<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">DENVER, Dec. 20 -- Sacramento's Arco Arena was the site of one of last season's biggest wins for the Washington Wizards, a 97-84 victory on March 28 that gave the team a much-needed boost going down the stretch of an intense race for playoff positioning. The stakes won't be nearly as high Thursday night when the Wizards (12-12) return to Arco to play the Kings (10-13), but Coach Eddie Jordan's team could use a win because a meeting with the hot Suns is looming on Friday night. Phoenix is riding a 15-game winning streak. Washington opened the four-game road trip with a 147-141 overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night but followed it with a sluggish performance in a 117-108 loss to the suspension-depleted Nuggets. Following practice on Wednesday, Jordan said he talked to his team about the slippage he has seen recently, even during impressive home wins over Denver and Miami last week and Sunday's victory over the Lakers. "We've gotten away from really defending the paint," Jordan said by telephone from Sacramento. "We still have to concentrate on that. I told the guys the more we score, the more our defense suffers little by little. We get caught looking to leak out to go score and we don't finish defensive possessions. I just kind of reminded them that we have to lock in and concentrate on our defensive principles."</div> Link Whenever a 5 foot 5 Earl Boykins outrebounds your starting centers 7 to 6, you know there's something wrong with rebounding.
