Gilbert Arenas had 22 points and nine assists, but it wasn’t for him that the Verizon Center crowd chanted “MVP!” Antawn Jamison had 15 points and nine rebounds, but it wasn’t for him. Even Caron Butler had 15 points, six rebounds and four assists, but it for wasn’t him either.
It was for Earl Boykins, who wasn’t even on an NBA roster at the beginning of the season, and who scored 10 of the Wizards’ last 14 points, including two free throws with one second remaining, to give Washington a 104-102 win over Milwaukee.
It wasn’t just that Boykins (13 points – 11 in the 4th quarter – and four assists) played the role of closer – again – instead of any number of players that the Wizards are built around, but the way he did it. With the Bucks leading, 99-96, Boykins played the pick and roll, and smoothly stepped back for 14-foot fadeaway jumper of 7-foot Andrew Bogut. On the next trip down the floor, Bogut wasn’t going to let Boykins do the same thing, and stepped out even further, only to see Boykins feed Brendan Haywood (8 points, 14 rebounds) for an uncontested throw-down.
“It was crazy,” said Haywood. “Bogut hadn’t stepped up on a shot on a guard all night long, and so we just chose to attack him down the stretch and see what he was going to do. He finally stepped up, and Earl dropped a pass, and I was able to get an easy dunk.”
Brandon Jennings (17 points, 7 assists) still didn’t let the game go, nailing a game-tying 3-pointer with 10.5 seconds to go, but Boykins got the Milwaukee star rookie to bite on a pump fake and earned his two clinching free throws.
“This was huge in terms of our maturation as a team because the way we handled success last week was bad,” said Boykins. “It was just awful, and to come back and play the way we did tonight, even through the highs and lows, we continued to play hard to play together, and to fight, and that’s all you can ask for.”
And just like that, the Wizards (7-10) have four of their last five, including two in a row by four points or less.
“Those are things you hope that will help you the more you’re in it,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “Earlier in the year, we lost those games. Now we’ve found a way to win a few of them.”
Meanwhile, Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles found a way to get ejected before the first quarter was through, objecting to a non-call on Hakim Warrick (20 points) and going crazy enough to find himself at midcourt before he finally turned for the Bucks locker room.
Keep in mind, Washington wasn’t perfect, not when Luke Ridnour (20 points) is free to hit 9 of 16 shots and Charlie Bell (15 points) is allowed to go 6 for 11. Not when Arenas, in three consecutive plays, gets his shot blocked twice in a row and in frustration commits an offensive foul. Not when that sequence is followed up by a trio of turnovers by Nick Young, who was having another strong offensive performance with 21 points. The worst play of the night? Haywood and 6-2 Ridnour in a jump ball at the Wizards’ end – Haywood wins it, but it gets tipped to Jodie Meeks who runs free for a dunk the other way.
“The only way [turning the corner is] going to come is if we keep plugging away, not being satisfied with four out of five,” said Jamison, “knowing that a team’s coming in on Friday who felt like they should’ve won the other night, and I don’t think they think played particularly well. They’re trying to stop the bleeding so it’s going to be a different team, and we’re going to be a different team as well. I wish we had another one tomorrow. I just want to get on the right track and keep it going.”
More on Earl, Jennings and the new rotation dilemmas for Saunders tomorrow….
