Calbert Cheaney

Opponent: New Jersey NetsSite: Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, N.J.Time: 7:30TV/Radio: Ch. 20/WWLG (1360 AM), WTEM (570 AM)Outlook: The Nets have lost five straight and 12 of their past 13. F Derrick Coleman (sore wrist) has missed nine straight games. The Bullets have won two of their past three. F Chris Webber (sore right knee) probably will play tonight. G Calbert Cheaney (flu, tonsillitis) did not travel with the team yesterday, but may make the trip today and could be in uniform.

WASHINGTON -- It was a day of giving at the MCI Center last night. The Washington Wizards provided free tickets to their first home exhibition game, a free concert by a local school band outside the arena and a free autograph signing session after the game.And the fans gave as well at halftime, letting the Wizards know exactly how they felt about their performance. The capacity crowd of 20,674 booed as the Wizards walked off the court trailing by 12 points.It got no better in the second half as the Wizards were beaten by the Philadelphia 76ers, 100-88.

Washington Bullets Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Calbert Cheaney and Mitchell Butler will celebrate the Stay in School Jam with more than 6,500 elementary students from Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Howard County at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Baltimore Arena.There will be a performance of "The Tortoise and the Hare" by an acting troupe from Library Theatre and musical entertainment by LaFace singer Usher. The program is a celebration of a four-month reading incentive project, "Pick and Roll," in which students who had read five books outside the classroom between November and March were rewarded with two tickets to a Bullets home game.

WASHINGTON -- Even as the Washington Wizards boosted their lead to 11 points early in the fourth quarter over the Los Angeles Lakers, fans braced for the collapse. At some point you just expected the Washington team that got blown out in its previous game by the lowly Dallas Mavericks to appear.The Washington team that produced that terrible outing never surfaced last night. Instead the Wizards actually resembled a decent NBA team, walking off the MCI Center court with a 96-86 win over the Lakers.

BOWIE -- The Washington Bullets put point guard Mark Price on the team's active roster for the first time yesterday, but it may be at least another week before he is ready to play in a game.To make room for Price, the Bullets released reserve forward Bob McCann, and placed shooting guard Calbert Cheaney (sore right leg) on the injured list.Price, who will turn 32 next month, is recovering from surgery to repair the torn plantar fascia of his left foot. Acquired in a trade for the Bullets' first-round pick in this summer's draft, Price was sidelined after participating in the first day of practice during training camp.

Five veterans, including 1993 first-round pick Calbert Cheaney, will be among the 13 players that will participate in the Washington Bullets rookie/free agent camp that begins today at Bowie State University.The camp, which runs until Tuesday when the Bullets travel to Philadelphia to play the Baker League All-Stars, also will feature appearances by 1994 draft picks Juwan Howard (No. 5 overall) and Jim McIlvaine. Both will join the two-a-day sessions Monday, but how much action the unsigned draftees will see is unclear.

It's been a dismal first half of the season for the Washington Bullets, who enter the All-Star break coming off Thursday's loss to the lowly Dallas Mavericks. All of the Washington players will get a break from basketball this weekend, with the exception of one.Guard Calbert Cheaney, the sixth pick in last year's NBA draft, will be one of 16 players participating in tonight's debut Rookie All-Star Game, to be played at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Cheaney, 6-foot-7 and out of Indiana, moved into Washington's starting lineup with the injury last month to Rex Chapman.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The coaches wanted intelligent shots, intense man-to-man defense and good basketball. They got one of three.Third-ranked Kansas (2-0) defeated No. 2 Indiana (4-1) yesterday, 74-69, before 31,197 at the Hoosier Dome. The Jayhawks' tough defense coupled with Indiana's inaccuracy from the foul line led to the Kansas victory."I really thought it was a defensive struggle on both ends," said Jayhawks coach Roy Williams. "I was not as pleased with our offensive play as I was our defense.

BOWIE - If there was some way any way that the Washington Bullets could get Rasheed Wallace back in uniform, the team definitely was going to give it a try. But after a bit of experimenting with various splints on Wallace's fractured left thumb, the attempts proved futile."

ST. LOUIS -- The magical ride of Jason Kidd, Todd Bozeman and the rest of California Bears ended last night in the semifinals of the NCAA Midwest Regional, six weeks after it began and three games short of where they wanted it to finish.The freshman point guard and the second-month coach showed their inexperience down the stretch, and neither could stop the steamroller disguised as the second-seeded Kansas Jayhawks from running away with a 93-76 victory."We came here to win and you have to think you can or else you won't succeed," said a tearful Bozeman after his team suffered only its second loss in the 13 games since he replaced Lou Campanelli as the team's head coach.

LANDOVER -- They will return next season with a new name, new uniforms and a new arena, but the Bullets already are reborn.Yes, they blew a nine-point lead in the final four minutes last night. Yes, they got knocked out of the playoffs in three games. Yes, their season is over.But that wasn't just any team they kept challenging in the fourth quarter -- it was the four-time champion Chicago Bulls.And that wasn't just any player who kept breaking their hearts -- it was the one and only Michael Jordan.

CHICAGO -- Chris Webber stole a glance at the stat sheet on his chair. He laughed, shook his head and yelled something to a teammate. Clearly, he saw something he couldn't believe.His eight points, perhaps?His 24 minutes?Webber wouldn't say."We lost the game," he said last night after fouling out in the Bullets' 98-86 playoff loss to Chicago. "They were the better team. They played real hard. Good thing it's a five-game series."Webber wasn't going to complain about the officials, not after a late-season loss at Charlotte in which the Bullets alleged that referee Jim Clark was getting back at the All-Star forward for showing him up in a previous game.

BOWIE - If there was some way any way that the Washington Bullets could get Rasheed Wallace back in uniform, the team definitely was going to give it a try. But after a bit of experimenting with various splints on Wallace's fractured left thumb, the attempts proved futile."

LANDOVER -- Long known as the "Paper Clips" because they often provided as much resistance as a sheet of paper, the Los Angeles Clippers already have made life miserable for two opponents in their five-game Eastern swing.On Tuesday, the Clippers beat the New York Knicks in a game that had a lot to do with coach Don Nelson's firing yesterday. Last night, the Clippers did little to assist the Washington Bullets' playoff drive, with Los Angeles leaving the USAir Arena with a 92-89 win.The Bullets saw an end to a three-game winning streak and failed to gain ground on the Charlotte Hornets, who lost last night.

LANDOVER -- The oft-maligned New Jersey Nets are starting to talk like a playoff team. And act like one, too.The Nets ran their winning streak to four yesterday, routing the Washington Bullets, 99-81, before 16,620 at USAir Arena.New Jersey, 22-29 and fighting for one of the last Eastern Conference playoff spots, withstood a third-quarter rally by Washington that reduced a 16-point lead to 62-61, then took complete control in the fourth quarter behind 7-foot-6 center Shawn Bradley (27 points, nine rebounds)

LANDOVER -- Juwan Howard was sitting in front of his locker, with one of those "what can I say?" looks on his face. For the second time this season, the Washington Bullets looked to end a long losing streak to the Phoenix Suns. And for the second time, they failed."It's the same thing that happened when we lost out there in Phoenix," Howard said. "I think we should have won both. A game like this is tough to lose."This loss, a 123-115 overtime defeat before a sellout crowd of 18,756 at the USAir Arena, extended Washington's losing streak against Phoenix to 16 games.

BOWIE -- If you were a close observer of last year's NBA Finals, you know of Buzz Braman. The self-proclaimed "shot doctor," Braman was the man standing along a ramp watching with interest every time Shaquille O'Neal stepped to the free-throw line.Braman, over the years, has built his reputation as one of the game's top shooting instructors. The Bullets, in recent years, have developed a reputation of not knocking down the open shot (sixth from last in three-point shooting last year). So it should be no surprise that the team has hired Braman as its full-time shooting instructor.

LANDOVER -- It appeared to be a tough way to end the first half of the season for the Washington Bullets, already approaching the midway point with a limp -- no Chris Webber, no Mark Price, and going against the two-time champion Houston Rockets.So who could have expected Hakeem Olajuwon to be totally neutralized by Gheorghe Muresan? Or Clyde Drexler to look totally defenseless against a gimpy Calbert Cheaney? Or the Rockets to trail by as many as 39 points on the way to a 120-85 loss to the Bullets last night before a sellout crowd of 18,756 at USAir Arena?

LANDOVER -- To remove three starters that make up better than 50 percent of the offense would be frightening for most teams. But the Washington Bullets proved again last night that they can win under trying circumstances.The latest victim of the short-handed Bullets were the Sacramento Kings, a team with the fifth-best record in the Western Conference. And the Bullets were able to win this one rather easily, 117-88, at USAir Arena. Washington improved its record to 18-16.It's not too often that a team can score 117 points and place just three players in double figures, but that's what the Bullets did when eight players scored at least eight points.