Sometimes, for whatever reason, it takes teams a little while to get started. Each year there are a few clubs that aren’t quite ready for prime time when things tip off in November and don’t really get into sync until December or January.

This year, several contenders offered good examples. Dallas, Phoenix, and Chicago, for instance, all overcame rough starts thanks to strong recent play that has them right back near the top of their respective divisions. That’s what tends to happen in a long season — eventually the cream rises and the crud sinks. Nobody was foolish enough to write off teams like the Mavs or Suns just because they had a bad first two weeks.

But the more interesting cases are ones in which a team’s standing on the cream-crud continuum is less obvious. Take the Washington Wizards, for instance. While most of the nation focused on the struggles of Miami and the three teams mentioned above, the Wizards were just as wobbly out of the gate.

Washington lost seven of eight in one stretch, and several of the defeats were embarrassing — a 20-point pasting by the Knicks, a 27-point loss to Dallas, and a 15-point beating at the hands of lowly Memphis. They finished November at 5–9, with nary a road win to their credit, and were only that good because they squeaked out a one-point home win over the Hawks to close out the month. Coming on the heels of a 42-win playoff season a year ago, this was not the kind of start they were expecting.

But somehow when the calendar changed, so did the Wizards. Washington has won six of eight, and just as several of the November losses were laughers, so too have the December wins been one-sided. They hammered the Mavericks, who came in with a 12-game winning streak, leading by as many 31 points before some cosmetic scoring made the final tally more respectable. They avenged the loss to the Knicks with a double-digit win — their first road triumph of the year — and then put the exclamation point on their recent streak with a 120–91 demolition of a strong Denver team on Wednesday.

And suddenly, things don’t seem so bad. Washington finds itself at 10–11, and will likely hit .500 Friday when they play at home against a Dwyane Wade–less Miami Heat.

In the Leastern Conference, that not only puts them back into the playoff chase, it has them pushing for home court in the first-round. Remember, the East’s no. 5 seed will likely get home-court advantage against the Titanic Division champ, who by rule cannot be seeded lower than fourth.

(Oh, while we’re at it, here’s a quick Titanic update: The Nets have a worse record than 14 of the 15 teams in the West — and are in first place. Only eight teams in the entire league are below them, but four of those are in the Titanic. Has a team ever been in a position where winning the division would cost it a top-10 lottery pick? Anyway, back to the program.)

The trigger for Washington’s recovery has been an offensive renaissance. This team needs to score to win, because their playing style would make Lawrence Frank or Jeff Van Gundy jump off a bridge. They shoot early and often, pay scant attention to defense, and push the pace whenever possible.

So when Washington cleared 93 points only once in seven games during a stretch in November (and were held to 82 or less in four of the seven), you can predict what the outcome was. The Wizards need to get 110 points to have a good chance of winning. In eight of their 10 wins they scored 111 or more, and they’ve only won once when held under 100. In November, they hit that magic number just five times in 14 starts, but in December, they’re five for eight with two near misses (a 109 and a 106).

They keys were predictable: the “Big Three” of Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Caron Butler. Arenas struggled in November, shooting 38.9% for the month, but has upped that to 49.7% since December 1, while pumping in 32.4 points per game. Similarly, Jamison has gone from 17.6 points a game on 43.8% shooting in November to 19.4 points on 49.5% shooting in December, while Butler’s production shift has been less marked but still positive, adding an extra point per game to his average.

However, this team still faces a big test to keep up its recent streak. The Wizards are about to head west for a tough four-game trip against the Lakers, Nuggets, Kings, and Suns, and the road has been unkind to its stars. Jamison, for instance, averages five points more in home games and his secondary numbers all are better too.

Then there’s Arenas, who is on pace to have one of the biggest home-road differentials in history. In 11 home games, Arenas averages 34.4 points, 7.2 assists, and shooting 49.0% — a Micheal Jordan–like output.

But on the road, he looks more like Rosalind Jordan — 21.1 points, 5.2 assists, and 34.3% shooting. It’s a small sample, and Wizards fans can take heart in his two most recent road efforts — scoring 38 against the Knicks and 32 against the Sixers — but the difference is glaring enough that it bears watching.

And watch we will as the Wizards hit the road this week, because if the offense doesn’t make the trip they’re dead meat. Washington was a poor defensive team last year and with the subtraction of defensive ace Jared Jeffries they’ve only grown worse. The Wizards rank 28th among the league’s 30 teams in Defensive Efficiency (my measure of the number of points a team allows per 100 opponent possessions), explaining why they need to score 110 points to win.

Nonetheless, despite their road woes and my own skepticism about a team attempting to win this way — especially one so dependent on the continued good health of three players — the Wizards’ recent results show they’re worth taking seriously. In an Eastern Conference where mere survival is the name of the game, Washington has pulled its head back above water. It’s received little attention, but I find it noteworthy because a few weeks ago such an outcome seemed far from assured.