One the biggest problems plaguing the Wizards this season has been their inability to compete on the road for a full 48 minutes. Who knew that wouldn't be enough? The Wizards finally went hard, battled, never relented, only to find out that they would need to keep it going for 58 minutes in Oklahoma City.
After the Wizards lost, 124-117, on Friday to the Thunder, the only question I asked was, will they have anything left for Memphis? John Wall and Nick Young both played 52 minutes, Rashard Lewis played 51, Trevor Booker played 45. Andray Blatche was limited to just 31 minutes because of foul trouble, but after the game, he asked reporters to keep their distance because he was coming down with a cold.

And these guys are going to have to get ready for the Grizzlies less than 24 hours later?

The Wizards (13-32) have now matched the third-worst road start in NBA history with 22 losses. They are hoping to have JaVale McGee back in Memphis after he missed the team's best road performance of the season with the flu. His absence forced Flip Saunders to get creative, and he started Booker at small forward, moving Lewis to power forward and Blatche to center. Booker found out at the morning shootaround that he was going to get his third career start.
"I was pumped from then on," Booker said.

Booker certainly had a tough challenge, with Saunders putting the speedy and physical forward on the NBA's leading scorer Kevin Durant. Durant scored a game-high 40 points, his second consecutive game with 40 or more, but most of his field goals came while being guarded by Al Thornton or Blatche in the second overtime after the Wizards switched out of picks. Booker wasn't giving him anything easy.

"It's a tough matchup, the best scorer in the league," Booker said. "He was hitting some tough shots. All you can do is put a hand up and contest everything. That's what I tried to do."

Booker gave his usual tenacious effort on defense and fought for rebounds, as he finished with a career-high 21 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out in the second overtime. He got offensive rebound putbacks, but he also caught a nice lob from Wall and drove baseline and made a reverse layup, finishing with his off (right) hand.