He may be only three regular-season games into his tenure, but coach Flip Saunders already is having to familiarize himself with an all-too-common Washington Wizards tradition: reshuffling his lineup and rotation because of injuries.
He already was without Antawn Jamison, then Caron Butler bruised his left knee in Friday’s loss at Atlanta. So Saunders had to adjust yet again.
With Butler out, Saunders moved Mike Miller from starting shooting guard to small forward. And he inserted usual backup combo-guard Randy Foye into the lineup at shooting guard. By starting Foye, Miller, Gilbert Arenas, Fabricio Oberto and Brendan Haywood, Washington trotted out a lineup that was not on the team’s active roster at this time last year.
But unlike in past years, the injuries didn’t leave the Wizards void of veteran talent. Washington rolled to a 123-104 victory over New Jersey to improve to 2-1.
“You fight through injuries,” Saunders said. “And that’s why [president Ernie Grunfeld] and the front office did what we did [this summer]. That’s why we picked up Mike Miller and Randy Foye so, when things went out, we didn’t have to rely on throwing a young player out there.”
A healthy Arenas doesn’t hurt either. Arenas fueled Washington with 32 points and seven assists; Foye added 17 points and eight assists. Haywood tallied 10 points and seven rebounds, and Miller had nine points, 11 rebounds and three assists. Oberto chipped in four points, five assists and two rebounds.
Further spurring on the Wizards’ efforts was backup forward/center Andray Blatche, who racked up a career-high 30 points while pulling down six rebounds. The Wizards shot 61.5 percent, their best shooting effort since Dec. 18, 2002, against Memphis.
• Mike Jones can be reached at mjones@washingtontimes.com.
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