Jordan Can’t Find the Zone

Michael Jordan moved through the lane with ease, went up for what should have been a routine jumper and watched the ball rattle off the rim.

It happened over and over--six times in the decisive fourth quarter--as Jordan faltered down the stretch and failed to lead the Washington Wizards to the longest winning streak in franchise history.

Jordan scored 28 points, not enough offense to cover Richard Hamilton’s absence, as the Wizards had their nine-game winning streak stopped in a 99-93 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night at Charlotte.

“A couple of times I got in and I just couldn’t finish it,” said Jordan, who made 11 of 28 from the field.

Bothered by Charlotte’s zone defense, Jordan fell out of rhythm in the final period and made only five of his 11 shots. He missed four in a row midway through the quarter, and after hitting a late three-pointer to cut the deficit to four, the ball slipped out of Jordan’s hands under Charlotte’s basket after the Hornets double-teamed him.

“I never liked zones,” Jordan said. “I felt like that’s a lazy way to play defense and with them, you can eliminate a lot of the stars making things happen.”

Hamilton, Washington’s second-leading scorer at 19.8 points a game, was put on the injured list before the game because of a groin injury. Without him, the Wizards had to rely on Jordan and backup guard Tyronn Lue for scoring.

Hubert Davis started in place of Hamilton and scored nine points.

“Take 20 points out of your lineup and you’re not going to be able to keep it rolling,” Charlotte Coach Paul Silas said. “We knew Mike was going to get his, so once we figured out to stay at home with him we were there to get the rebound off his misses and able to stop some of the other guys from scoring.”

The Hornets, playing in front of their first sellout crowd of the season, didn’t do that in the first half.

Jordan, playing in his home state, opened the game with an 18-foot jumper and scored 11 in the first quarter. Lue was also there to help, hitting everything from the perimeter to score 12 points in 10 minutes.

But when the Hornets went to the zone, Jordan and Lue stopped making their shots. Lue scored only three points in the second half, making one of five from the field, and Charlotte stopped focusing so much on Jordan.

“There’s not anybody on this planet that’s going to stop Michael,” Charlotte guard Baron Davis said. “So you have to make him make it a team effort. If you can do that, you can win.”

As Jordan’s shots were rattling off the rim, Charlotte scored five consecutive points to break open a close game and take an 89-80 lead with 4:44 to play.

The Hornets kept scoring as Jordan kept missing, but Jahidi White and Popeye Jones prevented the game from getting away. White dunked in one of Jordan’s misses and Jones scored on two jumpers to cut Charlotte’s lead to 93-86.

Jordan finally ended his drought with a scooping layup with 1:39 left.

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Winning Times

Washington reeled off nine consecutive victories after starting the season 5-12. The Wizards were outscored 95.4 to 90.1 during their first 17 games compared to outscoring opponents 92.4 to 82.6 during the streak. A look at this season’s longest winning streaks:

Team Win Streak Record

Spurs 10 20-6

Wizards 9 14-13

Lakers 9 20-5

Mavericks 7 19-9

76ers 7 12-16

Timberwolves 6* 19-8

Bucks 5 16-9

Nets 5 17-9

* -- twice