Gilbert Arenas will make his 2010 season debut with the Washington Wizards tonight against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, but it will be in a reserve role. Arenas has been hampered by ankle and groin injuries already this season and has practiced infrequently over the last month.
The Wizards tweeted midday on Friday that Arenas would play. He was working with the team’s second unit during practice on Thursday.
“I just want to see that he’s healthy, that he’s able to move,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders prior to the game. “What you hope is that if he’s got open shots, he knocks down his open shots and is able to do things defensively that we need to have him do because this is a team that you can’t just rely on trying to outscore them. You gotta get some stops in it. He hasn’t been with us, and we’ve put in some other stuff offensively that he might not be as totally comfortable with, just to see what he’s been able to pick up while he’s been sitting out.”
When asked about the long-awaited pairing of Arenas with John Wall – who is unveiling his gold Reeboks at the basketball Mecca – Saunders reminded that the two did play together in training camp and in the first three preseason games.
“Whenever you step up in games, it’s always more interesting to see guys play,” said Saunders. “But it’ll be more interesting from a coaching standpoint because now our rotation changes. We were in situation where we were starting to get a rotation the last game, and Nick Young played really well for us. Now, with Gil back, we’ve have a little bit of a logjam at that spot, that changes a little bit, those whole dynamics are going to change.”
The Knicks (2-2) are coming off an offensive clinic in a 120-112 win at Chicago on Thursday. Toney Douglas came off the bench to lead New York with 30 points, including five 3-pointers. The up-tempo Knicks scored 70 points on the Bulls in the first half.
“Our bigs gotta get back,” said Saunders. “The last game, we got outran 18 times in transition, our bigs did, so our bigs gotta get back on defense, try to plug and let our perimeters pick up their perimeter people, try to choke off their threes.”
Whether or not that number is exactly right, the point is well-taken.
In other injury news, Josh Howard was seen on the MSG court doing some work before the game. While there is still no specific timetable for his return, it can’t be far away.
“He met with the doctor yesterday, got a good to start doing more contact, three-on-three, five-on-five. He’s doing a lot more things so we’re encouraged by that,” said Saunders.
