The Wizards didn’t play any defense tonight as they allowed the Raptors to hit 59.3% of their shots from the floor.  Gilbert Arenas led the way for the Wizards with 27 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists.  Caron Butler also had a good all-around game with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

The Wizards fell to 27-18 on the season with this loss.  http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270131028

With Antawn Jamison out for awhile it’s likely that Jarvis Hayes will take his spot in the starting lineup and the Wizards need him to play well.  He’s averaging 16.8 minutes and 5.7 points, 2.0 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game.  The Wizards will need him to score at least 10 points per game while Jamison is out.  Also, the Wizards will likely get DeShawn Stevenson more shots and he’ll need to make them count.  He’s averaging 9.6 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game this season but the Wizards will need more than that until Jamison returns.

Antawn Jamison will miss 2-8 weeks according to the Washington Post with a sprained knee.  This is a big blow to the Wizards as he was averaging 19.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game this season.  Look for Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas trying to even score more until Jamison returns.

The impressive thing about this win is that the Wizards only had Antawn Jamison for 6 minutes in this game before he left with a sprained knee.  Gibert Arenas had a great game with 36 points, 7 rebounds and 11 assists.  DeShawn Stevenson stepped up and shot 7 of 8 from the floor and wound up with 15 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists.  Caron Butler also was very active with 13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 steals.

The Wizards improved to 27-17 on the season with this win.  http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270130027

The Washington Wizards have won 7 of their last 10 games and have opened up a 3.5 game lead on the Orlando Magic in the Southeast Division.  More importantly, the Wizards have the best record in the Eastern Conference by 1/2 a game over the Detroit Pistons.  The Wizards have been led this season by their “Big Three” (Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antwan Jamison).  The Big Three are averaging 69.9 points, 20.8 rebounds and 12.0 assists per game this season which is outstanding.  How far the Wizards go will depend on how well the other 5 players in the rotation play for the Wizards.  DeShawn Stevenson starts at shooting guard and is averaging 9.5 points per game.  He likely won’t see any increase in shots in the second half so he needs to stay around 10 points per game.  The two-headed center of Brendan Haywood and Etan Thomas have done a great job for the Wizards.  Between them Thomas & Haywood are averaging 13.0 points and 12.7 rebounds per game and if they keep that up the Wizards will be happy.  The Wizards do need more from Antonio Daniels (7.1 points) and Jarvis Hayes (5.6 points) in the second half of the season so the starters don’t wear down when they really need them in the playoffs.