The Magic of the Wizards

After what had to be a disappointing All Star Weekend, Gilbert Arenas might be forgiven if he'd sulked and moped about a bit. Less effort and interest would be understandable; he got screwed in the selection of the All Stars, and the Weekend itself was a screwing of great proportion.

But he didn't. If anything, he came back from Houston more energized and rested than he's been in quite a while. Perhaps this time off the regular schedule gave him the time he needed to keep from looking as though he were ready to drop--like he's looked the last month and change.

The game didn't look good at first. The Wizards dug themselves a seemingly insurmountable hole--nineteen points--but managed to pull themselves out of it to win by
twelve against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Boosted by Arenas' thirty-four points, five rebounds and five assists, the Wiz grabbed a win that looked impossible during the first half. Bet Kevin Garnett still doesn't know what hit him.

"Phenomenal," Wizards forward Antawn Jamison said of Arenas. "He's playing the way he's been playing all year." Not really--earlier in the year Gilbert might've gotten the points, but the assists and rebounds wouldn't have been there. He's finally settled into being a consistently effective scoring point guard along the lines of Jason Kidd. Lovely to see.

Kudos to Caron Butler and Jamison as well; both were solid for most of the game. Especially during the second quarter, all three stars rocked with a 29-5 run that sealed the game. The rest was just gravy.

Final score: 90-78. That's eight straight wins in the MCI Center.

Sidelines: Next game is Friday the 24th against the Cavaliers in Cleveland. The Cavs are so inconsistent as to be impossible to predict. I'm going to go out on a limb here and lightly pencil this one in as a loss, but it could go the other way.
 
Nice to get a victory after going into All Star Weekend with two losses.

Brendan Haywood was benched as punishment for getting into a scrape with Etan Thomas. Guess he must've been the aggressor since Etan wasn't also benched. Michael Ruffin started in Brendan's place and contributed nine points and nine rebounds. Not bad at all.

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