Road Tripping

The Wizards won't end this five-game roadie with a winning mark but they obviously want to end it with a win tonight in Salt Lake City and come home for Wednesday's game against Philly with some kind of momentum. The weekend was a study in opposites. At Golden State, the Wiz put up plenty of points but couldn't get stops. Against the Clippers, they played decent defense but couldn't score, especially in the third quarter when Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison went cold.

Andray Blatche was supposed to undergo an MRI on that sprained left knee today and I'm waiting for word on the results. If he can't go tonight and I'm assuming that he won't even if the injury isn't too serious, Jarvis Hayes or Michael Ruffin may be your starter. Hayes shot well in the last two games and Eddie has always trusted Ruffin. The key will be dealing with Utah's big boys inside. Carlos Boozer has been putting up double doubles all season and it was kind of forgotten that Mehmet Okur put up 38 points and killed these guys on the pick-and-pop game at Verizon Center earlier this season.