At some point before the playoffs begin, the Wizards are going to have a decision to make on Drew Gooden and Kris Humphries who play the same position. Based on where both reserve power forwards are now, and the likely first-round opponent, it'll be the former.
Gooden, who had 16 points in Saturday's win at the Memphis Grizzlies and is 10-for-16 from three-point range in his last five games, is playing his best basketball of the season. Humphries just played his third game in a row after missing 17 because of a left groin strain and has yet to regain his form. He was 1-for-4 for just two points.
[ MORE WIZARDS: No stretch saying Wizards produce when Drew Gooden plays]
The Toronto Raptors, a team that has won all three meetings with the Wizards (44-33) because of the matchup problems they create with small lineups such Patrick Patterson playing at power forward to stretch the floor to the three-point line, will be waiting. All that is left to be determined is which team will have home-court advantage.
"We got the easy job to play. Coach Witt has the harder job to coach and make the decisions. We trust in Randy and the decisions he's going to make, the guys he's going to play," Gooden said. "I know last year coming to this time we had a lot of bigs in the same position, ready and thirsty to get some minutes but coach kind of played us on a feeling, how a game was going that night.
"As professionals we got to figure it out, whoever is on the court, how to play whether it's me and Hump out there at the same time picking and popping, whether it's Kevin (Seraphin) and Hump out there, DeJuan (Blair), anybody. Any combination of the bigs. We'll figure it out."
Last season, Wittman went with Trevor Booker, no longer with the team, as the primary backup at power forward in their first-round matchup with the Chicago Bulls. After winning that in five games and advancing to play the No. 1 seed Indiana Pacers, it was Gooden who got the call instead. Based on his experience at previous stops, most notably making 33 playoff starts with the Cleveland Cavaliers in LeBron James' first stint, Gooden knows what to expect. Just because he gets the call first for the rest of the regular season, or in the first round, it doesn't mean anything if the Wizards can advance.
"That's what all playoffs are about is matchups. I can go back to my years in Cleveland, playing against the Wizards when they had Antawn Jamison. I don't think coach (Mike) Brown had the faith in me to guard Antawn Jamison so the last four minutes of the game LeBron James was playing the four," Gooden said. "Anderson Varejao was at the five. Me and (Zydrunas) Ilgauskas, who were the starters, were on the bench coming down the stretch.
"That's what it took to when that series. It was matchup-based. Next round against Detroit, me and Ilgauskas are in at the four and the five against Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace. It is a matchup situation throughout the playoffs."
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