LANDOVER -- At the podium stood Washington Bullets coach Jim Lynam, his face drawn. Nearby in the hallway general manager John Nash stood against the wall, his head down. And in the locker room Rex Chapman dressed in front of his locker, so shocked he was barely able to speak.
It wasn't because of the 105-95 loss to the Miami Heat -- the Bullets have lost more than their share of games this season. Last night, the night that was supposed to be an event because of the return of Chris Webber, the Bullets received another blow when Chapman broke his right thumb.
And the revolving door continues. Webber, after missing 19 games with a separated shoulder, checks in. And Chapman checks out, expecting to miss three weeks from an injury suffered when the ball jammed his hand.
"I can't put into words . . . ," said Chapman, wearing a metal splint on his thumb. "I don't know what to say."
Can you say jinxed? That's just what the Bullets appear to be. Chapman joins the injury list with Don MacLean, who broke his right thumb in a New Year's Eve fight, and Brent Price, who has been out all season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
And Kevin Duckworth practically ate himself off the team, having been suspended yesterday for three games for failing to stay in shape.
"There's nothing I can say," Webber said after learning of Chapman's injury. "There's nothing I can say."
The Bullets dropped their third straight against a Heat team that has experienced a few injuries of its own. Forward Kevin Willis and his 19.2 points and 11.0 rebounds were back in Miami because of left knee tendinitis that has forced him to miss five straight games. Center John Salley provides a big body in the middle, but he missed his third straight with a sprained right foot.
But the Bullets still were out-rebounded, 52-42, with a front line consisting of Matt Geiger (21 points, 12 rebounds) and Keith Askins (10 points, nine rebounds) staring down their throats.
But there were two big reasons why the Bullets fell to 11-31, the vTC first being their inability to contain Billy Owens, the latest man to notch a career high against Washington. Owens matched his career high with 30 points and added 12 rebounds.
"Owens hurt us with his penetration mostly," Lynam said. "We had Juwan [Howard] on him to start, and then switched to Rex [and later Calbert Cheaney]. Either way, he took advantage of the mismatch."
The second reason the Bullets lost was their inability to deal with Miami's full-court trapping defense in the second half.
The Bullets managed just 12 points in the third quarter, their second-lowest scoring quarter this season. Washington was held to a single point over the final five minutes of the third. And after leading by as many as nine points in the second quarter, the Bullets entered the fourth quarter trailing, 80-69.
Twice Washington pulled within six in the fourth, but that was it.
And Webber's return? It was a game of two halves. In the first, he was spectacular, scoring 14 points (seven of 13 from the field) and grabbing five rebounds in 16 minutes.
In the second, he scored just three points -- on a three-pointer in the final minute.
He had missed his first six shots of the second half, leading Lynam to believe Webber was fatigued.
Webber disagreed. "It wasn't fatigue, it was just me," Webber said. "I felt good in the second half. I did get a lot of good looks at the basket. I didn't do much with it."