What’s left to say after the 105-98 win over Philadelphia? Again the Wizards hauled themselves into a dogfight against an inferior opponent. They led, 22-11, in the first quarter on the second three-pointer of the night by Gilbert Arenas but it was down to four by the time the 76ers scored on their first possession of the second period. They led by 11 again, 44-33, after Nick Young hit a three midway through the second period but barely crawled into the locker room ahead by three.
And then, of course, there was the benching. Said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders: “We had guys that were mad. I told them you can be mad, but you’re not half as mad as I was with the effort that we gave. My second point was you have to have enough confidence when things aren’t going right that you can put guys in and give you energy, get it turned around and get things going. That’s what a team is.”
Just wanted to point out one thing. The Philly lead was four when the starters went out. It was seven when they went back in.
But anyway, who saw it coming? Not Dominic McGuire: “Not until he came over there and said, ‘You at the point guard, you at shooting guard, you at small forward,’ because he ain’t never did it so I was surprised and shocked.”
Arenas didn’t mind – easy not to after winning the game: “We felt flat so the second unit had to give the gym a spark and give us a spark too. It was needed. We didn’t have the energy that we needed.”
Young (13 points) wanted to make a statement: “I just gotta bring it every game myself. I can’t be considered a streaky player so I went out there tonight, proving ourselves, the young guys out there, trying to prove a point, that we are somebody on this team and we can step up at any time.”
Randy Foye looked like he belonged as a starter (but he was also responsible for the final straw that led to the benching, pushing a pass into Brendan Haywood’s chest when Haywood was trying to set a screen for him: “Just me playing alongside Gil, another guy that’s able to attack and create for others. I think that opens up everything. I just think that first quarter was a little bit of everyone that was helping out and scoring and also playing defense.”
But back to the third quarter, when Caron Butler took the punishment like Caron Butler usually takes it: “I was thinking, man, when we go back in, we just gotta play with more energy, play with more effort, and try to find a way to win the game. You know, this is not personal. When things happen like that, and you make adjustments and win the game, it’s not personal. Everybody’s trying to get the same goal. They’re trying to win games so if a coach does that, that’s discipline, you accept it, take the smack on the wrist and you get prepared to get back out there and show what you’re capable of doing. You can’t hold no grudges, can’t be disappointed at nobody because there’s a mirror for that.”
Antawn Jamison, who let’s face it, had a bad game, didn’t comment on the benching, but he did talk about a collision with Haywood for a fourth-quarter defensive rebound that had him dragging down the court well behind the rest of the team: “I’m used to it by now. We’ve played 30 games. Out of 30 games, he’s found a way to tweak my shoulder in 25 of them. It’s just him being aggressive, going for the rebound. He said he didn’t know it was me, but it’s a good excuse. It’s him being aggressive. I like it. He was going for the rebound, but I’m going to have to find a way to counteract it, find a way to prevent that from happening again.”
Arenas was hot early and late as he combined with Butler and Earl Boykins to pull the Wizards back and put the Sixers away. Arenas hit his first three shots of the game, but more importantly, his last two free throws of the fourth quarter, which came with 1:11 remaining and the Wizards up by two, 99-97: “I just kept the confidence that I had coming from the West Coast, and all it takes is a couple games to get somebody’s spirit going, and I found it on the West, and I’m trying to keep it going. I feel a lot better than I did at the beginning. The rhythm, the dribbling in the lane, just moving without the ball, it’s all coming back.”
Said Boykins about Washington’s emerging closing trio: “Definitely, when it’s us three on the court, it makes it rough for opposing teams because you really can’t concentrate on one guy. Tonight, it really showed because they weren’t able to double team as much, they weren’t able to load up as much. We were able to get one-on-one situations. when those guys are guarded one-on-one usually something positive happens.”
Off to Milwaukee (them, not me)…
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