Monday night’s solid win against the Dallas Mavericks, halting one of the league’s best teams’ hot twelve game winning streak, ought to give the Wizards a jolt of confidence as they head tonight to Madison Square Garden to face off against the hapless New York Knicks. Should, but likely won’t, for the simple reason that the game won’t be played in Washington, D.C. Not that MSG is a particularly intimidating venue these days — the Knicks are a league-worst 2-7 at home. Rather, the Wizards have been bad — very bad — on the road, responsible for, among other things, an embarrassing 82-102 loss that gave the Knicks one of their two home wins.

Indeed, at 0-8 D.C.’s managed to wrack up the league’s worst record at 0-8, getting blown out not only by the Knicks but by the terrible Memphis Grizzlies back on November 24.

What’s wrong? Just about everything. “Arenas has been horrible on the road, obviously” observed ESPN’s John Hollinger in a Monday online chat session, “but even more than that the defense has been terrible.” And, indeed, it’s been looking pretty ugly. But neither has the road offense impressed. At home, the Wizards have been scoring 110.6 points per game, compared to just 88.3 per game on the road. In part, the road scoring woes reflect the Wizards going off their style on the road, playing at a slower pace and attempting fewer field goals and free throws.

Photo by SportsPhotog, used under a Creative Commons license.