if that happens it's Bulls in six. A more likely scenario is that Miami will overtake the Wizards for the division title, thus earning the four seed and pushing Washington back to six. From there, they would go on the road to play Toronto. Barring anymore crazy endings, this would be a much better matchup for the Wiz, but still not one that I think they would ultimately win.

I have no doubt that Jamison and his crew will actually try in the playoffs, I just don't know how effective they will be. Butler was having a career year, and playing on a team that's not exactly known for defense, he managed to end up second in the NBA in steals per game. I'm not sure what you're supposed to say when one of your teammates goes down with an injury, but I don't necessarily think that threatening the rest of your conference is the right answer.