Wizards rookie swingman Jarvis Hayes gave us a call from the road to discuss the ups and downs of his first few weeks as an NBA player.

Hayes was selected with the 10th pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. Mitchell Layton/NBAE/Getty Images

It was a down and up week for us this past week. Last Tuesday we went to Memphis and played hard but lost. I got to play against one of my friends, Dahntay Jones who was drafted with me, and it was a hard fought game, but in the end they got the best of us. I felt that this was the first good game for me in the preseason. It was definitely a game for me build on.

Next game we played in New Orleans on Saturday. I got to play a majority of the game, but they were a tough team and I struggled a little bit. We came out on the short end again, but it's all a learning process for me. I just have to take one game one step at a time and learn from it.

Last night was the game that I have been waiting on all preseason. I finally was able to take a little bit from all the previous games I have played and put it together, and we were able to beat Atlanta. I was able to make some good shot selections, knocked down some shots and hit the glass a little bit.

It felt good knowing I was capable of getting hot; it was just a matter of time until I was able to break loose. When I finally did I knew what kind of night I was going to have from the first shot that I took.

This game was one of those games where my teammates needed me to hit some big shots and I did. I like to take the big shots and I did yesterday and fortunately they fell. It was a good game for me and now I just have to build from it. I can now take a lot out of that game and put it into the rest of the preseason.

Jarvis came up big Monday night in Atlanta, leading the Wizards to their second win of the preseason by scoring a game-high 29 points and grabbing six rebounds.