<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">When they scrapped their way to a 99-96 road victory over the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 2, there was a feeling that the Washington Wizards had a talented, mostly veteran group of players that was searching for cohesion, chemistry and some kind of identity. As the Wizards (7-8) prepare to face the Raptors (3-15) again tonight, this time at MCI Center, they are still looking for all of those things. After a 5-1 start, the Wizards have dropped seven of their last nine games and seem to alternate between playoff-team good and lottery-team lousy on a nightly basis. So, if it's true that the Raptors are one of the NBA's truly bad squads -- even as they are coming off consecutive wins for the first time this season -- what exactly are the Wizards? "Right now, we're just in the middle of trying to find ourselves, that's where we are," said center Brendan Haywood, who helped preserve that season-opening win at Toronto by taking a charge against Raptors guard Jalen Rose with 14.1 seconds remaining in the game. "We're not a bad team but we're not an elite team either. We're in the middle with a lot of other teams. We have to work hard to make ourselves a great team and, right now, we have a lot of hard work to do."</div> Source
