Infighting in Washington

Things are starting to come apart for the Washington Wizards. They're still in first place in the Southeast Division, but they've lost 4 of their last 5 without Antawn Jamison, and they're fighting each other.

Literally.

First there was the fight between Brendan Haywood and Etan Thomas last week, the third between the two in the last couple of years, and now Gilbert Arenas and coach Eddie Jordan are fueding.

After promising to score 50 points against Portland in Sunday's game, and ending up with only nine points, it was obvious that Agent Zero was frustrated.

Gilbert thinks that the coaching staff is being too hard on the team in Jamison's absence to try and make up for his loss.

"It's easy to lose focus when you're just drilling us that if we make a mistake we're going to be coming out. Truthfully, that's how you lose concentration. You lose focus because you're scared to actually play basketball. His standpoint is that since we lost Antawn, we have to pick it up somewhere else and that's defense."

Eddie Jordan responded to Gilbert in his press conference.

"My reaction to that? That I emphasize defense? No reaction. Next question...You guys approach me with what Gil said about defense. I don't know why you ask me that. It's stupid. Plain stupid. The whole idea of us asking them to play defense better. Is that a problem? It's ludicrous."

Jordan then went on to take a little shot at his team, and said that nobody besides Jamison is a leader on the team.

"First of all, we didn't have the leadership out there that we needed with Antawn out. And no one else has stepped up into a leadership role. And frankly, we didn't have enough talent out there on the floor."

Jordan then went on to call Arenas a great scorer, but not a leader.

Arenas, of course, was not done talking to the media, and he's not so sure it's a lack of leadership that's hurting the team right now.

"First period of the game we had what, 11 players go in? I've never seen that before. We get taken out for any mistake we make on defense. At the end of the day, it's hard to play like that. You figure to get beat. It's the NBA. Players are going to beat you, players are going to get offensive rebounds on you, players are going to make great plays. If you get penalized for it, you're out there playing like a robot...It's just not the right time. We're focusing on the wrong things right now. We should focus on what got us here. That's all I'm trying to say."

Just because he isn't playing, doesn't mean Antawn Jamison has stopped leading the team. The only reason Gilbert stopped talking to the media after the game? Antawn Jamison pulled him away from reporters before he could say anything really bad.

It's hard to tell whether or not Arenas is actually frustrated, or if this is just his newest way to motivate himself. Whatever it is, the Wizards better get their stories straight or they could kill any chance they have of winning the Eastern Conference.