Wizards put heart into 104-97 win at home

By John Mitchell, for NBA.com
Posted Saturday January 9, 2010 12:01AM

WASHINGTON (NBA.com exclusive) -- On most nights at Verizon Center, Washington Wizards forward Antawn Jamison does most of his talking with his play.

Last night, with the team playing its first home game since commissioner David Stern suspended star guard Gilbert Arenas indefinitely while he is under investigation for an alleged gun-play incident, Jamison did his best work before the game, won by the Wizards 104-97.

Taking the microphone and addressing the sellout crowd (20,173), Jamison, who would shortly thereafter led the Wizards with 28 points and 11 rebounds, addressed the events of the last few days. He specifically addressed a picture of him and his teammates taken in Philadelphia that showed them laughing at Arenas as his mimicked shooting imaginary guns.

"On behalf of my teammates, coaching staff and the organization, we know it's been a trying week," Jamison, perpetually moving, said. "One thing my teammates and I take very seriously is being positive role models; it's something that we don't take lightly.

"There has been a picture of us taking this event very lightly," He continued. "This is a serious situation - it's something that we take to heart - and we never meant to make light of the situation. And we are going to do everything in our power, as long as I'm your captain and as long as these guys right here are my teammates to make this one of the more respectable organization in the league."

While the Wizards (12-22) play has been anything but respectable, they played with a fury in the fourth quarter that enabled them to overcome a 10-point Orlando (24-12) advantage late in the game, outscoring the Magic 33-20 in the fourth and, in the end, looking nothing like the team that has thus been a huge disappointment.

It started when Jamison and Mike Miller drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to get the Wizards to within 81-77. This was the start of a 29-10 Washington run that put the Wizards ahead comfortably, 100-91, with just under a minute to play."

"Those two 3-pointers changed the game for us," Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. "They got us going."

The Wizards got a huge game out of center Brendan Haywood. Haywood battled Orlando all-star Dwight Howard to a standstill, finishing with 18 points and 15 rebounds to Howard's 23 points and 11 boards.

Caron Butler added 22 points for the Wizards and grabbed seven boards, helping the Wizards to a 55-41 rebounding advantage. And while Randy Foye did not shoot the ball especially well, (5 for 17), he did finish with a season-high 20 points.

Orlando, which has now dropped four games in a row for the first time since 2007, never trailed in the second and third quarters. Vince Carter sprained his left shoulder in the second quarter then left the game and did not return. However, the fourth quarter, when the Magic made just 8 of 23 from the floor, was Orlando's undoing.

Vince Carter sprained his left shoulder in the second quarter (left game and did not return)

"We're just not winning ball games," said Orlando's Rashard Lewisforgot to mention that Vince Carter sprained his left shoulder in the second quarter (left game and did not return), who fouled out with just over three minutes to play and picked up a technical foul. "We're just not winning ball games. It doesn't mean were still not one of the elite teams in the league; we've just got to play defense. We were up 10 points in the fourth quarter and then we started missing some shots. They started getting some points and that's what led to the loss."

The loss left Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy looking for a silver lining.

"It just gets worse. It was terrible. We were fine until the last 10 minutes of the game and then we gave up fast-breaks and second shots. We didn't have one guy on the floor that could make a shot," Van Gundy said. "They got games out of their key players. Butler and Jamison were both very good and some other guys. Dwight had a good offensive game and Rashard and Jameer were both down. We can't get more than one of our four guys to do anything offensively on a given night. I've tried to change the play calling to where we have a more even shot distribution, which we're getting, but we just have guys struggling. I don't know what the answer is right now."

• Magic: Foyle
• Wizards: Crittenton, James, McGuire

• Magic: Bass, Lewis
• Wizards: Jamison, Saunders

• Lead Changes: 6
• Times Tied: 8

• Arena: Verizon Center, Washington, DC
• Officials: #34 Marc Davis, #42 Eric Lewis, #56 Mark Ayotte
• Attendance: 20173
• Duration: 2:20