NEW YORK — When the Washington Wizards selected John Wall with the No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, much of the talk centered around how the former Kentucky star would coexist with Gilbert Arenas.
After Arenas missed the first three games of the season with an ankle injury, the duo played their first regular season game together Friday night and the Wizards lost to the Knicks, 112-91, at Madison Square Garden.
The Wizards combined for 23 turnovers against 13 assists in the game, with Wall notching a game-high nine turns and seven assists to go with 13 points on 4 of 11 shooting.
“We had some bad decision making from time to time, but I thought I did a good job of trying to find my teammates,” Wall said. “They did a good job defensively and switching it up. I did try to force it and they did a good job of stopping it.”
Wall was coming off a spectacular 29-point, 13-assist outing against the Philadelphia 76ers, but Washington coach Flip Saunders said he thought the rookie forced the tempo at times during his first real game at the Garden.
“Part of it is, he’s trying to do too much,” Saunders said. “In the first half, unless he’s doing it there’s no other assist on the floor. I told the guys after, we gotta trust each other. We don’t trust each other enough offensively. John gets rid of the ball and we have to make something happen — it’s that second pass.”
Arenas, meanwhile, came off the bench to score 18 points on 6 of 13 shooting in his first game since his 50-game gun suspension a year ago.
He made the biggest news of the night by telling reporters he considered retiring during the offseason.
“I thought about retiring for a minute because I really didn’t know what to expect,” Arenas said in the Washington locker room. “I thought it was just too much negativity for me to come back in. I just didn’t know if I was mentally prepared for it again.”
Arenas, who has three years and $60 million left on his contract after this season, is now in the position of mentoring Wall, the face of the team’s future.
“John has to trust his jump shot and his midrange,” Arenas said. “Once he gets comfortable shooting we shouldn’t have games like this but he is still learning.
“Game by game he is getting better and that’s something. I told him in the fourth quarter that I was getting tired and need you to perform. We need your spark and speed to get them off balance. That’s when he started trying to take over.”
As for his own role going forward, Arenas said he’s comfortable coming off the bench.
“I should be coming off the bench for another couple weeks, couple months,” he said. “I just gotta be ready like the Microwave.”
N’DIAYE BIDING HIS TIME
Wizards rookie Hamady N’Diaye was inactive for the fourth straight game and said he’s making the best of his situation.
“It’s what it is, you know?” said N’Diaye, the reigning Big East Player of the Year out of Rutgers. “They might not need me this year, but I wanted to be around the team so I can learn inside the team and know how things are going and what do I need to learn and everything.
“Whenever they need me, I’m ready and I know that.”
The 7-foot, 252-pound N’Diaye was chosen in the second round of the NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves and then dealt to the Wizards.
N’Diaye is now part of a team loaded with frontcourt players in JaVale McGee, a rising star in the league, Andray Blatche, Yi Jianlian, the former Net, and former UConn standout Hilton Armstrong.
“He’s a guy that when we drafted, we drafted with the idea he was going to be a project,” Saunders told reporters. “That he probably wouldn’t play much his first year. I think he’s going to be a guy that’s going to be in this league for a long time. So he’s doing well, got a great attitude and works extremely hard. Does all the things we ask him of.”
In the meantime, N’Diaye says he continues to work hard and bide his time.
“Everything is still a work in progress,” he said. “I’m here to work and everyone knows that. It really doesn’t phase me. My attitude is always the same.”
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