I'm so out of the loop. I assumed the Wizards won like 20 games this year and weren't in the playoffs, now I hear they beat the Bulls.
Primer on the Wizards: The owner got tired of the rebuilding process and gave a win-now mandate. Last season they traded for Nene, Emeka Okafor, and Trevor Ariza. They were a very bad team in the first half without John Wall, and a .500 team the second half when he came back. Okafor got injured in the offseason, so they shipped him and this year's first rounder to Phoenix for Marcin Gortat.
They were a very slightly above-average team this year and are the 5 seed in the East (partly cause the Nets tanked to the 6 seed to avoid Chicago). They
might be better than their regular season performance indicates: their starters outscored opponents by a ton, and they were dragged down by injuries and a terrible bench. Now everyone's healthy, the playoffs mean more time for starters, and the bench has an AARP squad (Andre Miller, Al Harrington, Drew Gooden) who weren't playing for the Wiz in the first half of the season, and who are weirdly effective.
That said, Wall's usually the only guy on the floor who can break down a defense, he's not an elite scorer, and Randy Wittman's not a great coach. So the offense tends to break down at the worst times, and you can't count on Nene being healthy.
Anyways, this is the first time since I think 2005 that the Wiz have made the playoffs without being obvious sacrificial lambs in the first round. Best I've felt since
they re-signed Gilbert to a long term deal they won the lottery and drafted Kwame MJ suited up for the team Chris Webber and Juwan Howard led them to the playoffs... well, shit.
