Wizards 104, Magic 97
The only reminders of Gilbert Arenas on Friday were the few children still wearing what was likely their favorite jersey, the one with the number zero that has been the symbol of the franchise for most of the last decade.
But Arenas himself might as well have been a ghost as the Wizards played their first home game without him since the start of his indefinite suspension from the NBA.
Into that void stepped Antawn Jamison, who confronted the adversity facing his club with heartfelt plea for forgiveness to the sold out Verizon Center that set the tone for an uplifting 104-97 upset of Southeast Division-leading Orlando.
“We never meant to make light of the situation,” Jamison told the crowd, referring to the picture taken Tuesday in Philadelphia of Arenas pretending to shoot a smiling circle of teammates with his fingers. “We’re going to do everything in our power, as long as I’m captain and these guys are my teammates to make this one of the most respectable organizations in the league.”
He then went on to score a game-high 28 points and grab 11 rebounds as the Wizards (12-22) rallied from an 11-point deficit late in the third quarter. Brendan Haywood added 18 points and 15 rebounds while tasked with defending the best center in the game, Dwight Howard, and Randy Foye had a season-high 20 points and 6 assists as he slid into Arenas’s former point guard position.
“We have guys who have been in a lot of meetings and they really haven’t had that chance to focus on basketball,’ said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “It would’ve been very easy to say that this is a little bit too hard, but they didn’t do that. They showed character, and tonight I thought we played really well as a team at both ends.”
Howard still managed 23 points and 11 rebounds for the slumping Magic (24-12), who lost their fourth straight game, but Arenas was shut out.
Already banned from games as part of that suspension, he also didn’t appear in a new version of the team’s pregame video, and merchandise featuring his name wasn’t on sale.
The Wizards also fined Nick Young, JaVale McGee, Randy Foye and Andray Blatche $10,000 each for their roles in Tuesday’s incident.
“The joke wasn’t meant to harm anyone, but at the same time it was wrong, period,” said Blatche.
The game itself also came on the heels of Saunders, as well as a number of players, having interviews with investigators over the locker room gun incident involving Arenas and Javaris Crittenton on Dec. 21.
Saunders also confirmed that he has banned gambling on team flights.
For Mike Miller, Friday’s contest was part of what he called “a fresh start,” a term he used to describe his new close-cropped haircut that coincided with his return from injury after nearly seven weeks. His unselfish ball movement was a welcome return and, he set the Wizards off on a game-deciding 23-5 run with a three-pointer that cut the Magic’s lead to 81-74 early in the fourth quarter.
Caron Butler (23 points, 7 rebounds) finished it off with two free throws following an emotional defensive rebound and foul that brought the crowd to its feet.
“This is a city that loves the game of basketball, that knows the game of basketball,” said Jamison afterward. “If you just play hard and you play with a certain amount of passion, they are going to cheer for you. They recognize hard work and that’s what we did tonight. We played with a lot of passion and a lot of aggressiveness. It felt good to have the fans have our backs. That made a difference for us.”
