The Wizards once again succumbed to the wrath that has become the Detroit Pistons. The night served plenty of heartache from Nene's absence to John Wall's barf-worthy performance, to Steve Buckhantz's fake-me-out dagger. The dejection transposed into the locker room as Wall had little to say in defense of his recent funk. Brad Beal expressed remorse for passing up on a potential layup or floater attempt on the final possession, while Trevor Ariza broke down the possible confusion on the final play. Ariza also defended his point guard after a reporter suggested that Wall wasn't "acting like the leader tonight."

"We all didn't do what we needed to do, and if we want to win games, we have to bring a better effort." -- Trevor Ariza

"We have to realize it's not about 'me me me', it's about 'WE' and tonight we didn't show that." -- Bradley Beal

"No health issue at all. Just trying to play basketball and help my teammates." -- John Wall

pistons 96 wizards 95
2/27/2013 - Verizon Center, Washington, DC
ESPN Boxscore
NBA.com Game Highlights


Ned Dishman/Getty Images

                                    AT                               

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013
7:00 PM ET
TV: Comcast SportsNet Plus HD
Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier  
Radio: 106.7 FM/1500 AM
Dave Johnson and Glenn Consor

wizards 90 raptors 84
2/25/2013 - Air Canada Center, Toronto, ON
ESPN Boxscore
NBA.com Game Highlights


Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press

                       AT                           

Monday, February 25th, 2013
7:00 PM ET
TV: Comcast SportsNet HD
Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier  
Radio: 106.7 FM/1500 AM
Dave Johnson and Glenn Consor

Bradley Beal's post-game interview deserved a separate post of its own as the rookie was continuously harrassed by Martell Webster and John Wall while attempting to address questions from the media.

The uber-soft spoken Beal didn't react much to the intrusion of his fellow veteran teammates, simply giggling and trying his best to stay focused on the questions being asked.

What's great about this is seeing the improvement in the aura of the locker room at the Verizon Center, with the recent stretch of wins obviously factoring into the uptempo attitude of the players. And when it comes to laughs and jokes, Martell Webster is the ring leader of the squad, something the team clearly feeds off very well.

I managed to capture the pleasant exchange last night on video. Have a gander below...

The Wizards somehow managed to survive a bombardment of 3-point shots by the Houston Rockets last night, thanks to some halftime adjustments by coach Wittman. These adjustments allowed the Wizards to refrain from getting sucked inside and remain spread out on the perimeter to contest the Rockets' relentless attack from beyond the arc. The Rockets ultimately managed to attempt the third most 3-point shots in league history with 46, sinking 19 of them.

Following the game, several Wizards players including John Wall and Emeka Okafor acknowledged the rarity of having to game-plan for this sort of the 3-point bombardment and the adjustments they made to weather the storm.

Check out the videos below...

"In the second half we got into it more defensively and changed some of game-plans up. They missed a couple of them and we executed on the other end." -- John Wall

"We're versatile, the five of us on the court, everybody can score from every single position. We all have confidence in each other." -- Emeka Okafor

wizards 105 rockets 103
2/22/2013 - Verizon Center, Washington, DC
ESPN Boxscore
NBA.com Game Highlights


Ned Dishman/NBAE/Getty Images

                          AT                               

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013
7:00 PM ET
TV: Comcast SportsNet HD
Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier  
Radio: 106.7 FM/1500 AM
Dave Johnson and Glenn Consor

wizards 119 nuggets 113
2/22/2013 - Verizon Center, Washington, DC
ESPN Boxscore


Rob Carr/NBAE/Getty Images