THE LEASTERN CONFERENCE?

Page 2’s Bill Simmons wrote a column yesterday describing the current state of the Eastern Conference.

“You couldn’t even call the Eastern Conference an apocalypse — it’s more like a poopocalypse.”

The entire column can be found here.

Here’s some of what he had to say about Washington:
“The Wizards are wasting a career season from Caron Butler, who spent the summer working out, shed some weight and even hired a personal chef to cook correctly for him; now he’s a potential All-Star forward.”

Check out the story and post your thoughts.

WIZARDS HANG ON IN TIGHT CONTEST

The Wizards forced the Hawks into two consecutive possessions that saw the visitors come up empty as Washington held on to a 96-95 win Tuesday night.

Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas each scored 21 points to lead the way for Washington. Despite having a sub-par game from the field, Butler earned his numbers in the points column by going 15-15 from the line. The forwards has hit 32 straight FT’s and has made 42 of 43 FT’s dating back to 11/15. His last miss was in final minute of the team’s loss on 11/15 in NYK.

One unsung hero tonight was Jarvis Hayes, who Coach Jordan stuck with at both ends of the court late in the game. His defense on Joe Johnson on the final two possessions helped seal the win for Washington.

AUDIO: Coach Jordan | Arenas | Butler

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UNDERWAY: WIZARDS-HAWKS

The Wizards and Hawks are in action at Verizon Center. Atlanta jumped out to an early 8-2 lead but the Wizards have since responded to tie the score 13-13 through the first half of the opening quarter.

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FROM THE PRESS ROOM:

Tip-off is about 45 minutes away, just wanted to provide a quick update.

James Lang has been activated for tonight’s game and Coach Jordan, who spoke with the media a few minutes ago, hopes to get him into game action over the next two contests.

Lang, a 6-10 center, last saw action in the preseason and has shown flashes of being a low post threat. Lang played on two separate ten-day contracts for the Hawks and Raptors last season and was originally drafted out of Central Park HS (AL) by the Hornets (48th overall) in 2003.

WIZARDS PREPARE FOR HAWKS

AUDIO: Eddie Jordan | Antawn Jamison | Darius Songaila

After holding a film session yesterday at Verizon Center, the Wizards returned to the practice court Monday to prepare for Tuesday’s home match-up versus the Hawks.

“It’s big, because the most important thing is we want to get a ‘W’,” said forward Antawn Jamison. “We a have little losing streak going on and you definitely want to stop the bleeding as soon as possible. This is a team that’s in our division, so you always want to win as many games in your division, because you never know when they might count.”

“This team has been playing pretty well and they are going to come out and play hard,” Jamison added. “Joe Johnson is playing well and the rest of those guys have taken their roles and filled in pretty well. We have to come out and play hard and be prepared for a tough Atlanta team.”