The Wizards lost at home last night to the Houston Rockets 123-111 in a game that was out of reach from the early going. The Rockets shot 55.1% from field (just their second time shooting over 50% all season), 52.9% from three point land and 84.8% from the line.

While we realize that with stats like that, it’s the players that lost the game, it’s worth noting that Wiz Coach Eddie Jordan got served by his Houston counterpart Jeff Van Gundy. Jordan failed to use his personnel to his advantage, using Jared Jeffries (0-4 from the field, one rebound, four fouls in 13 minutes) to guard pint-sized David Wesley and leaving Caron Butler or Gilbert Arenas to take on Tracy McGrady. Which didn’t work out very well. The taller McGrady shot over both of them to the tune of 38 points. Not to be outdone, Arenas answered with 44, his fifth game of 40+ points this season. It’s worth noting that the Wizards are only 2-3 in those games.

But McGrady wasn’t the only standout for the Rockets last night. Aging Juwan Howard scored early and often and buried his old team with 24 points in 41 productive minutes. Coming in to last night’s contest, he was averaging a whopping nine points per game this season. Paging the interior defense, anyone home? It’s never good when a team averaging 87.6 points a game, last in the league mind you, scores a season high 123 on you. It’s time for the Wiz to go back to the drawing board on the defensive end.

(AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)