When the second Wizards starter went down to injury less than halfway into the second game of the season the night before, it sure felt like, despite the return of Gilbert Arenas, the trick might again be on Washington, which suffered so much in last year’s 19-63 campaign.
Until oh, what a treat the Wizards delivered on Saturday in their Halloween home opener.
Nothing could be sweeter than Arenas pouring in 32 points on 9-for-13 shooting with 7 assists and Andray Blatche adding a career-high 30 points off the bench as the Wizards (2-1) shot 61.5 percent from the field en route to a 123-104 rout of New Jersey.
That was without Antawn Jamison, who was already sidelined by a shoulder injury, and Caron Butler, who sat out with a bruised kneecap suffered Friday night in Atlanta. Butler is expected to play Tuesday at Cleveland.
“Probably the biggest crowd applause tonight was when we had all five guys touch the ball and swung it to the weak side and got Andray a wide open dunk,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders of a sequence which began with a steal by Mike Miller (9 points, 11 rebounds) and finished with DeShawn Stevenson (10 points, 6 rebounds) feeding Blatche on the baseline for two points to eclipse his old career high of 26 points. “I think there’s no question that people [in Washington] appreciate people that work hard and that play the right way.”
By the time he knocked down a 38-footer for a 28-24 lead at the first-quarter buzzer, Arenas already had 11 points. He effortlessly attacked the basket and continued to hit from outside (3-for-4 from behind the arc), piling up all of his points before the end of third, by which point Washington had a 99-79 advantage, which allowed him to safely spend the rest of the night on the bench.
Randy Foye also had 17 points and 8 assists as he made his first start along with four other players – Arenas, Miller, Brendan Haywood (10 points, 7 rebounds) and Fabricio Oberto (4 points, 5 assists) — who were either inactive or not on the Wizards roster last season.
But Blatche might have been the most refreshing candy in the goodie bag, as he showed an endless variety at the offensive end for the announced sellout of 20,173 at Verizon Center, making his first five shots.
“I think you saw everything tonight,” said Brendan Haywood. “He had the turnaround J, the face-up J, he was showing the handles, he was passing the ball. He played the way he was supposed to play and the way people have expected him to play.”
Chris Douglas-Roberts had 25 points and Rafer Alston, starting in place of Devin Harris (strained right groin) had 20 for the Nets (0-3).
