I doubt anyone is at the "Gilbert Who?" stage yet, but anyone who's been watching the Washington Wizards play since Agent Zero went down would be hard pressed to deny that the team has been just plain fun to watch these last few weeks - perhaps because with the big gun out, they are playing like a team. Last night three players had double-doubles and a total of six players scored in double figures......

Who says the Washington Wizards didn't improve over the offseason? Last night DCist made our first trip down to the Verizon Center this season and noticed plenty of changes; fancy new press credentials (now with marketing slogans!), shiny, new flat screen monitors in press row in section 104, that snazzy $50 million scoreboard that puts a whole new spin on the Kiss-Cam and a new red carpet themed video set to Kanye West's "Bigger,......

.354 from the field .203 from three point land 91.7 points per game No matter how you look at the numbers, it's clear the Washington Wizards struggled in the opening week of the NBA season, a fact reflected in their 0-3 record. The team looks disjointed on offense, taking bad shots and turning the ball over with impunity. And by giving up 105+ points per game - good for 26th in the league -......

A scant 21 days remain until my favorite day of the entire year, the NBA draft. And while Cleveland and San Antonio start the NBA finals tonight (9:00 p.m. on ABC), the rest of the league, including the Washington Wizards, are firmly entrenched in the off season. What's in store for Team Zero? Let's take a look. The Wizards have roughly $38 million in guaranteed salaries committed to the core of the team next......

A tumultuous weekend for the Washington Wizards took an unexpected turn for the worse on Sunday when All-Star Caron Butler fractured his right hand in a 121-107 win against the Milwaukee Bucks. Bulter was trying to contest a dunk by Ruben Patterson and hit his hand on the backboard. His availability for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs is very much in doubt at this point. "Caron is going to be......

The Miami Heat took control of a close game last night by repeatedly feeding Shaquille O'Neal in the post and The Diesel responded by scoring 10 of his season high 23 in the fourth quarter, leading the visiting Miami Heat past a depleted Washington Wizards team, 92-83. With Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison out with injuries, the Heat ran multiple defenders at Gilbert Arenas all night, holding him to 15 points on 3-15 shooting.......

Forget any anger and antipathy you may have felt towards David Stern and ABC for their draconian TV policy. Trust me, you should be happy this game was blacked out locally. If you didn't see Sunday's disappointing 94-73 Wizards loss to Portland, you didn't miss much. Despite his threats, Gilbert Arenas didn't score 50 points. Not even close. The Wizards as a team didn't break 50 until the fourth quarter. The team played lackadaisically......

127-105. Yeah, it was that bad. Worse even. So much for all the talk about "swag" and "tough juice." Only time will tell if last night's shellacking at the hand of the Phoenix Suns will start the backlash on the hype and attention the Wizards have earned this year, but boy was it ugly. The crowd of 20,173, not to mention the huge media contingent, came to the Verizon Center last night be entertained......

For the past two days the media have been wondering why no one double teams Gilbert Arenas when he has the ball. So the Knicks tried it last night to great effect. Agent Zero was held to 16 points on 4-14 shooting, but got the ball in the hands of his teammates consistently, which enabled the Wizards to take down the Knicks 99-98. Yes, it was another wild finish at the Verizon Center last......

Gilbert Arenas left the court at the Verizon Center yesterday as fans serenaded him with chants of "MVP! MVP!" after hitting yet another game winner at the buzzer. The Utah Jazz were Agent Zero's latest victim, falling 114-111 in an incredible Martin Luther King Day matinée. Arenas, who tied a Verizon Center record with 51 points, traded three pointers with Utah's Memet Okur down the stretch, but got the ball last and made Utah......

Of all the rivalries in recent sports history, few have been as one-sided as the Wizards' struggles against their Southeast Division antagonists, the Miami Heat. Indeed, it's not clear you can even call it a rivalry, since in actual rivalries both sides sometimes win. D.C.'s hoopsters, by contrast, have been losing for a long time now. Sixteen straight games, including a four-game sweep in the 2006 Eastern Conference Semifinals, and sweeps of the regular season......

Pop quiz, hotshot. Your team is up three in the waning seconds and your opponent is inbounding the ball. Do you just play defense and hope for a stop? Or do you foul before the other team can shoot a three, putting them on the line so they can't tie the game in one possession? Last night at the MCI Center, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan chose the former and his team paid for it. The......

Written by DCist contributor Matthew Yglesias The good news for the Wizards after the NBA's first week of action is that they're scoring the most points in the Eastern Conference. They're even outscoring their opponents, albeit narrowly, by an average of 0.3 points per game. Unfortunately, they're also giving up the second-most points in the East, and losing two out of their three first games. Somewhat remarkably, both Washington and their opponents are scoring in......

Written by DCist contributor Matthew Yglesias. The scheduling gods decreed that for tonight's season-opening game, the Wizards face off against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the very team that sent the Wiz packing from the playoffs last year in a heart-breaking six game defeat. Despite the superficial difference in records (50-32 for Cleveland, 42-40 for Washington), the two squads were extremely closely matched last season in terms of point differential and expected wins. The......

Ouch. That one hurt. Just 3.6 seconds from heading home with a commanding 3-2 series lead, the Washington Wizards had a severe case of brain lock and allowed LeBron James to score an almost uncontested lay up to give the Cavs a 121-120 win in Game 5 of the NBA's best first round playoff series. LeBron one-upped Agent Zero 45 points to 44 and gets to enjoy being the hero for his efforts. If......

It looks like the coronation of King James will have to wait a few days. After posting a triple double in his first ever playoff game, LeBron James followed that up with a 10 turnover stinker that included a missed breakaway dunk. Instead, the Cavs were lead by Drew Gooden (11-12 from the field, 11 rebounds) and aided and abetted by some stretch run calls by the officials that had Wiz fans screaming "home......

Despite defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves in their first game back after the All Star break (that's seven of their last ten if you're counting at home), the Wiz seem to be making a lot of noise off the court as well. Today is the NBA's trading deadline, and even though the names Jared Jeffries and Etan Thomas have come up in a few rumors (one had Thomas going to Chicago for Mike Sweetney), the......

The Washington Wizards appear to have turned the corner. Last night's 84-79 win over the Indiana Pacers gives the Wiz wins in eight of their last 11 games and puts them one game under .500 for the season. The Pacers, who have now lost six in a row, played their first game with recent acquisition Peja Stojakovic, acquired last week for the ever-disgruntled Ron Artest. Peja scored 17, but was mostly ineffective last night, shooting......

Internet reports are indicating that the Washington Wizards have bought out the contract of veteran point guard Chucky Atkins, essentially making him a free agent. Atkins, who left the team last week to be with his wife in Orlando as she gave birth, rejoined the team on Monday for their win over the visiting 76ers but did not suit up. We have to admit, this move seems odd given that the NBA trade season......

Without a doubt, the highlight of the Maryland Terrapins' up and down (Clemson says "Hi") season last year were the two wins the Terps enjoyed over their hated rivals, the Duke Blue Devils. Their rivalry resumed last night in Durham and the Devils enjoyed the cozy confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium to the tune of a 76-52 walkover. This one was over early (letting everyone tune over to ABC for the new episode of......

The Washington Wizards started last week one game below .500 and facing four games in a span of six days that threatened to send their season into a tailspin if things went badly. After an overtime win at home on Tuesday against the woeful Raptors, the team failed to gain any momentum, losing three games to Eastern Conference rivals Indiana, Chicago and Miami. Getting destroyed on national TV to the Pacers was bad, but......

Leading into last night's Wizards game, we'd all heard so much about Gilbert Arenas dropping 41 (then a career high) on Larry Hughes the last time they faced each other on opposing teams, that you just felt the Wiz were due for a letdown on the road in Cleveland. Sure enough, Arenas, fresh off being named Eastern Conference Player of the Week following his 43 point outburst against San Antonio, shot 4-for-17 and dropped a......

DCist was lucky enough to get Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood on our NBA fantasy team this year and so far all three are making us look like a regular Ernie Grunfeld. On Saturday night Arenas and Jamison combined for 53 points and 16 rebounds while Haywood pulled down 10 rebounds and added four blocked shots and the Wizards won their home opener 87-79 over the Orlando Magic. But the team's offense......

It's DCist's favorite time of the year, and we're not talking about our office's summer hours which begin next week. No, it's the NBA off-season, baby! Stat and fantasy geeks everywhere get to OD on rumor and innuendo tomorrow night when the NBA holds their annual draft. This may be the deepest draft in recent memory, so expect to hear the phrase "tremendous upside" more than you heard that crappy Rob Thomas song last week......

General thinking in the NBA Playoffs is that a series really doesn't start until a team wins on the road. Well, after losing their second game in a row in Chicago to the Bulls (and continuing their recent less than stellar playoff history), the Wizards better hope this series "doesn't start" until they return to Chicago next week. Home games on Saturday and Monday might be the last hurrah for this team if they......

Simply put, today is a good day to be a sports fan in Washington. Not only do we have the Nats home opener (more on that later) but last night the Wizards clinched their first playoff appearance since 1997 with a 93-82 win over the visiting Chicago Bulls. At long last the franchise has erased the failures of players like Mitch Richmond, Jerry Stackhouse and Michael Jordan, each of whom failed to lead the......

Lost amid the Redskins “playoff push” and the whole DC Baseball brouhaha has been a quiet but impressive start to the season by that other pro sports franchise in town, the Washington Wizards. The Wiz were shot down by the Miami Heat last night 98-93, making them 0-4 against the Heat this season, but take away those 4 losses and the team is a very impressive 12-4. Even with them, their record is good enough......

As if things weren’t bad enough for the Redskins this season, rookie standout Sean Taylor was pulled over and charged with DUI early Wednesday morning. Virginia State Police Lt. Harry Newlin pulled Taylor over at 2:45 a.m., on the Beltway. Taylor was taken into custody after he failed a sobriety test at the scene and then refused a breathlizer. He was later released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond and is due in a......