"Eager, pumped and ready" Wizards get down to business -- with iPads

You already know plenty about the Wizards' Midnight Tip-off activities, but there was another practice on Tuesday, with about 3,500 fewer fans and no NBATV cameras in attendance. Coach Flip Saunders spent the first real practice of training camp -- the late-night practice was more of a scrimmage than anything else -- working on fundamentals and going over skeleton plays. He has said the motto for this season is, "Back to Basics."

The Wizards only have four players who were in training camp with the team last season -- Gilbert Arenas, Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee and Nick Young -- and Sanders and his players said there was a different tone than in past years. There is more hunger, which Young said was proven by the players' desire to start practicing at the first available time.

"Everybody was eager, pumped and ready," Young said. "We were here early and excited. People coming back from summer time mostly dreading it, like, 'I wish I had a longer summer.' But everybody came ready to play."