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Mon May 16 04:01:00 PDT 2005

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 Let's Not Get Carried Away by a Sweep

 By Tony Kornheiser

  While everyone else in town gets carried away about how the Wizards are going to be a championship contender next year and for the next 20 years, here's the only thing that might worry me -- and notice I say might worry me: The 1997-98 Capitals.

 You remember them. After years of being a good, solid team that couldn't break all the way through in the playoffs, they finally made the big leap to the Stanley Cup finals -- and got broomed out in embarrassing fashion by the Detroit Red Wings. Everyone in town shrugged that off and predicted the Caps would be Stanley Cup contenders for years to come.

 You remember what happened to the Caps after that?

 Collapse.

 The Caps failed to make the playoffs three of the next six seasons, and, when they did get in, they never got out of the first round. They acquired the biggest name in all of hockey, Jaromir Jagr, and quickly slid straight into the toilet. So much for years of contending. The way the Caps have played lately, there's no discernible difference between them playing their 82-game schedule or being locked out like they were this season: Either way, they're missing the playoffs.

 I don't want to sound like the voice of doom where the Wizards are concerned. And in fact I remain quite optimistic that this particular collection can move onward and upward -- providing they get, as they say, a big to depend on for 16 to 18 points and eight to 10 rebounds a night; every night, not just some nights. But being the old Brian Wilson fan that I am, I am reminded of these lyrics from a song off the "Pet Sounds" album of long ago: "Right now you think that she's perfection/ This time is really an exception/ Well, you know I hate to be a downer/But I'm the guy she left before you found her./Now I'm not saying you won't have a good love with her/But I keep on remembering things as they were."

 I keep on remembering The Curse O' Les Boulez. Why would I think it's been lifted now? Am I missing something here? Did the Wizards actually win a game against Miami? No, they didn't. In fact, they are 0-12 against Miami in the last two seasons. (And it's not like Dwyane Wade is going to quit basketball and become a carnival barker, is it? No, he'll be in Miami for a while.) Did Kwame Brown miraculously reappear and show the world why the Wizards made him the No. 1 overall pick in the draft just four seasons ago? No. While the Wizards would seem to be better off without Kwame, they now have absolutely nothing to show for the highest draft pick they've ever made.

 The Wizards had a great season. They won 45 games, gobs more than they've won in a bushel of years. They won a playoff game for the first time in 17 years and a playoff series for the first time in 23 years -- and did it by winning four straight games and overcoming Chicago's home-court advantage. And normally we'd all agree there's no shame in being swept by the No. 1 team in the conference, which Miami is.

 But.

 Excuse me, Tony, but there's always a "but," right?

 Yep. Thanks for playing the game. Drive home safely.

 But the Wizards weren't swept by the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference. That team had Shaq. This team had half a Shaq for two games, and no Shaq at all for two games. I'm sorry, but the Wizards' performance in those last two games -- when Shaq sat on the bench modeling suits -- was a clinker.

 You're home, where you've gone 3-0 in the playoffs so far, and for the first time since the invention of $6.50 beers you've got a home crowd that's really supportive. You've got to win one of these two games to give yourself any kind of chance to compete in the series. Then you get the break of the century when Shaq can't go. And you lose both games? Both? I guess that makes the Heat "The Original Wizzinator."

 You lose to a substitute center, long past his prime, with a kidney transplant? A center who scored, hello, no points in Game 4? None. You make Dwyane Wade, who's a really nice young guard, look like Michael Jordan -- not the Michael Jordan who played here, the Michael Jordan who won six rings in Chicago, the Real Michael Jordan. You lose to a team forced to give critical minutes to people like Keyon Dooling, Rasual Butler and Michael Doleac? When you've got Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Larry Hughes? That's not something to build on. That's sand.

 To a man, the Wizards will say that they learned something valuable from the meek way they went out against Miami. Here's one thing the Wizards ought to be learning about: the 1997-98 Capitals.

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