Four reasons to keep smiling after the Wizards came back from 19 points down and still lost to Miami, 93-89:
Gilbert Arenas gave a great explanation for what happened with 15 seconds left and instead of taking a three-pointer he decided to feed Brendan Haywood for a failed alley oop. “Obviously, it hit the rim,” said Arenas, who was in full mope but reluctantly and thankfully spoke with the media. “It’s not rocket scientist.”
Mike Miller mustered a smile despite having his left arm immobilized in a sling. “[It happened] riding a guy over a screen, a guy kind of clipped me in a weird spot,” said Miller. “It felt like it kind of came out of place and went numb. That scared me a little bit, more than anything, but I’ll be alright… It was tough. But the one good thing we got going for us is it’s early in the season. Unfortunately, we’re already going through some injuries that we don’t want to go through, but that’s part of basketball. We’ll be alright. We just gotta get everyone on the floor together at the same time and get some practice time with everybody. The best thing about it is you play 82 games.”
Brendan Haywood also kept a brave face. “How long’s [Miller] out?” Seven-ten days. “Damn. It’s tough to develop the chemistry until we get everybody out there for long stretches. But injuries are something we’ve had to play through in the past. We’ll continue to play through it, and at some point, we’ll get everybody out there and we’ll see where we’re at.”
DeShawn Stevenson did well guarding Dwyane Wade. That is, as well as one can against a guy who scored 40 points on 26 shots. “DeShawn played a really good game,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders, “and it’s unfortunate that he missed the two free throws at the end because that is what everyone will remember but there are so many other factors that contributed to the loss.”
