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The addition of rookie John Wall was supposed to be one thing that Wizards fans would be able to enjoy on a nightly basis.

But that hasn't been the case.

Wall missed his fifth game in a row Wednesday night with a bruised right knee -- an injury that was originally diagnosed as tendinitis -- and he has missed 12 of the team's 27 games this season.

This hasn't been easy for Wall, who has never missed this much basketball in his life.

"It's pretty tough," Wall said following a recent practice. "I've probably missed five, six games out of my whole life playing basketball. This is the most I've missed. So it's frustrating, trying to rehab, and seeing my team out there and can't be out there and can't make plays. I think my team is doing a great job of fighting and doing as much as they can. I just can't wait to get back out there with them."

The Wizards have not placed a timetable on his return, which means that it could be Sunday, when they play at San Antonio, or it could be much later.

However, the front office would rather err on the side of caution with Wall.

"He's going to be our point guard for the next 10, 12 years, maybe more," Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld said. "We are going to be cautious moving forward with John. We're not rushing him. His body will tell us when he's ready to return."

The San Antonio Spurs had been playing with fire during their 10-game win streak, with two escape jobs against Denver and an overtime winner against Memphis. Thursday at Orlando, the luck finally ran out.

The Spurs suffered only their fourth loss of the season and by their worst, a 21-point disaster at the hands of the re-tooled Magic, who shot better than 50 percent from the three-point arc and nearly 60 percent overall.

San Antonio might be an NBA-best 25-4, but its lead over Southwest Division rival Dallas now stands at just one game, and perhaps more intriguing is that this time around, the Mavericks appear to be the stronger defensive team.

"If we want to take advantage of that good record, we better get our acts together at the defensive end," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Otherwise we've squandered what the basketball gods have given to us so far."

Granted, the Spurs were playing the second game of a back-to-back after arriving in Orlando in the wee hours. It was also their sixth game in nine days. That could be used as an excuse as to how the Magic scored 123 points, but it doesn't justify allowing 103, 110, 106 and 112 points in their last four games, respectively -- albeit all in victories.

Sure, the defensive-minded Popovich has adjusted to his personnel and turned the Spurs loose on the offensive end, but he can only stand so much looseness at the other end.

dlts20 wrote:I think we are being too hard on Dray because I called this before the season. I said that he would be a monster and the whole league will be talking about how there were a ton of big name free agent PF's who got big contracts but the best one may be Blatche who makes by far the least.

Then he got hurt and I said that people arent talking about that injury enough as he now instead of being a top PF, will end up being someone who's not even better then he was at the end of last season. I said he wont be nearly as good as late last season until midseason at best & probably the end of the year, if at all. I said no matter what, he has no chance of being a stud like he coudlve been.

All of that wouldve been with no new injuries but on top of that he's been pretty much hurt all season so he has never gotten out the blocks. Im telling you that if he has no injuries this offseason then he will look way better next year. Way better. I just dont think people understand how hard it is to come back from stuff like that, and its near impossible when you keep getting hurt in the process. With that being said, he could be doing somethings different and playing smarter. However, he's just going to be way slower & way less athletic then the guys who have been working out non stop for the past 6 months

dlts20 wrote:I think we are being too hard on Dray because I called this before the season. I said that he would be a monster and the whole league will be talking about how there were a ton of big name free agent PF's who got big contracts but the best one may be Blatche who makes by far the least.

Then he got hurt and I said that people arent talking about that injury enough as he now instead of being a top PF, will end up being someone who's not even better then he was at the end of last season. I said he wont be nearly as good as late last season until midseason at best & probably the end of the year, if at all. I said no matter what, he has no chance of being a stud like he coudlve been.

All of that wouldve been with no new injuries but on top of that he's been pretty much hurt all season so he has never gotten out the blocks. Im telling you that if he has no injuries this offseason then he will look way better next year. Way better. I just dont think people understand how hard it is to come back from stuff like that, and its near impossible when you keep getting hurt in the process. With that being said, he could be doing somethings different and playing smarter. However, he's just going to be way slower & way less athletic then the guys who have been working out non stop for the past 6 months

TGW wrote:So did Blatche and McGee really get suspended?

LOL this management simply do not know how to handle these guys. Get Blatche out of here. I'm sick of his ass too.

russbengtson Russ Bengtson
RT @johnschuhmann: Wizards suspend Blatche & McGee for Sunday's game in San Antonio.