Caron Butler refers to his new head coach as an "offensive genius". Former Bullet and current ESPN analyst Tim Legler used the same two words to describe Flip Saunders. It is rare to hear a compliment of such magnitude answered with a rebuttal, yet that is exactly what Saunders usually does when given a compliment about his offensive coaching skills.

At his introductory press conference Saunders quickly outlined that while he is known for his offense, over 60% of his NFL size playbook consists of defensive plays, and defense would be a focal point for a Wizards team that Saunders feels has potential on both sides of the ball.

"It's almost more rewarding as a player, when you can go stop somebody than score on somebody. That's the mentality you have to have if you want to be a championship-type team," Saunders said. "I really believe -- and I say this and people around here shudder -- but I think this can be a good defensive team. I'm not saying average. I'm saying we can be a good defensive team. Time will tell."

While time will tell on how good the Wizards can be on defense, Saunders quickly laid out the expectation that he would like to hold teams around 43% from the field.

After a month of implementing defensive schemes in training camp and preseason, the real test for how good the Wizards defense would be came on Tuesday night against an extremely talented Dallas Mavericks team. Facing one of the best passing guards in the NBA in Jason Kidd, a high scoring sixth man in Jason Terry, and one of the most versatile forwards in the game in former MVP Dirk Nowitzki, Saunders and the Wizards were thrown into the fire on opening night of the season and came back with a result that goes well beyond the word ‘good’.

Against the explosive Mavericks offense, the Wizards played aggressive and attacked the Mavericks for 48 minutes, limiting one of the NBA's best offenses to a paltry 39.5% from the field and 91 points, more than 10 points below their average from last season.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve said this team has won because of their defense or grinding it out, but that’s what they did tonight," said Saunders. "Fab (Oberto) was great as far as (his defense) on Nowitzki. I said we’ve got to try to make him a volume scorer and not let him get quality scoring where he’s getting a lot of points on a few shots, and we made him work and (Oberto) did a good job. I thought the guys were really committed as far as what we were doing. This is one game. We started out on a good foot. What happens is, sometimes you start setting the bar. Not many teams are going to come in here and win this year. This is a tough place to win."

As Saunders stated, Tuesday was just "one game", but in just over one month, the rest of the NBA is seeing a glimpse of how good this team can be on the defensive end.