Wizards change starting lineup

The Washington Wizards are banged and long-term injuries to starters Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood mean some rotation alterations don’t really mean much in the big picture, but with that said, they’ve made some changes. The Washington Post (Ivan Carter) reports:

The final result was familiar — a loss — but the look and feel were different for the Wizards on Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks, and that is something Coach Eddie Jordan believes his team can build upon. Jordan typically gives his a team a day off after playing on back-to-back nights, but he held a practice yesterday. Jordan said he was leaning toward sticking with a starting lineup that includes Dee Brown at point guard and rookie JaVale McGee at center when the Wizards (1-8) host the Houston Rockets (7-5) tonight at Verizon Center. Brown and McGee started in place of Juan Dixon and Etan Thomas, respectively.

With one win and eight losses the Wizards have been awful this short season. Caron Butler (20.8 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1.67 spg) and Antawn Jamison (18.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 2.0 apg, 1.22 spg) have been very good, but they’ve gotten almost no help. Other than Nick Young’s 14.1 ppg no one is scoring 9 points per game. But their problem is defense: Wizards opponents are scoring 101.4 ppg on 47.4% shooting. The Wizards are also bricking their three-pointers in extremely ugly fashion. They’re being out-rebounded and out-assisted. Other than that, everything is great!