Wizards Win and Go Home

What does a team do when its franchise player announces an hour before tip-off of an elimination game that he is doing a "Jerry Stackhouse" and shutting it down for the season?

The team, the Washington Wizards, goes out and plays one of its best games of the playoffs and survives to play another day. Gilbert Arenas has decided that his left knee is not fit enough for him to play at a level that will help the Wizards win. Apparently he forgot to tell coach Eddie Jordan because he (Jordan) was planning to start Arenas in game five.

There has been a lot of talk about Washington being a better team without Arenas.

They are not. Washington is a better team without an injured Arenas though.

It was nice to see Roger Mason in the game for Washington's final offensive possession. All Mason has done all season is play consistent, smart basketball. He doesn't try to do more than he's capable of on offense and plays very good defense.

Arenas' absence should also free up some minutes for rookie Nick Young. Other than Butler and Arenas, Young is the one Wizard who can create a shot for himself and his teammates.

There is no secret to the defensive formula for defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers:
1)  Rebound the ball.
2)  Defend the paint.
3)  Close out on the 3-point shooters.

The problem for the Washington Wizards has been executing that plan. The Wizards had played well for 46 and a half minutes but found themselves trailing the Cavaliers by 5 points with 1:30 left in the game.

The season appeared to be all but over.

A couple of missed Cleveland 3-point shots later the Wizards trailed by one with 12 seconds left. Washington inbounded the ball to Caron Butler who took LeBron James to the basket to score with 3.9 seconds left. That is an eternity when you have a player like James who can score pretty much at will or set up a teammate with an open shot.

Lebron James has tormented the Wizards for the past three seasons with end of game heroics.

This time, however, he was not able to get the job done. His driving layup bounced off the rim as time expired. Maybe the "course o' lez boulez" has finally been lifted?

This sets up a return to D.C. for game 6. What type of game will we see? I think that game six will look a lot like games one, four and five with the the keys being rebounding, and end of game execution.

Hopefully the basketball gods will once again smile upon the Wizards because if they lose game six they don't go home, they stay home.