The Wizards haven't been as good as many expected this season, but new coach Flip Saunders isn't ready to vary from his principles.

"You go back to principles, and it's like pounding on a rock. You keep pounding and pounding, and eventually you break it down," Saunders said. "But you can't vary away from the process of where you want to go. ... It's a long-term project - that's what you have to understand."

Maintaining his philosophies is one thing, but this Washington team wasn't considered a "long-term project" when the season began.

The Wizards are 10-18 and have endured two separate six-game losing skids.

"It's like I told our players: As coaches, I'm not going to change what we do - a coverage defensively or something - just because we don't do it hard or do it right," Saunders said. "When you don't do it hard or do it right, no matter what you do, it's not going to work.

"Until we decide that we get upset when we miss defensive assignments as much as we get upset when we don't get the ball on offense, we're not going to take that next step."