<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">As good as Gilbert Arenas is, the Washington Wizards know they can't rely on him to carry them every game. The Wizards (20-14) hope to put together another balanced offensive effort Friday night when they face the injury-plagued New Orleans Hornets (13-22) in Oklahoma City. Arenas ranks second in the NBA with 30.2 points per game, and he's the catalyst for a Washington club that is averaging 108.2 points per contest, also good for second in the league. Arenas was named the NBA's player of the week Monday for the third time in five weeks. He averaged 33.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 2.7 steals in three games last week, and hit a 32-foot winning shot against Milwaukee on Jan. 3. Arenas, however, was well below his average Wednesday, scoring just 20 points in a 113-103 victory over Chicago. The Wizards handled it fine, as five other players scored in double figures and Caron Butler recorded 26 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Washington's reserves outscored Chicago's 32-30, the first time the Wizards held an edge in that category since Nov. 17 against Detroit, a span of 25 games. "It was a total team effort. When you have balance across the board like that, any team is difficult to beat," said Antonio Daniels, who matched a season high with 15 points. "Gil can't score 40 points every night, so that's the job of other people. When Gil's not scoring 50 points, everybody else has to be ready to step up and make up the difference." </div> Link Look's like it won't be much of a home game as I thought with it being snowy over there, but it's still a road game and the Wiz can't lose focus. The bench will need to contribute like they did against the Bulls and if they do that, it will take some of the load off Arenas and we should win this game.
Both teams have been playing sloppy leaving guys open and creating offensive fouls. The Wizards need to do a better job covering the interior and grabbing the rebounds because Tyson Chandler is just having his way right now. The Hornets are doing a great job getting easy 3 point field goals by kicking it back out and taking advantage of the Wiz not getting back to their defenders. Great hustle and defensive plays by Stevenson and Arenas at the end of the second quarter getting two easy buckets off 2 steals and the last second 3 by Stevenson to tie it. How good has he been? He's 7-7 right now, just finding his stroke just as well as the big trio.
<div class="quote_poster">og15 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">This was the kind of game you had to win, but it happens I guess...</div> It's the second time we lost to a depleted team, with the first being against the Nuggets without AI, Melo and Smith. Of course whenever we face Boykins, he absolutely kills us.
