Grown up, Blatche faces mentors

Andray Blatche often greeted it with rolling eyes or sulking. He never understood why Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood and Caron Butler were so hard on him, so unfair with a young guy who entered the NBA out of high school and was still trying to find his way.

It wasn't until after those players were gone that it sunk in. They weren't being overly critical when they told Blatche he was squandering talents and ability at his size that most people would envy.

They weren't picking on him when they told him the importance of being in good physical condition in order to handle an 82-game regular season, and possibly the playoffs. Sometimes blunt, sometimes harsh, they rarely let up on Blatche.

But as Blatche shifted from being an occasional tease to a reliable go-to guy in the final 32 games last season, the words those veterans shared with him repeated over and over again in his mind.

"Came to me like clockwork," Blatche said. "Once I got on the court, I knew what to do. It clicked into me, it was automatic."