As we enter Wednesday’s action and the team’s pairing with the Orlando Magic, the Washington Wizards remain the NBA’s lone winless team. The squad’s body language hasn’t been great, they’ve been laughed at by more than a few Twitter wonks due to the team’s lack of heady play, and they’ve even gotten an innocent man chucked from a game due to a “technical glitch.”

And rookie Czech Republic native Jan Vesely, he of the absolutely zero minutes played this season due to a bum hip, seems to have cut straight to the core of the Wiz through some hesitant English. As quoted by the Washington Post’s Michael Lee:

“It’s tough to sit on the bench and see the players, they are playing and they are playing bad,” Vesely said. “Of course, I want to try to help the team.”

No, Vesely isn’t calling his teammates “bad.” He’s just telling Lee that his teammates have been “playing bad.” It’s me that is saying that Vesely’s teammates are “bad.”

It’s early, of course, and nobody expected the Wizards (who made absolutely no moves of significance during the offseason, save for picking up rookies in Vesely and Chris Singleton), to come anywhere near the playoffs this season. This team is rebuilding, and rightfully so. They’ve cast off this year in anticipation of more high draft picks and incoming cap relief.

Even with those lowered expectations in place, though, few anticipated John Wall starting off his second season with a 31.7 percent shooting mark over his first five games, to go along with 4.4 turnovers a contest. And, really, turnovers aren’t the issue with Wall; it’s how he sometimes looks like a sort of observer of his own awarded team at times.

Nobody expected the team to be shooting below 40 percent, not with all those offense-first minds both on the bench and in the rotation, and few could have expected the crew to be outrebounded by 10 per game and beaten by an average of 12 points (the most telling stat) after five contests.  Nobody expected a team full of shoot-first guys to be ranked 30th out of 30 NBA teams in offensive efficiency.

Not a whole lot of fun for Wizards fans, who have been through absolutely too much since the team’s NBA title in 1978. At least they can rally behind the fact that Colin Cowherd remains an absolute, unmitigated tool.

By Evan Dunlap

– Newsdesk contributor

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Jan 4, 2012 – The Orlando Magic (4-2) host the Washington Wizards (0-5) on Wednesday night, playing against Rashard Lewis for the first time since they traded the veteran forward to the Wizards in December 2010. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Eastern on Sun Sports.

Orlando’s four-game winning streak ended Monday against the Detroit Pistons. Fatigue plagued the Magic, who where playing on the back end of a back-to-back set, as they shot just 33.3 percent in the second half and allowed Detroit to take command. Pistons guard Ben Gordon scored 26 to lead all players, while center Dwight Howard put up 19 points, seven rebounds, and five steals in defeat.

The Wizards are the league’s only winless team, though they at least made progress in Monday’s 100-92 loss to the Boston Celtics. In that contest, the Wizards crossed the 90-point threshold for the first time in the 2011/12 season. Former No. 1 overall pick John Wall leads Washington with 13.8 points, 6.8 assists, and two steals per game, but has shot just 31.7 percent from the field. JaVale McGee also averages 13.8 points per game and adds 11 rebounds and 2.4 blocks.

Orlando swept the season series from Washington, 4-0, in the 2010/11 season, winning by an average of 18.3 points per game.

For more Magic coverage, please visit Orlando Pinstriped Post, SB Nation’s Magic blog. For the perspective from the other side, please visit SB Nation D.C. and Bullets Forever, SB Nation’s Wizards blog.

Read More: Rashard Lewis (F – WAS), Dwight Howard (C – ORL), JaVale McGee (C – WAS), John Wall (G – WAS), Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards

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The Washington Wizards are on the verge of the worst start in franchise
history. A visit to Orlando wouldn’t appear to be a good way to avoid that
dubious feat.

They’ve rarely won there and have been blown out in the last three visits,
plus the Magic are perfect at home this season heading into Wednesday night’s
meeting.

Washington, which has never opened a season with six straight losses,
dropped to 0-5 for the third time in franchise history with a 100-92 loss in
Boston on Monday. The Wizards led by one after three quarters but allowed the
Celtics to score 31 points in the fourth, the second time they’ve given up more
than 30 in a period this season.

“Right now, with a team like this, you’re trying to teach them not only how
to play but how to win,” said Wizards assistant Randy Wittman, who took over
after coach Flip Saunders was ejected less than two minutes into the game.

“You have to have steps like this. Did we get the win, no, but we played
them right down to the wire. I thought the effort for 48 minutes was as good as
we could ask for.”

The league’s lone winless club next has the difficult task of trying to end
a six-game skid to the Magic (4-2). The Wizards have given up at least 100
points in each of those losses, and another such performance might lead to
another defeat as they’re scoring 85.2 per game this season.

Washington has dropped 14 of 17 in this series, including three in a row on
the road by at least 25 points each. The Wizards, 6-33 in Orlando over the
previous 19 seasons, were 3-38 in road games in 2010-11 and have lost three this
season by an average of 15.7 points.

They’re facing a Magic team which is 3-0 at home but coming off its worst
scoring performance of the season, an 89-78 loss at Detroit on Monday. Orlando
was held to 32 second-half points during its sixth game in the first nine days
of the season.

The Magic are one of eight teams to play that many games over that span.

“Obviously we had a long stretch of games and not a lot of time to rest,”
said forward Ryan Anderson, held to 13 points Monday after averaging 23.0 in the
previous three games.

With a day off, the Magic hope to come out a little fresher and get more
contributions from their starting backcourt. Jason Richardson is averaging 8.8
points – 9.1 below his career mark – and Jameer Nelson is averaging 6.6 points,
nearly half his career average.

Richardson might have a chance to break out of his funk Wednesday as he’s
averaging 22.3 points on 57.3 percent shooting in his last six games against
Washington, hitting 20 of 39 3-point attempts. Nelson averaged 11.5 points in
last season’s four meetings.

Magic star Dwight Howard averaged 27.3 points and shot 75.9 percent against
Washington last season. Only his 29.0-point averages against New York and
Toronto were better versus Eastern Conference foes.

Wizards point guard John Wall averaged 18.3 points against Orlando in his
rookie season, but enters this game shooting a league-worst 31.7 percent from
the field.

The Washington Wizards will hopefully soon be playing basketball again, which means we should see a No. 1 pick in John Wall that actually deserved to the be the No. 1 pick. The last time the Wizards had the No. 1 pick before Wall was when they took Kwame Brown in 2001. Obviously, we know how that turned out.

Now, Kwame is a role player in Detroit. Just to illustrate how inept he was as a basketball player, Kobe Bryant, his former Lakers teammate (Brown was traded to the Lakers for Caron Butler) told a story recently during a visit to UC-Santa Barbara of a time when Kwame didn’t want the ball during a game against the Detroit Pistons. Video is below the jump.

(Via Michael Lee)

So down the stretch of the game, they put in a box and one. So I’m surrounded by these players, Detroit players, and Kwame is under the basket, all by himself. Literally, like all by himself. So I pass him the ball, he bobbled it and it goes out of bounds.

“So we go back to the timeout and I’m [upset], right? He goes, ‘I was wide open.’ ‘Yeah, I know.’ This is how I’m talking to him, like, during the game. I said, ‘You’re going to be open again, Kwame, because Rasheed is just totally ignoring you.’ He said, ‘Well, if I’m open don’t throw it to me.’ I was like, ‘Huh?’ He said, ‘Don’t throw it to me.’ I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, well, ‘I’m nervous. If I catch it and they foul me, I won’t make the free throws.’ I said, ‘Hell no!’