Hey everyone this is SportzWiz checking in. A tough one for the Wiz last night. They hung tough for three quarters but the Wizards struggled to find a third scoring option to help out Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison.

While the two captains obviously led the team, yesterday was another opportunity to see the growth of Javaris Crittenton and JaVale McGee.

Although Crittenton’s numbers were not eye popping (2 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds in 14 minutes) he did a real nice job of penetrating the Suns defense and he knocked down the one jumper he took and in his only other shot attempt replays showed his shot was clearly goaltended but the call was missed.

McGee also saw significant minutes yesterday and in his time against Shaq did enough to earn some praise from the Diesel.

“I really like him (JaVale McGee) as a player.” said O’Neal. “He is going to be a special player in this league. I really like his game. JaVale is going to be one of those big men that we talk about in the future.”

In case you missed it here’s also a funny picture between Caron and Shaq.

Back to the main topic, the Wizards return to the practice court today before leaving wintry Washington DC for Miami. I will have post practice audio as usual and I will try to get an update on Andray Blatche and D-Steve. In case you missed it in yesterday’s blog comments coach Tapscott and DeShawn Stevenson said the hope is for Stevenson to return as early as this weekend.