The Washington Wizards are sitting on top of the NBA’s Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference with a 29-21 record.  They have a 3.5 game lead over the Magic and a 4 game lead over the Heat in their division so they must keep up the good play, especially now with Shaquille O’Neal back for the Heat.  The funny thing about the Eastern Conference is that the Wizards are currently the #2 seed right now, only 2.5 games behind the #1 seed Detroit Pistons, but, they are only 4 games ahead of the #8 seed Miami Heat.  They have struggled without Antwan Jamison, but when he returns look for the Wizards to pick their game back up and cruise into the playoffs with a solid seed.

The Wizards played really well on defense as they held the Sixers to 38% shooting from last night and that’s why they won the game!  Gilbert Areanas had another very poor shooting night as he only hit 8 of 26 shots from the floor last night, but he still wound up with 22 points and 8 rebounds.  Caron Butler also had a decent all around game with 16 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals.  Andray Blatche had his best game of the season with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.

The Wizards improved to 29-21 on the season with this win.  http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270214020

With the injury to Antwan Jamison and the fact that the Wizards don’t go deep into their bench….they need Jarvis Hayes to start playing better.  Hayes is only hitting 39.1% from the floor and that’s very poor for a forward.  He is averaging 17.1 minutes, 5.9 points and 2.1 rebounds per game this season. 

Gilbert Arenas gave the Blazers bulletin board material when he forecasted himslef dropping 50 points on them!  In reality he wound up with 9 points on 3 of 15 shooting from the floor.  Arenas didn’t have much help as the Wizards only shot 38% from the floor as a team last night!  DeShawn Stevenson led the way for the Wizards with 12 points.  Caron Butler pitched in with 10 points.

The Wizards fell to 28-21 on the season with this loss.  http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270211027

Gilbert Arenas has been excellent this season for the Wizards.  He’s giving a great effort at both ends of the court and he’s hit a lot of game winning shots at the end of games for the Wizards.  Arenas is averaging 29.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.0 steals per game this season.  He sometimes gets a little to selfish shooting the ball and that has hurt his FG % which is only 42.4%.  He has hit 37.3% of his three point shots including many from well behind the line and 83.9% of his free-throws which is important because he gets to the line a lot.  He should have a chance at winning the MVP trophy this season if he has a good second half to this season.