SB Nation’s Wizards blog Bullets Forever was in the locker room after the Wizards’ loss to the Mavericks last night and reports that coach Flip Saunders and Caron Butler weren’t exactly of the same mind when it came to the last play of the game.
Caron Butler, Flip Saunders Feud About The Last Play Of The Game
The Wizards had mounted a furious comeback to cut Dallas’ lead to one and had the ball with 6.7 seconds remaining. They threw it in to Butler, who hesitated, drove left and was smothered by Shawn Marion. Marion blocked the shot easily while Mike Miller stood somewhat open in the corner. Fast forward to the 2:17 mark of this video to see.
Bullets Forever reports:
Flip Saunders gave a terse, two-minute press conference, in which he ultimately walked out as a reporter was asking him a question. When asked of the last play, Saunders simply said “That wasn’t the play we were supposed to run.” I asked him what was the play, and he simply repeated himself.
[...]
What was Butler’s take on the play?
“The last play was drawn up either to get myself the ball up top or get somebody coming to the corner. Obviously, I wanted the ball. I kind of had my mind made up what I was going to do with it already. This time, it was good defense.”
When he was asked about the play, Brendan Haywood said he didn’t want to say anything because he’d be throwing a teammate under the bus. The disagreement is yet another bump in the road for a Wizards team that has already been through so much this year.
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