Washington Wizards

The Washington Wizards were on a terrific scoring spree. The Milwaukee Bucks showed that they can score plenty of points, too.

Michael Redd scored 28 points and Ruben Patterson added 21 as Milwaukee beat Washington 119-102 Saturday night to snap the Wizards' five-game winning streak.

"We've gotten on a groove offensively," Milwaukee coach Terry Stotts said.

The loss dropped Washington into a first-place tie with Orlando in the Southeast Division.

Milwaukee pulled away with a 22-5 run to open the fourth quarter and won for the seventh time in eight games. The Bucks made 13 of their first 17 shots in the fourth.

"They were getting easy baskets while we were finding what kind of defense we were going to be in," said Caron Butler, who led the Wizards with 29 points. "They were getting fast breaks, hitting 3s. From there, they busted the game open."

Gilbert Arenas, averaging 30.7 points, was held to 19 on 7-of-21 shooting. After the game, Arenas had his right shoulder on ice due to a collision with Patterson early in the game.

"It hurts pretty bad right now," Arenas said. "I don't know if it really affected my shot."

The Bucks' strategy was to play zone and shade toward Arenas. It worked, as the Wizards star did not score until midway through the second quarter.

"If he has the ball, you should see two, three guys around him," Stotts said. "Hopefully, we crowded his shots."

In a game matching the two highest-scoring teams in the East, Washington scored at least 100 points for the 14th consecutive time. Milwaukee has averaged 113.8 in its last eight games.

Patterson scored 10 points in the final quarter, helped by a smaller-than-usual Washington defense that was missing starting center Brendan Haywood because of a sprained right ankle.

"It worked to my advantage," Patterson said.

The reserve forward converted two three-point plays and scored on two other inside shots in the fourth quarter.

"He's not known to be an offensive threat like that," Arenas said. "He was on. He did a heck of a job in the post. We couldn't find the answer for it."

Charlie Bell scored 19 points and Mo Williams added 16 points and nine assists for Milwaukee.

Redd and Bell hit consecutive 3-pointers to open the fourth quarter, giving Milwaukee the lead for good. Redd had nine points and Bell added six in the decisive run, and the Bucks outscored the Wizards 37-17 in the fourth.

Washington made only five of its first 15 shots in the fourth quarter, and Arenas missed three of his four fourth-quarter shots.

"We did a great job of really just causing havoc with the zone," Redd said. "Washington is a very explosive team. You're not going to stop them, but you just want to contain them the best you can. We did a good job."

Arenas hit a 34-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Washington an 85-82 lead after three quarters.

Milwaukee had opened a 72-63 lead on Bell's 3-pointer with 6:32 left, capping a 13-2 run, but Washington then went on a 13-4 run to tie it at 76 on Antawn Jamison's two free throws.

Washington led 51-48 at halftime despite Arenas not scoring until 6:06 was left in the second quarter.

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HOUSTON, Nov. 22 -- Washington Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan has awarded Caron Butler the nickname "tough juice" and for a time Wednesday night, it appeared that a little bit of that toughness would be enough to get the Wizards their first road win of the season.

With 9 minutes 5 seconds remaining at Houston's Toyota Center, the Rockets appeared to be cruising to a comfortable win when Butler, who is generously listed at 6 feet 7, drove the baseline and executed a vicious one-handed dunk over the 7-6 Yao Ming.

The dunk drew oohs and ahhs from the crowd and threw a charge into the Wizards, who went on a 13-2 run that reduced Houston's lead to one point with 5:43 to play. However, just as the momentum appeared to be going their way, the Wizards went scoreless on seven straight possessions and the game slipped out of their grasp when Rafer Alston made a three-pointer with six seconds remaining to help the Rockets emerge with an 86-82 win.

The Wizards (4-7) shot 33.3 percent from the field and were outrebounded 57-44 but had a chance to win because they played solid defense -- Houston shot 41.3 percent and committed 22 turnovers -- while holding the Rockets scoreless on six straight fourth quarter possessions as they clawed their way back into the game.

After the game, players expressed frustration over not finishing but also saw the Butler-induced run as a sign that things will turn around.

"All we need is a shot here or a call there and we're winning these games," said Butler, who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds in 38 minutes. "Tonight, we played good defense and we overcome a lot of adversity. We can grow on this."

Gilbert Arenas led the Wizards with 26 points on 8-of-26 shooting and nearly put his team over the top with a 12-point fourth quarter. Arenas was involved in several key plays down the stretch, including a questionable foul call on him that awarded Luther Head three free throws with 2:33 remaining.

Head made all three free throws, giving the Rockets a 75-71 lead, and then followed an Arenas miss by hitting a wide open three-pointer from the corner with 1:59 to go.

"I didn't foul him," Arenas said. "I blocked it. And then I go down to the other end, I get fouled and they don't call it. That's a five-point swing but we kept battling."

Arenas answered Head's three-pointer with one of his own and after a Houston turnover, Butler drew a foul after grabbing an offensive rebound and converted a pair of free throws. Yao drew a foul and made two free throws, pushing the Houston lead to four but Arenas made three out of four free throw attempts on Washington's next two possessions and the Wizards trailed 80-79 with 30 seconds to play.

That's when Tracy McGrady drove left, sucked in the Washington defense and passed out to Alston, who made the game-deciding three-pointer with six seconds remaining.

The Wizards had one final chance after Arenas banked in a three-pointer with 3.8 seconds left, but after Head missed the second of two free throws, the ball took a funny bounce off the rim, glanced off the hands of Jarvis Hayes and wound up back in the hands of Head, who was fouled and iced the game with two free throws.

The six straight road losses are the most to open a season for the franchise since the 1986-87 Bullets dropped their first seven away games and the Wizards continued their struggles in Houston, where they haven't won since 2001.

The Rockets came into the game with the best scoring defense in the league (91.3 points allowed per game) and showed why by pestering the Wizards into taking difficult shots most of the night.

The Wizards shot 26.1 percent (6 of 23) in the first quarter and quickly dug a 23-15 hole. Things didn't get better after that as the Houston lead swelled to 15 early in the third quarter.

The 28 first-half points were two fewer than the Wizards scored in the first quarter of Tuesday's loss in Dallas and established a new season low for a half.

"As funny as it sounds, and I know this sounds funny coming from us, but if we can get our offense to catch up with our defense, we're going to be fine," said guard Antonio Daniels. "Tonight, our defense kept us in the game and we're doing the things we want to do. Now, it's just a matter of his making some shots we are capable of making in these close games."

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DALLAS -- Being in the NBA Finals makes everything worthwhile for Jerry Stackhouse. The 1-0 series lead heading into tonight's game makes it even sweeter.
In the Dallas Mavericks' 90-80 win over the Miami Heat in Game 1 on Thursday night, Dallas' forward combination of Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard shot 7-for-28 -- numbers that usually don't equal a Mavericks victory.
So as he has done all season, Mavericks coach Avery Johnson turned to Stackhouse -- a two-time All-Star and one-time Washington Wizards player -- for a spark.
And despite taking a crushing elbow from massive Miami center Shaquille O'Neal that required him to receive three stitches on the bridge of his nose, Stackhouse totaled 13 points, five rebounds, four assists and a block in the win.
This is what the Mavericks have come to expect from Stackhouse all season, and those expectations won't change any time soon.
And while some are surprised that Stackhouse -- who once averaged 29.8 points a game for the Detroit Pistons -- has accepted the role of a reserve with aplomb, Stackhouse isn't.
"I think everything that I've been through up until this point has helped me to appreciate this situation and this stage," he said. "It gets no better than this. It gets no better than the NBA Finals, getting to perform and hopefully win four games and win a championship. That says it all."
Stackhouse's career began in Philadelphia in 1995 when the 76ers made him the fourth overall pick in the draft.
Not long after he was traded to Detroit, Philadelphia made a run to the NBA Finals in 2001. The same turn of events happened with the Pistons, who traded him to the Wizards for Richard Hamilton. Two years later, the Pistons were celebrating a championship over the Los Angeles Lakers.
That's why when Stackhouse received a call from former Dallas coach Don Nelson during the summer of 2004 and asked if he would join the Mavericks as their sixth man, Stackhouse -- a career starter -- leapt at the chance. The Wizards traded Stackhouse, Devin Harris and Christian Laettner to Dallas for Antawn Jamison.
"I just knew that realistically, the best chance I had at winning a championship wasn't great playing on teams where I had to go out and score 30 points," the 31-year-old Stackhouse said. "If you look at some of the teams that I was on you would say I needed to score 30.
'But with Dirk we had a 25-point scorer, and the team was very deep. But I don't take all the credit -- I can't. The reason we're here is that guys have stepped up all year long at key times."
Stackhouse's maturity has helped him make a seamless transition from starter to reserve and allowed the Mavericks to be just three wins from claiming an NBA title.
It also has helped Howard emerge as a star. The 29th pick in the 2003 draft, Howard averaged 16.4 points a game in the conference semifinals against San Antonio and 19.3 in the Western Conference finals against Phoenix.
Howard grew up in North Carolina, where he says he idolized Stackhouse, a high school legend there. At first, he didn't know how Stackhouse's addition to the team would go. But after two years, those questions are gone.
"He's proven that he's a leader here, just like he's done over his whole career," said Howard, 26. "He's set an example from the start. He wants to win a championship and he's going to do whatever it takes for us to all get there."

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The Wizards were one of four Continental Basketball Association teams awarded positions in the NBA Development League in April. The other CBA teams that jumped to the NBA farm-team system were the Idaho Stampede, Colorado 14ers and Sioux Falls Skyforce.

The Skyforce will be a feeder team to the Detroit Pistons and the Minnesota Timberwolves, the D-League said.

Each D-League team is affiliated with up to three NBA teams.

D-League teams typically play a 48-game regular-season schedule and serve as a pool for developing talent " including players, officials and front-office staff " for the NBA's 30 teams.

Other teams in the D-League are in Bakersfield, Calif.; Albuquerque; Little Rock; Austin and Fort Worth; Fayetteville, N.C.; Fort Myers, Fla.; Roanoke, Va.; and Tulsa

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Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, arrested last Saturday in Miami Beach, denies making the comments police allege he made.

Arenas and Awvee Storey, who played with the Wizards last season, were charged with disobeying police after they got out of a vehicle during the busy Urban Beach Week, reports The Washington Post.

At the time of his arrest, a police reported Arenas as saying, 'You can`t arrest me. I`m a basketball player. I play for the Washington Wizards and I`m not going to leave my teammate.'

Arenas told The Post in a telephone conversation that all he did was to ask police where they were taking Storey so he could bail him out. It was then some officer came up from behind and handcuffed him, Arenas said.

The police report says officers ordered Storey to get back on the sidewalk during heavy traffic after he had left his car. When Storey did not leave the street, the officer arrested him, says the report.

The two men were later released after paying a fine.

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Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas and forward Awvee Storey were arrested Saturday night in Miami Beach, Fla., on charges of disobeying police. Storey, a Proviso West graduate, was blocking traffic in the middle of a busy street when an officer told him to get back to the sidewalk, according to police reports. Storey didn't move, and the officer arrested him and charged him with failure to obey a command. Arenas got out of a vehicle and walked toward the arresting officers. According to reports, an officer told Arenas to get back in his vehicle, but he refused, saying he wanted to stand next to his teammate. As Arenas was being arrested for resisting without violence, according to reports, he said, "You can't arrest me. I'm a basketball player. I play for the Washington Wizards."

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