Last Night's Action: A Fiery Evening

Heat 93, Wizards 89: It was the Dwayne Wade show at the Phone Booth last night. When Wade was on the court, he poured in 40 to lead all scorers; unfortunately for the Wizards, they couldn't transplant their very good play for the short periods of time when D-Wade was on the bench to when he was playing. Gilbert Arenas had 32 to lead Washington, and Brendan Haywood and Caron Butler both chipped in double-doubles -- although the three were an ugly combined -34 in plus/minus. Statistics aside, it just wasn't enough to overcome Wade, who was hitting key baskets all night. With back-to-back games against two of the league's five best players, the Wizards will probably be relieved to see mega-star-deprived Indiana next on the slate. Oh, and Mike Miller picked up an injury to his arm -- but as Dan Steinberg notes: what's new?

Devils 3, Capitals 2: Two power play goals from New Jersey's Niclas Bergfors was enough to bury the Ovechkin-less Capitals, who had a late rally fall short on the road in Newark. Tomas Fleischmann supplied hope with time running low, scoring on a quick shot with 1:37 left in the game -- but Washington's lack of discipline (four third period penalties compared to none for New Jersey) came at too high of a price. Not surprisingly, Alexander Semin was offender number one, with six minutes in the box himself for three different sins. (With Ovechkin gone, Semin's well-known tendencies to take needless trips to the box really needs to disappear.) On the bright side, Tyler Sloan -- who made the move from defense to forward in Ovechkin's absence -- scored the game's opening goal, his first of the season.