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I would give him a C- in his debut. He had nine assists, three steals and just three turnovers, but he missed 13 of 19 shots and had the worst plus-minus of any player with a minus-31. That's incredible since the Wizards lost by 29.

I'm sure nerves finally kicked in for Wall, since he was making his debut on national TV against a team that reached the NBA Finals two years ago and has been in the Eastern Conference finals in each of the past two seasons. The Magic was well-prepared and presented the blueprint for how to defend Wall: Leave him open, let him shoot and live with it. I spoke with a scout who told me that teams will give Wall "the LeBron treatment" his rookie season, since they know he can get to the cup in the blink of an eye.

It was a great first game for Wall, though. He got a crash course in what he should expect in this league. Fortunately for him, there aren't many teams as good as Orlando, which, as Wall said, is playing like "a team on a mission."

It's possible if the Wizards get routed like that against Minnesota or Sacramento. The Magic is really good. It has had basically the same core for the past three seasons and Stan Van Gundy doesn't allow his players to let up. With a game against Miami on the schedule tonight, you had to assume that it was going to try to knock out the Wizards as soon as possible and save up some energy for the big event. Coach Flip Saunders spoke before the game about being prepared for "the haymaker" but the Magic came out like Mike Tyson circa '87.

That being said, the Wizards have A LOT of room for improvement, especially with defense and rebounding. Their effort in those areas was embarrassing last night.

I was really stunned by how bad Blatche looked as well. The first time Dwight Howard came over to double team him, he looked like he had never seen a double team before. He settled for long jumpers and never tried to get any easy buckets. Blatche has a nice jumper, but I don't understand why he is so apathetic about going inside when he has proven that his post game is probably better than his perimeter game. His conditioning is off, but he's been through a training camp and a preseason. He's played enough games.

I know I didn't make a big deal of it, but maybe those nine days off before the season opener may have been a detriment because the Wizards never had a chance to compete against teams that have so much experience and knowledge. Going against equally young players in practice everyday may not have been the best preparation.

All I can say is that these guys really seem to have great camaraderie in the preseason and Flip has had to remind them to get serious on several occasions. This is a young group, with guys who have similar interests and love to laugh and joke. But at this point, I wouldn't worry about swag, I'd just focus on whether these kids are getting better.

The Wizards will have trouble rebounding all season because the bigs that get the bulk of the minutes are not great rebounders. McGee often finds himself out of position to get rebounds, either because he's trying to chase down a block or loses focus. Flip was furious with McGee on several occasions last night.

I don't think the rebounding differential will be as severe as it was against Orlando, which has considerable size with Dwight Howard, Marcin Gortat, Brandon Bass and Rashard Lewis. Howard is such a tenacious rebounder, he kind encourages his teammates to get active as well. But unless the Wizards become great at rebounding as a team, they will struggle. They had three offensive rebounds -- the same as Bass last night.

I think a guy like Booker will definitely get some burn if he plays with the energy he provided last night. He played 10 minutes but had six points and two rebounds - the same production as Blatche in 24 minutes. Booker also had a steal and two nasty dunks. He slammed his first dunk so hard that the ball hit the ground well before he did.

You mean if they can get Harrison Barnes or Perry Jones or Jared Sullinger?

Uh, if you say so.

One more. On Thanksgiving. Against Atlanta. Enjoy your meal.

Arenas met with foot-and-ankle specialist Mark Myerson yesterday in Baltimore and received a shot in his injured right ankle. He'll be reevaluated on Sunday, when they can determine what the problem is. Flip keeps saying that he hopes to have Arenas for the home opener, but it seems unlikely. You have to remember, Arenas hurt his ankle in training camp. This thing hasn't gone away yet. We'll have to wait and see.

People have been talking about there being a possible lockout for several years, because owners have been crying about losing millions and millions of dollars. With so many new owners joining the league -- and paying large sums to do so -- in recent years, they aren't going to be satisfied with losing money or merely breaking even each year. The owners would like to see some profits on their investments and right now, only a handful are really getting them. I don't think the owners are going to give in on this, so unless the players just cave in,  I would be shocked if they keep things going the way they are. It seems inevitable, unfortunately.

That's what makes this season so interesting, because the league could win over so many fans only to spurn them because billionaires and millionaires can't come to an agreement.

I thought he had a decent game. It's really hard to single out one guy for playing well, when the team got thrashed by 29. But I was impressed that Martin shot the ball so well and played so aggressively. It may have had something to do with the fact that he's still on a non-guaranteed contract is trying to stick. His hunger might get rewarded with more minutes, so long has he's shooting like he did last night (17 points, 5 for 9 FGs).

A solid wing player like Harrison Barnes could make a difference. But I also think two big men like Perry Jones and Jared Sullinger could help down low. I'm just leaning towards Barnes since the Wizards' current options at small forward will all be free agents next summer.

What did Shaq call Stan Van Gundy? The master of panic? Yeah, the problem with Orlando last year was that they were the favorites. Boston was coming after them, going hard after a second ring together, and the Magic didn't realize how to play with them until they were down 3-0. It was too late.

Kirk was struggling against Jameer Nelson, mostly. I don't think that a three-guard lineup is a long-term solution, but Flip feels that he has to keep Hinrich on the floor because he does so many things well. Considering their deficiancies in rebounding, the Wizards will need to keep Al Thornton in the mix. He had 9 points & 7 boards last night, which wasn't too bad. Thornton just looked lost on D, though.

Josh Howard looks like he can go right now, but the Wizards probably won't look right until they get him, and Gilbert back.

Did you see how poorly the Wizards played last night? When you put up a stinker like that, you open yourself up to those kind of jokes. It wasn't any worse than how the Magic was already clowning them in the game. That was an embarrassing performance; there is no way around it.

If the Wizards had lost by eight or 10, instead of being down by 35 in the third quarter, TNT wouldn't be so hard on them. But they didn't, so they got clowned.

Yeah, I said the same thing in my blog entry from last night's game. You can never judge an entire 82-game season by one game, but that one game was really, really terrible. Since it came on national TV, with Kenny Smith calling them the "Generals," I'm pretty sure the Wizards ticket office was blowing up for requests this morning.

And, there were some issues that the Wizards will need to address -- boxing out, playing better pick-and-roll defense, making the extra pass -- that could make them better. But they will enter almost every game with a decided disadvantage in experience. This is a young team will A LOT to learn.

I'm sure Flip was saying the same things many times last night.

I see him averaging about 16.5 points, 7.8 assists and 2.9 rebounds. That's what I wrote in my blog entry yesterday.

Certainly. How many more? I'm not sure. They still need the bigs to step up. You have to remember that when Gilbert had his best season, the Wizards flanked him with Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, two guys who could put points on the board as well.