General thinking in the NBA Playoffs is that a series really doesn’t start until a team wins on the road. Well, after losing their second game in a row in Chicago to the Bulls (and continuing their recent less than stellar playoff history), the Wizards better hope this series “doesn’t start” until they return to Chicago next week.

Home games on Saturday and Monday might be the last hurrah for this team if they continue their lackadaisical effort on defense. Post scribe Mike Wilbon put it all in plain English in today’s column:

In Game 1 it was Andres Nocioni, who averaged 8.4 points during the regular season, scoring 25 points. And Ben Gordon, in the same game, doubled his season average and scored 30. Wednesday in Game 2, Kirk Hinrich, who averages 15.7, scored 34 points, all in the final three quarters. That’s a pace at which Michael Jordan scores, not a guy who shot 39.7 percent for the season.

The good news for the Wizards is that “The Big Three” of Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes and Antawn Jamison combined for 55 points (39 by Arenas), 24 rebounds and 10 assists. Unfortunately the rest of the team only scored a combined 48 points. Juan Dixon was the only other Wizard in double figures. No one else scored more than six points.

Head coach Eddie Jordan obviously has his hands full before Saturday afternoon’s Game 3. Unless changes are made, the Wizards may be swept by the Bulls just like they were back in 1997. Brendan Haywood, who declined to talk to the press about the teams effort on defense, lest he “…say anything that could be seen as a detriment to our team” knows Game 3 is a must win. “We need to win this next game,” he told the Post. “We don’t want to go down 0-3. Very few teams can come back from that.” We can think of one, but what are the chances of that happening again?